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?
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.
Music is a fun way to get in touch with Vietnamese culture and can even