Thanh Tuyen (1949- ) is one of the most famous singers of traditional Vietnamese popular music. In a career that has spanned for more than five decades, Thanh Tuyen today still remains as one of the key players among the overseas Vietnamese music industry.
Born on October 29, 1949 in Da Lat, Thanh Tuyen began her professional singing career while still a teenager in high school. Months prior to reaching her 15th birthday, Thanh Tuyen signed with
Continental, one of the most prominent record labels of South Vietnam, during the summer of 1964 prompting the decision for her family to relocate to Saigon. Highly impressed with her vocal talents, Continental record label owner
Nguyen Van Dong immediately launched a promotion campaign for Thanh Tuyen, introducing her to the national press of South Vietnam as the singer with a voice comparable to
Dong Suoi Trong Cua Da Lat (The Purest Waterfalls of Da Lat). By her sophomore year at
Vo Thi Sau High School in Saigon, Thanh Tuyen's name and voice had gained national prominence as her audio recordings under the Continental label were now in heavy rotation at radio stations and were given significant airplay across South Vietnam. The massive promotion backed by her record label, Continental, proved to be successful in providing Thanh Tuyen with the much needed exposure at the beginning of her career. Audiences had become familiarized with her voice along with her name during this period. But after two years under contract as a recording artist for Continental, Thanh Tuyen remained unrecognizable in public. Thanh Tuyen was still a minor then, unable to perform at the major cabarets and dance halls of Saigon since the legal age requirement was 18 and had yet to make her debut appearance on national television.
In 1966, now under contract with another record label,
Song Nhac, Thanh Tuyen's name would achieve even greater prominence with the massive successes from her recordings of songs,
Da Lat Hoang Hon and
Noi Buon Hoa Phuong. Both of these songs would become signature songs for Thanh Tuyen throughout her entire career. Thanh Tuyen had amassed for herself quite a following as her songs had become quite popular on the radio. When she made her debut national television appearance on a program hosted by
Pham Manh Cuong, this would mark the very first time that most of Thanh Tuyen's fans then finally able to see what she looked like.
Thanh Tuyen would begin performing at cabarets at the age of 19 when she headlined at
Tu Do. This would be followed with her lengthy stint as headliner at
Maxim's, collaborating with renowned musician and promoter
Hoang Thi Tho. Thanh Tuyen's popularity quickly rose within the cabaret circuit of Saigon, making her one of the most sought after headliners during the late 1960s up until the Fall of Saigon.
When she was paired up with male vocalist
Che Linh, another discovery by the Continental record label and rising star, Thanh Tuyen struck gold. For both of these artists, the enormous success instantly gained with their recording of the song,
Hai Trom Hoa Rung, featured on their first album recorded together as a duo for the Continental label had reached a level beyond their wildest dreams. The two would then become known as the hottest and most bankable duo of traditional Vietnamese popular music in South Vietnam. Thanh Tuyen's career had reached an all-time peak. In addition, Thanh Tuyen had also experienced successes on duets with other top male singers in Saigon prior to 1975 such as
Duy Khanh,
Nhat Truong and
Hung Cuong.
After the Fall of Saigon, Thanh Tuyen remained in Vietnam for three more years. Like most celebrities prior to 1975, this would mark a period of drastic change and hardship in their careers. Thanh Tuyen continued to work as a performer collaborating with the
Kim Cuong Theater Company during these years before fleeing from her homeland in 1978. After months spent at Pulau Bidong, a refugee camp in Malaysia, Thanh Tuyen and her family were able to relocate to the United States where she first lived in Washington, D.C. before finally resettling permanently in Houston, Texas.
Since leaving her homeland to resettle in the US, Thanh Tuyen has successfully resumed her music career performing for overseas Vietnamese audiences throughout North America, Europe and Australia. During the last three decades, she has recorded and appeared on music videos for numerous major music production labels based within the overseas Vietnamese community such as Thanh Lan,
Lang Van,
Thuy Nga Paris and
Asia Productions. At the end of 2009, Thanh Tuyen was invited to perform in Ho Chi Minh City at the
Van Nghe cabaret venue. Her triumphant return to Vietnam consisting of three sold out nights would mark the very first time Thanh Tuyen performed for a live audience in her native country in over 30 years. She has returned to perform in Vietnam several more times since and was even asked to perform in concert out in Hanoi making her one of the first singers who had originally gained prominence in South Vietnam prior to 1975 to perform at a major concert in Hanoi. Even Thanh Tuyen was amazed to discover the amount of fans she had in Hanoi, a city she had never been to before. However, after making an appearance on volume 71 of the live show music video series produced by Asia Productions, which had implications of anti-communist sentiments aimed at Vietnam's current regime, Thanh Tuyen along with five others from the Asia Productions' cast of performers on that particular show which include
Gia Huy,
Tuan Vu,
Manh Dinh,
Quang Minh and
Hong Dao have all since been banned by the bureau of Vietnam's Performing Arts Department. As of February 28, 2013, Thanh Tuyen along with the previously mentioned five other artists have all been prohibited issuance of a working holiday visa required for overseas performance artists wishing to work in Vietnam.
Two of Thanh Tuyen's sisters have also become established singers. Most notably would be
Son Tuyen, her youngest sibling. Prior to 1975, Thanh Tuyen's other sister,
Ngoc Tuyen, had also achieved prominence as a professional singer but died prematurely at the age of 31. Thanh Tuyen is a mother to four grown children. Her daughter,
Shayla, had become a popular singer for the overseas Vietnamese community and was the darling of Asia Productions' live show music video series back in the 1990s.
Ngoc Huyen, the famous singer of Southern Vietnamese folk opera known as
Cai Luong, is her daughter-in-law.
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