Born on March 27, 1967 in Đà Lạt, Vietnam, Johnny Dũng resettled in Virginia during the early 1980s. After graduating from a 4-year university with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, he decided to relocate to Southern California in the early 1990s to pursue his dream of a career in music. He first collaborated with the label, Trường Thanh, then billed as Hoàng Thanh, in his debut appearance on video of a song called Đêm Cuồng Điên in 1993. Shortly thereafter, he changed his professional stage name to Johnny Dũng when he began recording for Ý Productions, which was headed by the husband-and-wife team of singers, Ý Nhi and Kenny Thái. In 1994, Johnny Dũng teamed up with singer Y Phương to produce a duet album, Chờ Nhau Trong Mưa. That same year, he would also make an appearance on volume 3 of Vân Sơn Entertainment's Nụ Cười và Âm Nhạc video series in a duet with singer Ngọc Anh of the song, Thoáng Đam Mê. Toward the end of 1995 during one night while performing at the Diamond Nightclub in Fullerton, California, he was spotted by Trúc Hồ and Thy Vân, the owners of Asia Entertainment. During his entire 2-year stint with Asia Entertainment during the 1990s, Johnny Dũng would only appear as part of a trio alongside Gia Huy and Nhật Quân on each consecutive volume of the label's live show music video series and was denied the opportunity to appear as a solo performer. Disillusioned with Asia Entertainment, he left the label in 1997 and signed with Tình Productions. Right around this time, Johnny Dũng teamed up with a female singer newly arrived from Vietnam by the name of Minh Tuyết to form a duo. For the next several years, Johnny Dũng and Minh Tuyết would become one of the most successful singing duos in the overseas Vietnamese music industry. For the remainder of the 1990s and well into the 2000s, he continuously dished out studio albums released by Tình Productions, followed by another label, Nhạc Trẻ. In 2002, as Minh Tuyết would go onto signing an exclusive contract with Thúy Nga, Johnny Dũng would be invited back to Asia Entertainment. This time around, he was able to appear on Asia Entertainment's live show video series both as a solo act, as well as part of ensembles with other artists. Among his most memorable solo performances on video for Asia Entertainment include such songs like Quê Mẹ (written by Thu Hồ), Đồn Vắng Chiều Xuân (written by Nhật Trường) and Mẹ Tôi (written by Nhị Hà). Johnny Dũng had also performed on for Asia Entertainment's live show video series as part of ensembles alongside various artists such as Hồ Ngọc Như, Thiên Kim, Mạnh Đình, Hà Phương and Diệp Thanh Thanh. In 2004, he made his second departure from Asia Entertainment to form his own label, Johnny Dũng Music.
At the height of his singing career and following the passing of his beloved mother during the mid 2000s, Johnny Dũng made the decision to return to college to study biology. After completion of his studies earning a second degree as a biology major, Johnny Dũng started his own business. He is the founder, CEO and president of Lotus by Johnny Dũng, a successful cosmeceutial manufacturing and distribution company of Korean and Japanese herbal supplementary products. Johnny Dũng previously had also worked as a full-time high school math teacher, in which he had maintained simultaneously throughout the years when his singing career was in full swing. He is also known as Brian Hoàng. Link(s):
JohnnyDung.com
