Secret Garden's colorful fairytale musical garden

Tonight, at the My Dinh National Convention Center, more than 3,000 audiences gathered to join in “Secret Garden Live in Vietnam”, a special international music night within the framework of the charity music project “Good Morning Vietnam” organized by Nhan Dan Newspaper in collaboration with IB Group Vietnam.

Secret Garden plays music with images reminiscent of Vietnamese culture. (Photo: THE DAI)

The magical world in the music of Secret Garden

During the show “Secret Garden Live in Vietnam”, the band greeted the Vietnamese audience with songs imbued with images of nature, taking the audience from the imagination of wind blowing clouds, flowing water blending with the magical sparkling colors of the secret garden.

Secret Garden's 30-year musical career journey is "retold" through footage capturing the band's most memorable moments from performances around the world , as well as emotional works from each period.

At the show at the National Convention Center, the two artists brought 23 of their most beloved songs. The gentle, healing music of Secret Garden resonated against the backdrop of images of Vietnamese nature, with green mountains, blue waters and the red sunset in Trang An ( Ninh Binh ), the brilliant yellow of terraced fields in the ripe rice season in the Northwest...

The performance stage was designed by director Pham Hoang Nam in a minimalist style, with only a band and an LED screen. The audience could only focus on the music and drift with their imaginations from the lights symbolizing thousands of fireflies, the vast universe, the magical world like in fairy tales...

Band and guest singers.

Director Pham Hoang Nam once shared about the stage for Secret Garden: “The instrumental music genre has the power to evoke and stimulate imagination. To design a suitable stage and space, first of all, the production team needs to deeply understand the music of Secret Garden. Then, choose a suitable stage, with harmonious lighting and melody so that the audience can feel the work with all their senses."

“With the Secret Garden concert, we bring a stage like a mysterious garden so that the audience can close their eyes, enjoy and imagine. Secret Garden's music brings depth to the soul and listeners seem to be healed through each melody,” added director Pham Hoang Nam.

Between the performances, there were sharing and conversations between the two artists. The circumstances of the creation and the meaning of the songs were shared by Rolf Løvland and Fionnuala Sherry in a close and intimate way with the audience, like a conversation between friends through music and applause. Rolf Løvland shared that there were songs that came to him on sleepless nights, when he tried to coax sleep with difficulty, the notes came rushing back.

Or the story of the song "Tree of secret", a tree on the top of a high mountain, in which Rolf Løvland shares that if anyone has a secret, they can climb to the top of the mountain and whisper it into a hole in the tree trunk. The secret will be kept intact and stay with the tree, and that is why he wrote "Tree of secret".

The 23 songs are 23 musical stories that Rolf Løvland and Fionnuala Sherry, along with guest singers Espen and Cathrine, tell to Vietnamese audiences about the beautiful Nordic land with snowy nights, with soaring domed churches, and the lullabies of Nordic mothers...

Rolf Løvland also did not forget to respectfully introduce each member of the band, as well as two guest artists Espen and Cathrine.

23 performances take the audience through a 30-year musical journey

All 23 performances by Secret Garden and guest artists Cathrine and Espen include:

1. Windancer

2. Nocturne (Vocal: Cathrine)

3. Song from a Secret Garden

4. Elan

5. Lullaby for Grown-ups (Vocal: Espen)

6. Sometimes When It Rains

7. Sleepsong (Cathrine)

8. Strength (Espen)

9. Steps

10. The Promise

11. Stepping Up

12. Tree of Secrets (Cathrine)

13. Liberty

14. Renaissance

15. Thank You (Espen)

16. Serenade to Spring

17. Moving – Band Presentation

18. The Dream (Cathrine) (optional only)

19. Hymn to Hope

20. Duet (Cathrine & Espen)

21. Fionnuala's Violin

22. The Reel

23. You Raise Me Up (Cathrine & Espen)

Connecting human values ​​through music

“Secret Garden Live in Vietnam” is not only a large-scale international music event, but also has a profound humanitarian meaning – all ticket sales revenue will be used for charity activities of Nhan Dan Newspaper. According to the announcement of the Organizing Committee, tickets sold after the show will be transferred to the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to support people in localities affected by storms, floods...

At the first press conference before the show, Secret Garden expressed their emotion at the significance of the program. Both artists said that through the press and media, they had learned about the severe impacts of natural disasters on many provinces and cities in Vietnam. Both were very moved that the tour celebrating the group's 30th anniversary in Vietnam was associated with an event of such great social significance.

The social significance of the program is also the reason why the Organizing Committee did not have much difficulty in persuading and negotiating with world-famous bands and music groups to participate in "Good morning Vietnam".

Good Morning Vietnam is an annual international concert series, bringing the world’s leading artists to Vietnam. After two years of organization, the project has become an expected cultural brand, contributing to raising funds for educational, medical and community activities through music.

Secret Garden – 30 years of journey

Founded by two talented artists Rolf Løvland (Norway) and Fionnuala Sherry (Ireland), Secret Garden is a monument of New Age and Neo-Classical music, with a style that blends classical, Nordic folk and modern melodies.

In 1995, Secret Garden made history by winning the Eurovision Song Contest with “Nocturne”, breaking the 40-year history of this prestigious European competition by awarding the prize to a work and an ensemble for the first time. Since then, during the past 3 decades of their career, Secret Garden has nurtured the love of global audiences through 12 albums, starting with “Songs From A Secret Garden” (1995) and most recently “Songs In The Circle of Time” (2024).

Secret Garden maintains its position in the mainstream music stream as one of the best-selling artists of the Universal Classics & Jazz label with 113 platinum albums worldwide, over 3 billion streams, 311 weeks on the Billboard New Age chart.... Their song "You Raise Me Up" (2001) alone has been performed by a series of the world's top singers and groups such as: Josh Groban, Westlife, Il Divo.... and over 1000 other artists. This is also one of the most recorded songs of the century.

Coming to Vietnam for the first time, Secret Garden brought a concert to celebrate its 30th anniversary, as part of its 2025 global tour. Sharing during the concert, artist Fionnuala Sherry said that the band was extremely happy to be in Vietnam for the first time on the occasion of their 30th anniversary, and to witness the audience's cheers for each performance. The artist also said that the band was proud and grateful to be able to contribute to the meaningful charity activities of the program.

At the end of the program, the Organizing Committee invited the Secret Garden group to stay on stage to receive souvenir flowers from representatives of Nhan Dan Newspaper and IB Group Vietnam. The group's final song "You raise me up" was like a message, a farewell full of emotions and hope sent to the Vietnamese audience.

Thousands of spectators at the National Convention Center "responded" with flashing lights shining throughout the auditorium.

The main sponsors and partners include: Vingroup, Nam A Bank, Eximbank, Xuan Truong Construction Private Enterprise, Vietcombank, Agribank.

NDĐT REPORTER GROUP

Source: https://nhandan.vn/khu-vuon-am-nhac-day-mau-sac-co-tich-cua-secret-garden-post916297.html