Bitter fruits amidst countless sweet fruits

When I first came to Saigon, my fee was 100,000 VND for a performance where I sang two songs.

Have you ever had to choose between music and something else in your life?

I consider myself to have had a fairly smooth and fortunate artistic journey so far. The choice I had to make was when I was a student at Thang Long University and joined the band Watermelon. At that time, I found myself in a difficult situation; Watermelon was very well-known, but we had to choose to part ways so that each of us could pursue our own careers. Should I return to university or continue my singing career? I chose the more challenging path: dropping out to move south and start a solo career. On February 20, 2000, I left Hanoi with nothing but self-confidence, no money, and an unstable singing voice. At that time, I only had one simple hope: to gain new experiences, earn my first money as a solo singer to help my mother and support myself, and then, if I had enough, save up for something else.

How did those days, when you had nothing but self-confidence, unfold?

I had to go to every music venue to audition. Luckily, everything went smoothly because the people of Saigon already knew I was a member of the band Quả Dưa Hấu (Watermelon). Back then, Saigon had countless music venues; if you were healthy and popular, a singer could perform 10 shows on weekdays and 12 or 13 shows on weekends. I would sing from 9 am at Dam Sen Park, go home to rest, then sing somewhere else at 12 noon. By 2 or 3 pm, the bars were already open, and I would sing like that until night. The fee back then was 100,000 VND for a performance of two songs. And I earned more money than I ever imagined.

At what point did you achieve the breakthrough from a street performer to a top singer in Vietnam?

It was 2002, a time when senior artists like Phuong Thanh, Quang Linh, and Lam Truong were all holding their own mini-shows. I thought, if they could do 10, I could do 4 or 5, so I poured all my money into a live show… and sure enough… it was a loss, just like all my live shows until now, the most recent one also lost 300 million VND.

Why don't you partner with promoters to avoid losses?

It's true that show organizers know how to cut costs and attract audiences, but I want to do what I love, sing the songs I love, and prepare meticulously, making sure that everyone who comes to my live show is a true fan of Tuan Hung. It's not just me; all singers who organize their own live shows end up losing money, but nobody regrets it because it's also a way of showing gratitude to those who love them.

Source