Thuy Hang, Remember Her?

There was a time during the 1990s that a fresh new face was just starting to make a huge splash in traditional Vietnamese popular music.  This singer was quite young.  So young that she wasn't even of legal age requirement to vote yet, much less work as a singer at nightclubs.  She was very pretty with fair-skinned complexion, chestnut hair and hazel eyes.  At first glance, most Vietnamese would not be able to tell that she is Vietnamese.  But when this teenage girl would open her mouth to let out just the first few words and notes of any of the songs she sang in Vietnamese, somehow everybody in her predominantly Vietnamese audience, whether it be at a venue or a viewer audience at some private residence watching the May Productions' Hollywood Night live show music video series on VHS back then, would all shut up as their jaws drop to the ground in amazement.  Now that's a difficult task to getting any group of Vietnamese folks to shut up at any given moment.  But this young 16 year old girl back then was able to do just that with her voice.  The singer I'm referring to here is Amerasian Thuy Hang back in the late 1990s.  Remember her?

During the latter part of the 1990s decade, Thuy Hang was the new singing sensation in the Vietnamese music industry.  If Ngoc Lan was dubbed as the queen of the Hollywood Night live show music video series back in the 1990s, Thuy Hang was undoubtedly the princess.  Her albums were selling like crazy at Vietnamese music stores all over the world.  Everywhere I had traveled to back then while I was on the road, I'd see posters and flyers with her photograph blasted as the headliner for an upcoming live concert show posted all over.  Whether I was in Chicago, Dallas, Canada or even Australia, I'd hear that Thuy Hang was either just about to appear in concert there or had just left there after a successful sold out performance.  She was definitely a hot commodity among Vietnamese entertainers then.

What was it about Thuy Hang that made her so special and had set her aside from the rest of Vietnamese singers at the time?  Was it her beauty?  Certainly, Vietnamese singers already have their fair share of beautiful women.  Was it because she was mixed?  Among Amerasian singers, there were already Thanh Ha and Phi Nhung just to name a few, not to mention Eurasian singers Luu Hong and Jeannie Mai who had come long before them.  It was the fact that Thuy Hang, this 16 year old girl, was born and raised in the United States to an Anglo-American mother and a Vietnamese father, yet was able to sing in not only Vietnamese, but traditional Vietnamese music.  Even I found her to be amazing when I saw her perform live.


I had only met Thuy Hang on a couple of occasions.  I wish I could have gotten to know her better back then mainly for two reasons.  The first being the fact that she spoke English like I do.  That time we had met during a flight from New Orleans to Atlanta I really enjoyed our conversation.  During my years working as a Vietnamese singer, it was rare whenever I ran into a colleague that had also grown up here in the States.  So when I met Thuy Hang, to be able to talk with one another as Americans was like a breath of fresh air.  I bumped into her on one other occasion.  It was in Dallas.  I had flown in to perform at some show for the Vietnamese-American Doctors' Association and she was there to perform for the Lunar New Year's Festival.  On both occasions, I found her to be quite lovely.  The other reason had to do with her being a fellow Amerasian.  I've always felt a kinship toward other Amerasians, especially other Amerasian singers.  Out of all the Amerasian singers I had met until Thuy Hang, I had always been the youngest.  I think Phi Nhung is only a year older than I am.  Most other Amerasians from Vietnam had been born in the 1960s.  I was born in 1972.  Thuy Hang didn't come from Vietnam and is nine years younger than myself.  But the fact that she was also Amerasian and a singer made me think of her as a little sister.

But just when it seemed she was at the brink of becoming a huge star in her singing career, Thuy Hang walked away from it all.  I had wondered what happened to her.  Then recently I came across Mr. Thang, the owner of May Productions.  From what he told me, Thuy Hang has now completed her studies and is a successful dentist.  I'm proud of her.  But I just wish she would consider going back to the singing profession.  She's still at an age where she can certainly make another go at it. If she would come back, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see her one day rise to the level of superstardom in the ranks of Huong Lan, Nhu Quynh and Phi Nhung.