Singing contest lures young pro singers

Twelve young singers are competing in the final round of the popular singing contest Sao Mai Diem Hen (Morning Star - Rendezvous) hosted by Viet Nam Television.

The 12 finalists, who were selected from contestants in Ha Noi and HCM City, will be trained by well-known composer Anh Quan and singer My Linh.

Anh Quan, the contest's musical director, is excited about finding new talents from the national contest.

Unlike other reality shows that had been luring amateur artists, the Sao Mai Diem Hen contest focused on professionalism, according to composer Quan.

"The 12 singers all come from music schools. They believe the contest will help them to succeed in their careers. I think they will give us a surprise this season," Quan said.

The final round will feature eight shows featuring different genres of music such as pop, rock, hip hop and R&B.

The contestants will be requested to sing two songs on each show.

The judges have been named as composer Huy Tuan, singer Thanh Lam and director Viet Tu.

On the final night, three finalists will perform to decide the winner following an audience vote.

The contest was started by Viet Nam Television and has been held biennially since 2004. The winners have become popular and received critical acclaim.

"The Sao Mai Diem Hen contest has launched amateur singers' careers. Young singers will be advised by experienced artists to establish their strengths and music style," said Trinh Le Van, head of the contest organisation.

The final round will be aired on VTV 6 every Friday at 8pm from July 4.

Le Huu Hieu liberates his life with paintings

Artist Le Huu Hieu will display 18 oil-on-canvas paintings at Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi from July 3 to 9 to share his passion with the public, telling how he uses fine arts to liberate his spiritual life.

There are many ways to liberate one’s spiritual life and it is as important as the metabolism process of human being. While many people opt for entertainment activities or some kinds of hobbies or jobs, Hieu uses painting. To him, painting is a way of liberating human beings but via which one can still maintain energy.

His paintings are made of oil and also by diff erent experimentations with acrylic, gold and silver on canvas. It shows visitors the beauty in the patience for the passion of arts.

With the language of surrealist art mixed with expressionist means, the artist doesn’t just paint out his own mental state but also expresses the consciousness of a youngster in the modern life who has to face the fear and amazement in front of the pressure of time and work.

Hieu also depicts fallen angels with wild dreams combined with the temporality and wicked humor in the social stories where they are in.

First Television Team Game Show for villages

Lasta Multi-Media Joint-Stock Company has just announced to organize and operate a Team Game-show for the villagers under the name “The Bridge in Dream” to raise funds to build bridges.

At the moment in many rural areas, especially the Mekong Delta, with the complex network of rivers and canals, local people find it hard to travel due to the lack of bridges, or they have to build their own temporary and dangerous bridges. Through the form of a television game show, “The Bridge in Dream” is where businesses, organizations, and individuals can contribute both physically and financially to build bridges for the villagers.

The game show will consist of two teams, selected from two enrolled villages, who will compete against each other to win the prize of VND500 million to build a bridge for their village. The prize is sponsored by Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Joint Stock Corporation. The other team will receive supports to build a social service facility such as a well or a water filter system.

In the first season, each of the enrolled villages will vote for a representative to participate in challenging games, which will require a strong sense of solidarity and both intellectual and physical power. The winner team will receive a cable-stayed bridge worth VND500 million. The game show is expected to contribute to turn villagers’ dream of durable bridges into reality to serve the need of traveling, communicating and studying. The game show will be aired by Let’s Viet Channel, from 7:30p.m to 8:30p.m on the last Sunday of every month, and will commence in July 2014 at destitute villages, especially remote areas in the Mekong Delta. It will be aired every month and consist of 12 episodes in the first year.

Heat, light and transformation in ‘Summer Galleria’

A group exhibition named ‘Summer Galleria’ by eight artists is opening at San Art in HCMC’s Binh Thanh District, featuring paintings and installations made in diverse materials and styles which can transfer many metaphors of destinies, nostalgias, delusions and desires of humans to visitors. This galleria showcase focuses on the key ideas of heat, light and transformation.

The impression comes first with the ‘Lotusland’ of San Art co-founder, Dinh Q Le, with his tiny fi gurine devoted to the victims of Agent Orange.

