Blog Archives

Actually this song by solo singer Tóc Tiên is probably more popular for its dance… there aren’t that many words in it really. It’s no Gangnam style, but the middle part of the song has a fun, copyable dance that’s been popular with young people in Vietnam over the last few months.

Here’s a karaoke (aka Vietnamese subtitled) version of the original video. If you just want to see the dance, start watching around 2 mins in.

If you’re looking to watch a funny video or two, there are many covers and spoofs of the dance on Youtube. Just search “Vũ Điệu Cồng Chiêng”.

Over to you: What song or songs have caught your attention this summer?

Music is a fun way to get in touch with Vietnamese culture and can even benefit your language learning.

But I have a confession…

When I lived in Vietnam I didn’t really listen to Vietnamese music, pop or otherwise. There are three main reasons.

• There’s a weird phenomenon that most Vietnamese people sing with a Northern accent, no matter where they are from.
• My teenage students were into K-Pop. That’s probably because…
• Pop music isn’t really mainstream in Vietnam.The kind of songs popular with my friends were ballads and love songs, which are not my cup of tea. Vietnamese pop music is often criticised in the media for being too Western or too much like Korean pop music.

By the time I left Vietnam I only had 6 songs on my ‘Vietnamese music’ playlist. And one of those was a parody of a K-Pop song.

So I decided to investigate and see if I could find some Vietnamese pop music (aka V-Pop) which is called nhạc trẻ in Vietnamese.

10 Vietnamese Pop Musicians

Here are some of my favourite Vietnamese musicians, covering a range of modern styles.

Word of warning: Many of these songs have a catchy beat to them but are still quite melancholic.

With that said, let’s get started with my V-pop list:

JustaTee

He mostly sings ballads but there are some poppier songs like this one.

Download Forever Alone from Zing MP3.

Emily

Model-turned-R&B-singer Emily is both a solo artist and regularly teams up with other singers like JustaTee.

Download Dừng Lại Nhé from Zing MP3.

FB Boiz

A fun boyband based in Saigon who describe their music style as R&B and Hip Hop.

Download Em Có Biết from Zing MP3.

Đông Nhi

A soloist who composes many of her own songs.

Download Khi Mưa from Zing MP3

Trương Qùynh Anh

She mainly sings ballads, but this is a poppier song.

Download Hãy Bước Qua Nhau from Zing MP3.

Á Đông

Their sound is very Vietnamese but accompanied by a pop or dance soundtrack.

Downloads of Vầng Trăng Tình Yêu seem unavailable outside of VN.

YunjBoo

A younger rapper who often collaborates with others. I’m not normally into rap but it’s refreshing to hear a southern accent!

Downloads of Hy Vọng Vô Hạn seem unavailable outside of VN.

Thái Tuyết Trâm

She sings several lovely acoustic covers of other Vietnamese songs.

Downloads of Tình Yêu Màu Nắng seem unavailable outside of VN.

Diễm Hương

She has an incredible voice. The first time I heard this song I got chills down my spine. It’s no wonder she was on Vietnam’s “The Voice”.

This is a good song to sing along to as it’s fairly slow and it’s easy to understand the basic message of the song.

Downloads of Who Cares seem unavailable outside of VN.

365 DaBand

This band have a Western or K-Pop vibe to them. They also occasionally sing in English, cover or mash-up English songs. Isaac also does solos.

Downloads of 365daband songs seem unavailable outside of VN.

Resources to continue exploring Vietnamese music

• To find Vietnamese lyrics search for [title] lời bài hát or [title] lyrics (eg. Forever Alone lời bài hát).
• For more V-Pop recommendations see Spotify or go here or see Reddit.
• If you do like ballads, you’re in luck! There’s a huge range of them with English translations here.

Over to you: Do you listen to music in a foreign language? Do you like any Vietnamese musicians?