but it surprised no one when he turned to a career in showbiz instead. "Even from my youth, my parents encouraged me to be independent. Though I was a good student, they let me follow my own dreams." Duc Tuan's big break came in 2000 when he won Vietnam's biggest singing competition, Tieng Hat Truyen Hinh. "There wasn't a big prize, but it was the best-known singing competition back then. You could say that it was really the only one, not like now with dozens of reality singing shows. But it got me exposure and as an amateur, that was priceless. It led to performances and later making my own music." Since then, Duc Tuan has been a regular feature at concerts, shows and television, singing in Vietnamese, English, French and Italian and amassing awards like Album of the Year 2010 and Singer of the Year. He barely had time to schedule this interview with Oi, having
gotten back from performances in Paris and the Ukraine the day before and heading off the day after to Vung Tau, Can Tho, Da Nang, then on to Hanoi in a whirlwind of performances taking him to the end of the month. Aside from movie star looks and a superb command of English, what sets Duc Tuan apart from his contemporaries is actually a love for the classics, "pre-war songs" as the Vietnamese call them. And while it hasn't earned him throngs of rabid fans, it has fed his old soul. "Those songs are perfect. It wasn't as much about showbiz then. It was pure. Music is now about commerce; it's a business. Back then, it was about the technique, the craft. People weren't writing songs with repetitive lyrics to become hits. It was all about beautiful melodies. My album coming out in October is a collaboration with Pham Duy [who passed away earlier this
year], indisputably the greatest composer in Vietnamese history. He brought together classical music, Vietnamese traditional music and modern music as well. His songs were full of his own emotions; he didn't write for other people. He was a master at the Vietnamese language, incorporating layers upon layers of meaning. Young people can listen to it and understand it according to young people. But the older you are, the more experienced you are in life, the more layers you see."
Your Parents’ Music Over a sea salt foot rub, I talk to Duc Tuan about his devotion to the melodies of yesteryear and how it has understandably narrowed his audience. Before the interview, I asked a handful of young Vietnamese whether they had heard of Duc Tuan. They all had, but quickly added, "My parents like him." But surprisingly, that's just fine by Duc Tuan. 67