How is the life of a singer who once received a salary of dozens of gold bars but married a wife 17 years younger?

Lam Truong, born in 1974, is a Vietnamese of Chinese descent and is very passionate about music."Ever since I was a child, I loved humming melodies I heard on the radio or on the street. Even though I didn't know English, I could still sing along to foreign songs. I fell asleep the fastest thanks to the sound from the tape player. In my dreams, I saw myself performing on stage."the singer recalled.

However, Lam Truong was born into a poor working-class family with 11 children, not related to the arts, so he did not have the opportunity to be exposed to and trained in music from a young age. Every day, when night fell, he followed the children in the neighborhood to sell candy at music stages. While his friends took advantage of music nights to earn money, Lam Truong took advantage of that moment to watch famous artists such as Bao Yen, Nha Phuong, and Ngoc Son perform.

Lam Truong shared that at that time, he idolized the famous singer Ngoc Son, attentively listening to his senior sing each sentence and learning from him. Without the conditions to stand on a big stage, he took small steps like participating in singing competitions around the neighborhood and school but was never lucky enough to win a high prize.

“I was about 4 years old at the time, but I was determined to win the special prize of a lantern or at least a moon cake. In the end, I only received a candle because I got the encouragement award. I cried a lot.", the male singer recounted.

In 1992, Lam Truong was a student at Nguyen An Ninh High School. He mustered up the courage to register for a performance competition organized by the school and won third place. After graduating from high school, Lam Truong passed the entrance exams to the University of Economics and the College of Culture and Arts, but to pursue his passion, he decided to drop out of economics school.

This decision was met with opposition from his father. However, Lam Truong still studied art and participated in various singing competitions to prove himself.

"There were times when I was cheated out of my performance fee"

The road to success came to him quite late and with many obstacles.

From 1993-1994, Lam Truong appeared inDrizzle- the most popular music program at that time but did not get the attention of the audience and was overshadowed by the halo of Kim Tu Long, Hong Van..."I remember, the first salary I received was only equal to four bowls of delicious pho, probably about 20,000 VND at that time."the male singer said.

“I am not as lucky as many people think. In the early days of being a singer, I was also kicked off the stage by managers because they thought I was being silly or sometimes I was cheated out of performance fees.”Lam Truong recalls.

Not discouraged, he tried to sing for free on small stages to become an apprentice, despite the fact that singers of the same generation such as Hong Nhung, My Linh, Thu Phuong, and Bang Kieu had achieved success. Lam Truong believed that he had to go through a harsh apprenticeship period to truly mature before daring to step onto the stage.

In the end, heaven did not disappoint him, Lam Truong was signed by Kim Loi CD Center for 20 million VND - a huge amount of money at that time.

Lam Truong gradually became famous and had many big hits, was known by a wide audience, became the first generation Idol of Vietnamese music, followed by many other Idols later such as Dan Truong, Ung Hoang Phuc...

Top star with salary worth dozens of gold trees

Lam Truong's career turned a new page in 1998, when the song Tinh thoi tho xa (musician Bao Chan) emerged as a phenomenon. Thanks to this song, Lam Truong became a new star in the entertainment industry.

Hit songs like:Airport Rain, Jealousy, Faded Love, I've Been Waiting for a Thousand Years, Pink Heels...continuously present in the Top 10 songs chart of Blue Wave, putting him in the ranks of favorite male singers.

First live show in 2000 with the themeWords of the heartThe show held at Lam Truong's Lan Anh Club also recorded a record number of spectators. The show took place over 2 nights, with 5,000 people each night, showing the "huge popularity" of the singer Tinh thoi tho xa.

For a long time, in one night he performed at 8 dance halls in Saigon and Cho Lon, his salary at that time was worth tens of taels of gold. The first motorbike he bought with his singing money was a Dream - just like a dream for him at that time.

Besides music, the male singer also participated in some movies such asFemale Bandit(2004),Happy homeVietnamese version (2008) andKitchen singing(2014). Lam Truong is also a coach for music competitions such as The Voice Kids (2014) and The Voice Vietnam (2018).

From the position of "male god" to an unfulfilled marriage with a fan

When he was young, Lam Truong had a handsome, scholarly appearance. He was once a "male god" in the hearts of many young girls.

In 2015, in a TV show, Lam Truong revealed his first love at the age of 18. At that time, he had just started singing at dance clubs and met a Vietnamese singer of Chinese origin. At first, he did not like her because she was often teased and bullied. But after a while of contact, the two developed feelings. They dated for 2 years, then the girl proposed marriage. Lam Truong was young, had no career, and had many ambitions, so he was not ready to get married. Meanwhile, the girl's family was engaged to another family. The two officially broke up.

In 2004, he married a Vietnamese-American fan. They had a son named Kien Van. However, in 2011, Lam Truong admitted that he had broken up with this girl.

In 2014, Lam Truong married the beautiful Yen Phuong, a Vietnamese student studying in the US, 17 years younger than him. She has been his fan since she was 5-6 years old, and has followed her relatives to watch and take souvenir photos with her idol at many music shows.

During his wedding ceremony, Lam Truong released a special photo of the 25-year-old singer holding a beautiful baby girl. The baby girl in the photo is none other than Yen Phuong. It was the first photo the couple took together. This made many fans believe that the two were destined for each other.

Knowing that he is no longer at the peak of his career, Lam Truong does not cling to the past with his personal life and promotional technology. He still lives with music but in a quiet, unobtrusive way.

Currently, he constantly travels between the US and Vietnam and is a respected and loved name both abroad and domestically.