Musician An Thuyen's daughter: My father spent his whole life yearning for his homeland.

(Baonghean.vn) - In just a few days, the music nights commemorating the 1st anniversary of the death of the late musician An Thuyen will be held at the Military Region 4 Guest House (Nghe An) and Bai Dinh Pagoda (Ninh Binh). On this occasion, we had a conversation with singer Bong Mai, the musician's daughter - who also came up with the idea and produced these music nights.

Late musician An Thuyen.

When organizing 2 music nights in Vinh City (Nghe An Province) and Bai Dinh Pagoda, which are not attractive locations for ticket sales, did the program's organizers feel it was too adventurous and "reckless"?

This is not a business problem, about the issue of loss - profit so it is worth taking the risk, especially with a program that has emotional and spiritual meaning like this, it should be a more special program than other programs. If we consider this a commercial program, we will be concerned about when and where to do it to attract the best customers.

On the other hand, when organizing this program, we want to have a different perspective on the places where music venues can be organized. For example, not every music program can be brought to places like Bai Dinh Pagoda. This is a special program in terms of emotions and gratitude, it needs to be done in places with special meaning.

Without much sponsorship, the family has to take care of everything from A to Z. Why not combine two concerts into one, ma'am?

Actually, for the concert in Vinh, we didn’t have much pressure to sell tickets. Partly because there were 3 sponsors - who had a good relationship with my father before. Through the program, they also wanted to give a gift to their homeland. Not to mention, we received support from the provincial leaders, from the Department of Culture - Sports & Tourism of Nghe An province.

As for the music night at Bai Dinh Pagoda, although the artists did not receive any salary, the sound system was supported by Thang Long Music and Dance Theater, but the cost to organize the music night there was up to 1.5 billion VND. That was really a big pressure for the organizers in selling tickets.

But there are things that you spend money on that you can’t be sure to do. To be able to invite such a large number of artists to participate is already a difficult task. If they can put their feelings into it, then those of us in the Organizing Committee have no reason to worry about profit or loss.

Singer Bong Mai - daughter of the late musician An Thuyen.

So when did the idea for this double night start?

This idea started from the 100-day program last year on the first anniversary of my father's death. The 2 concerts to commemorate the 100th day of his death last year were already a risk.

That daring received everyone's support so we could do it well. These two music nights were carried out based on the wishes of his relatives, which was to do something special and to have memories with deeper meaning than normal music programs. Therefore, everyone tried to organize the best music night possible.

The music night “Neo doi wharf que” was held in Vinh as a way for the family to fulfill the late musician’s last wish before he passed away. As his daughter, can you share specifically what that wish was?

Actually, my father did not make any wishes before he passed away. His departure was too sudden, without any preparation. His wishes were not the wishes of a person before leaving and leaving instructions, but it was a desire, a yearning of a son far from his homeland, always thinking about it. If you listen to many of his songs, I believe that everyone will understand that.

Bản thân tôi sinh ra ở Nghệ An, không hề có sự xa cách nào với quê hương cả. Đã là người gắn bó rồi nên những chuyện âm nhạc của ba tôi như một chất xúc tác để tôi có thể thực hiện tốt hơn chương trình này.

Bài hát cuối cùng ông viết là “Bao giờ về được ao quê”. Chị có thể nói đôi chút về nguồn gốc ra đời ca khúc đặc biệt này không?

Trước đó, ba tôi là người viết rất thường xuyên nhưng ông hay ngồi viết trong phòng làm việc của mình. Khi ông mất rồi, mọi người thấy trên bàn làm việc của ông tập bản thảo ca khúc này và mới biết rằng, nó được viết vào đêm cuối cùng trước ngày ông mất. Sự vô tình ấy lại đó gì đó khá đặc biệt. Trong chương trình tưởng niệm này, nam ca sỹ Tấn Minh sẽ là người thể hiện ca khúc cuối cùng trong cuộc đời sáng tác của ông.

Tôi tự hỏi, ca sỹ Bông Mai sẽ cảm thấy như thế nào khi chứng kiến đêm nhạc tưởng nhớ ba mình diễn ra ngay trên mảnh đất quê hương?

Đêm nhạc ở Vinh diễn ra tại một hội trường chỉ có 600 chỗ. Tuy nhiên, so với đêm nhạc ở chùa Bái Đính, đêm nhạc này lại là một áp lực vô cùng lớn. Bởi lẽ, đây không phải là địa điểm của những khán giả bình thường mà toàn là những người thân, bạn bè, những người rất hiểu âm nhạc của nhạc sỹ An Thuyên ba tôi.

Đậu Dung (thực hiện)