Nhật Hạ

Nhật Hạ (....-    ) is a beautiful overseas Vietnamese singer, model, actress and songwriter.

Born on September 25th in South Vietnam, Nhật Hạ didn't pursue her career in entertainment until after she had left her native homeland and resettled in the United States during the early 1980s.  Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Nhật Hạ signed with a major Asian-American modeling agency in Los Angeles, California.  Within a short period of time, she became one of the most recognizable faces in overseas Vietnamese communities worldwide.  During the 1980s, Nhật Hạ along with model Thanh Hằng were the among the most celebrated beauties in the overseas Vietnamese entertainment industry gracing the covers of numerous fashion magazines, audio cassettes and calendars.  Despite the immediate success she had found as a fashion model, Nhật Hạ knew that her true calling would be in music.  She began collaborating with Asia Entertainment as a recording artist in the mid-1980s.  One of her earliest released audio recordings was of a song called Tình Nồng Cháy featured on the album produced by Asia Entertainment, Dạ Vũ Xanh (1986), which comprised of various artists such as Kiều Nga, Julie Quang, Duy Quang, Thanh Mai, Ngọc Lan, Thái Hiền, Elvis Phương, Như Mai, Billy Shane, Minh Xuân and Minh Phuc.  In the spring of 1987, Nhật Hạ was formally introduced to the Vietnamese-American audience of Southern California with a live performance concert show held at the Disneyland Hotel Grand Ballroom promoted by the popular overseas Vietnamese band, Mây Bốn Phương.  That same year, she released her debut studio album, Tình Như Thoáng Mây Bay.  As her popularity grew, Nhật Hạ maintained a busy schedule of headlining weekly at popular Vietnamese nightclubs in Orange County, Southern California such as Saigon Cabaret and Caravelle throughout the late 1980s and well into the 1990s along with frequent one-night bookings to perform at live shows for Vietnamese audiences in various regions throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe.


In 1989, Nhật Hạ made her debut performance on volume 7 of the popular live show music video series, Paris By Night, produced by Thúy Nga with her rendition of the song, Mơ Ước Người Yêu Bên Tôi.  Nhật Hạ was featured on Asia Entertainment's very first music videotape production,  Tình Yêu Tuổi Trẻ (Young Love) (1990).  In the music video for a song she had previously recorded for Asia Entertainment, Mây Lang Thang (Vietnamese lyrics written by Nam Lộc), Nhật Hạ was filmed singing and dancing around in a studio with several wardrobe changes.    Other featured performers on Asia Entertainment's debut music videotape production included Kiều Nga, Như Mai, Thái Thảo, Trịnh Nam Sơn and Thúy Vi.  In 1991 with the release of Asia Entertainment's second videotape production, Tiếng Hát Nhật Hạ - Tình Em Thiết Tha, she became the first singer to have ever been featured in a solo videotape produced by the label.

Aside from her successful careers as a model and singer, Nhật Hạ had also enjoyed a brief career as an actress.  In 1990, she was cast in the overseas Vietnamese-produced film, Bên Kia Màn Sương, starring Lê Tuấn and Thanh Lan.

Released in 1992 by Nhat Ha's
Da Khuc Production Studio,
this volume edition was the bestseller
 among all other releases
of the series with the title, "Tinh Xanh".

In the early 1990s Nhật Hạ and her former husband, cinematographer Howard Huệ, formed Dạ Khúc Productions.  Despite the wave of big budget live show productions equipped with lavish stage settings filmed at major concert venues in Canada and the United States having taken full effect with such labels like Thúy Nga and Asia Entertainment during that decade, music videos from Dạ Khúc Productions were filmed in a studio or at locations in the style of MTV.  Howard Huệ and Nhật Hạ focused primarily with maintaining high qualities of sound, cinematography and capturing the beauty of each singer on video.  Among the most beautiful, young overseas Vietnamese singers of the day that had been featured on music videos for Dạ Khúc Productions other than Nhật Hạ included Thúy Vi, Kim Ngân, Mai Vy, Candice Phi Phi, Ngọc Huệ, Trizzie Phương Trinh, Ngọc Anh, Lynda Trang Đài, Thanh Hà, Thái Tài and Danny Tuấn.  Several singers from a previous generation had also been filmed in music videos for Dạ Khúc Productions such as Julie Quang, Thanh Mai and Băng Châu.  During this period, Nhật Hạ had also ventured outside the entertainment industry as a businesswoman and ran two successful businesses, Nhật Hạ Studio in Santa Ana, California, a make-up and photography studio, and Café Artiste, a French-Vietnamese bistro in Garden Grove, California.  The ending of her marriage to Howard Huệ in the latter part of the 1990s decade coincided with the closing of Dạ Khúc Productions.

Since 2000, Nhật Hạ has concentrated on singing Vietnamese classical standards, a genre known known as "Nhạc Thính Phòng".  Happily remarried to composer Huỳnh Thái Bình, her live performances have become more selective as she partakes mainly in such concerts aimed specifically toward fans of "Nhạc Thính Phòng" and equipped with a full orchestra.  After a lengthy absence, with the encouragement from her husband in 2011 Nhật Hạ released her first studio album in almost a decade entitled as Thả Tình under her own label, Nhật Hạ Productions, and distributed by Phương Nam Films.  The album is a collection of songs with original lyrics written by Nhật Hạ and composed by Trịnh Công Sơn, Phạm Duy, Lê Uyên Phương, Đức Huy and her husband, Huỳnh Thái Bình.  Special guest vocalists also featured on the album included Tuấn Ngọc, Khánh Hà, Tùng Dương and Mỹ Hạnh.

In recent years, Nhật Hạ has performed in many concerts for live audiences in various cities throughout Vietnam.  She and her husband divide their time between homes in Fountain Valley, California and Ho Chi Minh City.  Nhật Hạ is a mother of a grown son.

Link(s):

• Vietnamese Celebrity Homes Part 6a
• 50 Most Beautiful Vietnamese Women of All Time