VietNamNet Bridge – Fans of pop singer My Tam will flock to the open-air concert at the Pham Van Dong Park in Da Nang tomorrow to watch their idol perform songs from her latest album. 

My Tam performs at the Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi last Sunday. – Photo 2sao

It took four years for the new album, Vol.9, to be released. It includes soulful pop songs composed by Duc Tri, Khac Hung, Vu Cat Tuong and Phan Manh Quynh, as also two recent hits, Dung Hoi Em (Don’t Ask Me) and Dau Chi Rieng Em (It’s Not Only You). 

My Tam’s recent free performances – on the Nguyen Hue walking street in HCM City on December 3 and at Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem Lake last Sunday – full achieved their am of popularising the album. A record 7,000 copies were sold at the shows. 

"I planned to produce 10,000 copies," the singer said at a press conference held in Hanoi after the show. "I kept one copy for myself and the remaining number, all nines (9999) suits the album’s title.

However, the number of copies sold at the HCM City and Hanoi shows as well as online have well exceeded 10,000.”

The singer also said that the songs from Vol.9 will be released with music videos (MVs) containing just the song’s lyrics. The teaser video Co Ay La Ai (Who is She) has been produced professionally, but it is not an official MV attached to the CD. The teaser simply advertises the album Vol.9, she explained.

Along with traditional CD sales, Vol.9 will be released on iTunes on December 23. The singer has not distributed the album domestic online music websites in order to hold on to her copyright. 

"Young people can buy the CD and copy it to share with each other," said the singer. "Please don’t hesitate. I will not be sad because many young people don’t have CD players. I only need you not to share this publicly on the Internet."

Fan following: Young people queue up, waiting for My Tam to sign CD Vol.9 after her concert inat the Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi on December 10.

Sudden inspiration

The idea for Vol.9 came to My Tam suddenly when thought about making a CD at the beginning of this year. She wrote a few new songs and was looking for a producer. The HCM City-based singer came to Hanoi to work with musician and producer Khac Hung on another project in March. She felt she could work well with Hung and the Vol.9 officially took shape. 

All the songs in the album were not commissioned for Vol.9. The composers sent their new songs to her, and she like them immediately because they dealt with aspects of love that she had herself experienced in the past. 

The album was mixed and mastered in South Korea with a team of Korean and Vietnamese mixing artists including Cho Sung-jin, Kwak Jung-shin, Yun Shang-chul and Pham Tuan; as also mastering artist Jun Hoon. 

My Tam, 36, is an A-listed pop singer in Vietnam. She graduated from the HCM Music Conservatory and became popular a rendition of Nguyen Ha’s song Nhe Anh (Please, Dear). Her first single, The Guitar of Students, was a hit in the early 2000s among university students, setting the stage for her 2004 tour of various universities and colleges in the country. 

She became the first Vietnamese singer to participate in the Asia Song Festival in Seoul in 2004 and received a Plaque of Appreciation and Best Contribution Award from the Korean Minister of Culture and Tourism.

My Tam is also the first Vietnamese singer to receive the Best Asian Artist at the Korean Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2012 and MTV Europe Music Award’s Best Southeast Asia Act in 2013. She was awarded the Big Apple Music Award’s Best Selling Artist of Asia title in 2015. 

My Tam is also the first Vietnamese singer to purchase recording and performing rights to international songs after the Berne Convention took effect in Vietnam in 2005. 

VNS