Thanh Lam - the 'volcano' still burning

At the age of nearly 50, Thanh Lam still lives and sings with a fierce energy, not trying to force herself into a mold.

"Let's sing this part freely, don't just follow the beat, don't be nervous," the Vietnamese music diva said to musician Quoc Trung as they prepared for a live show to celebrate her 48th birthday.

Thanh Lam said that in everything, if you want to do well, you have to do it like you're playing. "When artists are too tense, it will be difficult for them to flourish," the singer confided.

During her 44 years of singing, Thanh Lam has always let her instincts guide her. At the age of three or four, Lam considered singing an indispensable need and could "go crazy" if there was an audience cheering. Once, because she was so busy singing for the neighbors, Thanh Lam did not bother to pay attention to her mother calling her to come home for dinner. She was punished by her mother with a cane, although she felt a bit resentful "why do I get beaten when I like to sing?"

When she entered the Hanoi Conservatory of Music (now the National Academy of Music) to study the pipa, Lam was still obsessed with the stage. She wanted to sing. After 11 years of studying the pipa, Thanh Lam decided to ask her mother to transfer her to the vocal music department. Her parents were worried about Lam. They knew that their daughter had a habit of getting nervous before performing to the point of getting sick. However, Thanh Lam was determined, despite the school's warning: "After one year of trying, if you don't succeed, you will be expelled immediately."

*Thanh Lam performed "Singing with the little cicada" when she first started her career.

With her inherent artistic instinct, Thanh Lam has created an unmistakable mark. Her voice is deep and thick when it goes low, and resounds when it goes high. Combined with the way she pronounces, bounces, and pours words in Chau Van and Ca Tru, which she acquired during her school days, Thanh Lam's singing style is magical and ethereal. In particular, she uses the spoken singing style a lot, becoming a characteristic in her work.

Singer Thanh Lam now.

In 1991, Thanh Lam won the second National Pop Music Solo Competition with a record of six perfect scores when singing Chia tay hoang hon and Giot nang ben tham. After that, she continued to reap a series of successes, was loved by the audience and awarded the titles "Pop Music Queen", "Singing Woman"...

At each show, people see Lam step onto the stage with all sorts of expressions, sometimes closing her eyes and bending to the music, sometimes humming spontaneously without a mic. Hong Nhung compares her senior to a volcano. Stepping onto the stage, Lam is so "bloody" that she sometimes forgets the audience.

"Artists who are too balanced and sober are useless, the feeling of being unsteady brings sublimation in creativity. We can see the lack of balance in Thanh Lam, expressed in her desire, rebellion, sometimes pushing joy to the extreme, and then sometimes letting herself sink into sadness. That is the beauty, the strength of Thanh Lam", musician Nguyen Cuong once commented.

*Thanh Lam sings 'By your side, the ocean is wide'

But after decades of performing, Thanh Lam sometimes made the public unhappy because she was too instinctive. Around the early 2000s, her innovations in handling pop songs were not well received. Musician Phu Quang - who had invited Thanh Lam to sing many concerts - also had to be cautious for a while. The reason was simply because in art, Lam was too "crazy".

However, the woman has never regretted her choices. Lam said: "Instinct is very important. When I was young, my instinct was wild. But the longer I live and the more experience I have, my instinct is regulated by reason so that it can be developed and become more refined on stage."

For decades, Thanh Lam herself admitted that she sometimes fell into deep emotional pits, making it difficult to be creative. The "volcano" temporarily hibernated, letting everything drift away. When she was bored with singing or lazy to create, the female singer would rest, and when she was sad, she would go out. For Lam, creative emotions temporarily subsided but did not die completely, just waiting for the opportunity to erupt more strongly.

*Thanh Lam sings 'My Sister'

Quoc Trung - cool water helps cool down the "fire" Lam

"You can sing this part freely, but if you want to feel comfortable, you have to get into the right rhythm", "Now practice to get it right", "You're singing it wrong, it has to be like this"... musician Quoc Trung kept reminding Thanh Lam during the practice session. Hearing that, the Vietnamese music diva mumbled along.

"I am like fire and Trung is soft as water. Our contrasts when combined create balance. Quoc Trung helps to push my strengths to the next level," Thanh Lam said looking at her ex-husband.

Musician Quoc Trung and singer Thanh Lam are soul mates in music.

When she first met Quoc Trung, Thanh Lam felt like she had found the missing note in her life's music. According to Thanh Lam, Quoc Trung's "water flow" did not change her musical personality. He simply accepted her "volcanic" instinct and found a way to make the heat flow warmer and more familiar to the public.

The duo's contrasting energies created the brilliant success of A Magical Night in 1996, followed by a series of programs such as Thien Thanh (1996), Cho Em Mot Ngay (1997), You and I (1999)... Regarding music products, after the album Tu Su (2000), Thanh Lam and Quoc Trung reached their peak with May Trang Bay Ve. The product combined the diva's powerful voice with Quoc Trung's World Music style. That was also the milestone for the two people's separation in music and private life in 2001.

*Thanh Lam sings 'Co doi' - Le Minh Son

After May Trang Bay Ve, she threw herself into experimenting with many styles and genres of music such as Le Minh Son's contemporary folk music, Trinh's music with Rock influences... However, Thanh Lam's innovative and handling style was commented by musicians such as Duong Thu and Nguyen Anh 9 as "rebellious" and "lacking soul". Compared to the works she collaborated with Quoc Trung in the past, the experimental products still did not have enough weight.

"More than 20 years ago, I once reminded Thanh Lam that if she suddenly changed her established style, the audience would react negatively. Taking the risk to experiment with different musical styles can sometimes cause the artist's mark to fade," said Quoc Trung.

Despite being so sober and rational, Quoc Trung never encouraged Thanh Lam to choose safe paths. According to him, artists who are not creative will turn themselves into "singers".

"I don't threaten Lam to listen to me. Someone with good musical sense and a lot of experience like her sometimes just needs to be let to experience it herself and then draw conclusions about whether what the producer said was right or wrong and improve herself later," Quoc Trung confided.

Now, when returning to Quoc Trung in music, Thanh Lam is back to herself. People are hoping that after the eruptions of Thanh Lam's "volcano" combined with the sweet tranquility of Quoc Trung's "water", the land of art will continue to sprout green shoots.

The concert celebrating the singer's 48th birthday - Lam Summer Night - was held on the evening of June 19 in Hanoi.

* Thanh Lam's current voice

According to VNE