VietNamNet Bridge - 20-year-old student Hoang Thi Yen Chi surpassed representatives from five ASEAN countries to win first prize at the “Like performing, love Sony” contest held in Singapore on December 3.
Born in 1991, Chi won the first prize at the contest’s national qualifier round in Vietnam with the song “Bong May Qua Them” (Clouds over the front yard) last month. She is a student at the Ho Chi Minh City’s University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Chi presented Bad romance, one of 19 Lady Gaga songs chosen by the organizing board. With a strong voice and an attractive performance, Chi topped the contest for an award worth US$5,000.

The first runner-up was a band from the Philippines, performing “I don’t want to miss a thing” and the second runner-up was a pop rock band of the host country with “Back to December.“

In addition to contestants’ performances, US singer Mike Posner and the band Train, singers Hao Ren from Malaysia, Julia Abueva from Singapore and Slot Machine from Thailand appeared at the final-round contest.

The competition is part of the music festival called “Uphoria - Party with Sony,” held by the Japanese multinational media corporation Sony for South East Asian fans of music from December 2 to 4.

The competition also attracts contestants from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Mai Ngoc