Sao Mai 2022 Champion Le Minh Ngoc: Talented girl of La River

Born and raised in Nghe An - the land of the Red River and La Mountains, the slim and pretty girl Minh Ngoc has nurtured the dream of becoming a singer since childhood. Imbued with the folk songs of Vi and Giam in the lullabies of her grandmother and mother, and that love grew over the years, Ngoc chose vocal music to satisfy her passion. Studying in the serious environment of the Military University of Culture and Arts has forged her perseverance, passion and constant learning. Pursuing folk music is Ngoc's forte, so the girl is quite confident when standing on stage, her creative musical thinking and way of handling the work has certainly made the judges of the Sao Mai 2022 contest have many compliments.

Perhaps imbued with folk music since childhood, Minh Ngoc's soul is always passionate about the breath and soul of folk music, she sings very naturally and freely like her own breath. In the national final round of Sao Mai 2022, Minh Ngoc is in the folk category with 100% female contestants. With a sweet voice and a beautiful, gentle, and graceful appearance suitable for folk music, Minh Ngoc conquers the audience with her rustic, simple but very sophisticated and civilized singing style. She is especially interested in harmony and arrangement, so the songs she performs are all carefully invested, always fresh and trendy.

Sao Mai 2022 Champion Minh Ngoc (center). Photo: NVCC

On the first night of the competition, Minh Ngoc chose the song "Song oi dung chay" (Nguyen Vinh Tien) to compete. With her sweet and delicate voice, Minh Ngoc really conquered the hearts of the audience and the judges. She was also the one who achieved the highest score (called first to the second round of folk music). Minh Ngoc chose a simple singing style, sweet enough, delicate enough and "up the tone" at the end, showing good vocal ability to "score points" with the judges.

In the second competition night, Minh Ngoc chose the song "Immense Red River" by musician Pho Duc Phuong. By carefully studying the song, reading every word, understanding the circumstances of the song's creation as well as the musician's mood when composing it, and then listening to her own feelings, Minh Ngoc had a sublime performance.

Entering the third competition night, with the theme “Heritage”, Minh Ngoc chose to perform Nghe Tinh folk songs. She not only wanted to fully express the spirit and breath of a native of Nghe singing about Nghe folk music, but also wanted to convey her sincere thanks from her heart to the land that gave birth to her. Minh Ngoc shared: "I was born and raised in Ha Tinh, eating Thach Ha rice, drinking Lam river water. Since childhood, I have been immersed in Nghe Tinh folk songs, Vi Giam songs, bathing in the river, watching the sunset on the vast, immense fields. The love and care for the village, the childhood memories with many summer nights with clear moon and cool breeze listening to the ladies and girls singing Vi Giam songs to each other, the soul of the countryside has always flowed strongly in me. Therefore, in the competition week with the theme of heritage, I could not help but choose Nghe Tinh folk songs to sing. Because it is not only the genre of folk music I love, but also the pride of the people of the Central region. Besides, I want to show gratitude to my homeland, where my grandparents, my parents, my siblings, and my friends are, by raising the voice and soul of my hometown people, introducing to friends near and far the beauty of Nghe An's folk culture".

Being evaluated as having a civilized musical mindset, sophisticated in song selection, meticulous in arranging, investing in costumes and makeup, Minh Ngoc's performances ensure both listening and visual elements. That is also the reason why Minh Ngoc continuously leads the folk score for 3 consecutive competition nights, entering the final ranking night.

In the final competition night - the final ranking night, Minh Ngoc once again shone when performing a solo song and performing a duet challenge with Sao Mai Champion 2007 Le Anh Dung. With a relaxed mindset and meticulous, careful, and professional investment, Minh Ngoc once again achieved the highest score and convincingly won the First Prize, ending the journey to conquer Sao Mai 2022 spectacularly.

The joy of winning the Sao Mai 2022 Champion title - an honorable and prestigious award for vocal artists, Minh Ngoc could not hide her emotions and joy at her constant efforts. However, the girl from the La River was still very modest when sharing: "The Sao Mai contest or other contests that I have succeeded in are just "launching pads" for singers to have the opportunity to reach more audiences. I understand that winning first prize in a contest is just the initial starting point. Whether the artistic path is successful or not is still ahead, requiring artists not to "rest on their laurels" but to have their own path and their own musical style".

Minh Ngoc with her purity, loveliness, brilliance like her name and above all her efforts and passion for art has created valuable achievements. Hopefully Minh Ngoc will be a shining music star in the Vietnamese music sky in the near future.