Tùng Dương (birth name Nguyễn Tùng Dương, born September 18, 1983) is a Vietnamese singer. He came to fame after the 2004 music contest Sao Mai điểm hẹn, in which he won first place as ranked by the judges. Songs he performed in the contest, most of which are contemporary folk songs written by Lê Minh Sơn, were included in his first studio album called Chạy trốn (2004). After ceasing from performing Lê Minh Sơn's compositions, Tùng Dương started to sing songs by other songwriters such as Ngọc Đại, Như Huy, Giáng Son, Lưu Hà An, and performed in two music shows, Vọng Nguyệt by songwriter Quốc Trung and Gió bình minh by songwriter Đỗ Bảo.
Biography
Early life and childhood Tùng Dương was born on September 18, 1983, in Hà Nội. His father's homeland is Quảng Trị. He is the eldest child in his family. His father is a businessman, his mother was once the owner of a make-up and photo shop ~ later she became the costume designer for Tùng Dương. While his parents weren't singers, Dương had been exposed to music early in life, especially under the influence of his grandfather, songwriter Trần Hoàn. Other than that, poet Phạm Hổ and songwriter Phạm Thế Mỹ were his grandmother's younger brothers. When Tùng Dương was in grade 3, his parents went to Russia for business, and Dương was brought up by his uncles. In Russia, his parents often sent him new CDs. He had been exposed to jazz since he was very young, which helped shape his musical style later on.
In 1995, Tùng Dương received his first award, a silver medal at the 1995 Vietnam National Radio and Television Broadcast Talented Vocalist (Huy chương bạc Giọng hát hay Phát thanh Truyền hình Toàn quốc). Soon after that, when he was 12, Dương was delegated as the youngest member of Vietnam Singing and Dancing Team (Đoàn Ca múa nhạc Việt Nam) to perform in Moscow.
In 1999, Tùng Dương passed the entrance test of Hanoi Conservatory of Music (currently the Vietnam National Academy of Music), and studied under the guidance of Quang Thọ. Tùng Dương continued to win numerous awards, namely the third prize of Hanoi Music Contest for Young Singers in 1999, third prize and first prize of Hanoi Music Contest for Talented Singers in 2001 and 2003, respectively. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from the Academy in 2007.
Career Sao Mai Diem Hen and Chay Tran In 2004, Tung Duong participated in the first Sao Mai Diem Hen contest, and became one of the 12 contestants who entered the final round with the code 04. In the contest, he mainly performed songs by musician Le Minh Son in a contemporary folk style. In the first round of the final, he was the contestant who received the most votes from the audience and continued to enter the second round. He was also the contestant who received the most compliments from the Arts Council, in which musician Tuan Khanh commented: "The modern Vietnamese youth music scene is very proud to have you in it".http://www1.laodong.com.vn/pls/bld/folder%24.view_item_detail%28111440%29 However, in the final night, he lost the leading position voted by the audience to Kasim Hoang Vu and became the second most voted contestant with 25% of the votes.https://web.archive.org/web/20041207084343/http://www.laodong.com.vn/pls/bld/folder%24.view_item_detail(111959) However, he won 2 out of 3 most important awards: The award for the singer voted by the most readers of Vietnamnet newspaper, and especially, the award voted by the Arts Council, 101 received the reward of a short-term training course in performing arts abroad.
Performance night Date Song Composer Source First July 10, 2004 "Ôi quê tôi" Lê Minh Sơn Pop July 17, 2004 "Đến bên em dịu dàng" Rock July 24, 2004 "Lửa mắt em" Hip hop - R&B - Dance July 31, 2004 "Hồng môi" First night of Round 2 August 15, 2004 "Trăng khát" Second night of Round 2 August 22, 2004 "Guitar cho ta" "Trăng khuyết" Third night of Round 2 August 29, 2004 "Quê nhà" "Yêu" Trần Tiến Lê Minh Sơn Grand Finale September 12, 2004 "Ôi quê tôi" "Đen và trắng" Lê Minh Sơn Trần Tiến https://web.archive.org/web/20160304203908/http://chuyentrang.tuoitre.vn/Vieclam/Index.aspx?ArticleID=47865&ChannelID=58
Also in July, Tung Duong released his debut album, Chay Troi, which included 7 songs by Le Minh Son, most of which he performed at Sao Mai Diem Hen, in a jazz style combined with folk music. However, Tung Duong later announced that he would temporarily stop singing Le Minh Son's music to try his hand at other musicians. In a 2007 interview, when asked about this cessation of cooperation, Tung Duong said that the relationship between the two was still very good and there was no mess. As of September 2005, the album Run Away had sold over 10,000 copies.http://dantri.com.vn/c23/s154-78043/tung-duong-nghe-thuat-phai-biet-quen-di-gioi-tinh.htm
After Le Minh Son, Tung Duong participated in the "Sunset 2" project of musician Ngoc Dai with performances in Hai Phong (October) and Ho Chi Minh City (November). At the same time, the album Sunset 2, consisting of 7 songs by Ngoc Dai performed by him and Khanh Linh, was released at the end of December. This album, priced at 6,000 VND, achieved a sales record in recent years with 50,000 CDs printed. At the end of November, Tung Duong participated in the European Jazz Festival as the only Vietnamese singer to attend. He performed on the night of November 30 at the Cong Nhan Theater (Hanoi), in the program Vietnam Night, with a performance called "Tung Duong 3+", including compositions by Le Minh Son, Ngoc Dai, and two songs by musician Tran Minh, "Return to the Pottery Village" and "Sudden Rain". His activities in 2004 helped him receive the Singer of the Year award, part of the Tien Cong Hien award organized by the Sports & Culture newspaper (the beginning of the Cong Hien award later).