Then, the symbolic presence of the lotus as a sign of re-birth is echoed in the work of Ngoc Nau, whose ‘Blinded Girl in the Word of Light’ walks a landscape blooming into photographic existence with its speckled growth of light.

Nguyen Huu Tram Kha and Truong Cong Tung, meanwhile, comment on the internal and external worlds of birth and enlightenment in the metaphorical picturing of energy as human reproduction and transformation, respectively working in soft sculpture and hand-drawn illustrations.

Photographer Phan Quang looks to the mythologies of birth in Vietnam with his staged performers placed under specially constructed bamboo sculptures and looking towards the sea and the mountains, recalling the birthing legend of Au Co and Lac Long Quan.

Le Hoang Bich Phuong adapts the traditional folk stories of the past in producing her own transformations of animal and human, her careful silk-ink paintings being the delicate reminder of the fragility in the human desire for change. Meanwhile Sandrine Llouquet pushes transformation one step further by thinking of how technology is another form of light and knowledge, taking viewers on a futuristic journey with her installation of tiny red ladies in a possible ritual of respect.

Finally come the weavings by Tran Xuan Anh with her interwoven layers of white dried paint. Her painting is a careful textured surface or perhaps a blast of white light, a blank space, a new beginning.

The exhibition will run until July 31 at San Art, 3 Me Linh Street in HCMC’s District 1.

Art show fetes great VN family

More than 1,000 people gathered for an art show and performance on Saturday night at the Viet Nam National Village for Ethnic Culture and Tourism in Dong Mo District.

Located 4km west of Ha Noi, the festival had an audience made up of 32 ethnic groups from Ha Noi and the central highland region, as well as members of the military force and youth union members, and members of the diplomatic corps and international agencies.

Entitled "Great Family of Viet Nam with the Cause of Building and Protecting The Fatherland", the show brought together dozens of noted artists who performed dances and sang songs praising family, the country, its people, the sea, islands and patriotism.

The event was held over the weekend, along with other activities at the village to celebrate Family Day on June 28.

Country leaders including Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and chairman of Viet Nam Fatherland Front Central Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan attended the show.

"The Vietnamese family has played a special role in the country's history", Nhan said at the show.

"Family has nurtured the Vietnamese people and Vietnamese culture. Together with the villages, regions and country, Family has brought happiness to each Vietnamese person and provided strength for the entire Vietnamese people," added Nhan.

"Fatherland contains the common sky, land, rivers, sea for all Vietnamese people, all families, all villages and regions. It [fatherland] is the cultural and political foundation for each ethnic group, each region; it is the free living space for all ethnic groups and families in Viet Nam.

"The interaction between four living spaces – family, village, region and Fatherland – has helped protect the family's happiness, the people's existence and development," said Nhan.

Nhan stressed that this year's annual Family Day revolved around the theme of the Family Meal, since during meals Vietnamese people do not only talk about homework, but also the villages' and nation's work. He encouraged all of the country's 54 ethnic groups to share their common culture values, including family values.

Earlier in the day, an exhibition, which included paintings and photographs of Viet Nam's seas and islands, was organised in the village, along with screenings of a documentary on the same theme.

Over the weekend, three traditional worship ceremonies were held at the village, including the Po Riyak Sea God Worshipping Ceremony of the Cham ethnic group in Ninh Thuan province and the Fish Worship ceremony for fishermen in the central city of Da Nang.

Additionally, the Le Khao Le The Linh Hoang Sa (Feast and Commemoration Festival for Hoang Sa Soldiers) was hosted by fishermen from Ly Son Island, central Quang Ngai Province, in tribute to the men making up the flotilla patrolling the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos, as they work to tap the country's natural resources and defend the nation's sovereignty.

Popular singing contests to air final rounds

Final rounds of singing contest Do Re Mi will be aired in July.

The final round of Do Re Mi, an annual singing contest for children from years 4-8 , will be weekly broadcast on Vietnam Television’s VTV3 channel on Sunday starting July 13.

Thousands of children from across the nation had competed with each other in audition round.

Singer Thanh Lam, music teacher Dang Chau Anh, musician Phuong Uyen, actress Thanh Van and actor Xuan Bac will be the event's juries.