In 2005, he continued to collaborate with musician Ngoc Dai, participating in the program "Total Eclipse" in June.http://ngoisao.net/tin-tuc/hau-truong/2005/06/nhat-thuc-toan-phan-20978/ He also participated in the live show Khuc tu tinh 2 by musician Ha Dung with "Doi cho" and "Ben phai tinh" with ca tru and jazz influences in July.http://dantri.com.vn/c23/s23-62478/dem-nhac-ha-dung-khuc-tu-tinh.htm In September, Tung Duong became a guest in the performance of British singer Mara Carlyle at the Hanoi Opera House. He participated in the European Jazz Festival for the second time (the 5th time), with a music night on December 9 with the band Trong Sam (Vietnam) and Lars Storck (Denmark), in which he performed Chay tan by Le Minh Son and some classic jazz pieces. During this year, Tung Duong also planned to release an album with musician Quoc Trung and a joint album with his close friend, singer Khanh Linh, but in the end, both were not realized. He participated in the program Vietnamese Songs in April, with "Rain flying over the ancient tower", the song won the monthly round and won the award for Most Favorite Song of Vietnamese Songs in 2005.http://dantri.com.vn/c25/s154-103742/bai-hat-viet-2005-da-goi-ten-nhung-chien-thang.htm
In early 2006, Tung Duong and singer Nghi Van sang in the album Touch by musician Nhu Huy, in which he performed songs such as "Hat ru em", "Xin dung hoi toi", "Nam mo"... In June, he participated in the program Vong Nguyet by musician Quoc Trung and Niels Lan Doky, performing two nights at the Youth Theater (Hanoi) and Ho Chi Minh City Theater, and finally the program crew went to perform Vong Nguyet at the Roskilde Music Festival (Denmark) in early July. In this program, besides Quoc Trung's world music compositions in Duong xa van dam, he and senior singer Thanh Lam performed songs by Quoc Trung, Niels Lan Doky, Pho Duc Phuong...http://dantri.com.vn/c25/s154-123332/vong-nguyet-san-pham-hoan-thien-cua-cap-trung-va-lam.htm Another program that Tung Duong also participated in was Gio binh minh, a traditional folk instrument concert program by musician Do Bao that took place in late September - early October, however, he did not perform the song but took on the vocal part with Minh Anh and Minh Anh. He also performed "Sang nay" by Luu Ha An and "Chut nang vang bay" by Giang Son, two of the 18 songs that entered the 2006 Vietnamese Song Awards. At the 2006 Mai Vang Awards at the end of the year, Tung Duong received the award for Most Favorite Male Singer of Folk Songs with the song "Oh My Hometown" (Le Minh Son). The award ceremony caused a scandal when another nominated singer, Dan Truong, and his manager claimed that the results were "pre-arranged" and therefore announced that they would no longer participate in the Mai Vang awards.
Những ô màu khối lập phương In 2007, three years after his debut album "Run Away", Tung Duong released his second album, "Những ô màu khối lập phương". The album was released in September, produced, arranged and edited by musician Do Bao. In contrast to the acoustic and contemporary folk style of the previous album, this time "Những ô màu khối lập phương" includes 8 songs by Do Bao, Luu Ha An, Tran Tien and Huyen Ngoc, performed on a New Age harmony background mixed with many different musical elements such as rock, jazz, electronic music and classical music. Talking about the content of this album, Tung Duong replied:
The album received high professional reviews and sold nearly 30,000 copies after 3 years of release. With this album, Tung Duong received the 2007 Dedication Award for Album of the Year.
In 2007, in addition to releasing his second album, Tung Duong also participated in several other albums. He and two singers Le Quyen and Tuan Hiep released the album Mat Biec, including pre-war compositions and 54-75 love songs by musicians Doan Chuan, Ngo Thuy Mien, and Pham Dinh Chuong. In his first experiment with old music, Tung Duong sang three songs: "Autumn for you", "Send the wind to the thousand clouds" and "Leaves fall in many directions". He also recorded 3 songs - "Cổ và mưa", "Nến trắng" and "Chất nắng vàng bay" - in the album Giáng Son (released in July) by female musician Giáng Son, and appeared in the album Biệt by musician Trần Viết Tân with two senior singers Thanh Lam and Hà Trần. In addition, the song "Tre xanh ru" by Quốc Trung that he performed along with "Ngữ ở, người về" (Lê Minh Sơn) performed by Thanh Lam, two songs with folk melodies of the Northern Delta, were approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to participate in the project on the album "Collection of ASEAN Pop Songs".
This period also marked Tung Duong's appearance on many television music programs. In the program Con duong am nhac, he appeared continuously in the programs of many musicians, such as Thuan Yen, Phu Quang, Doan Chuan - Tu Linh, Quoc Trung, Duong Thu, Pho Duc Phuong, Ngoc Chau - Do Bao... In particular, the program Bai hat Viet in 2007 had the reappearance of Tung Duong with the song "Con co" by musician Luu Ha An, the composition won the two most important awards Song of the Year and Song most loved by the audience, and also helped him receive the award for Most loved singer of the program.