Mỹ Tâm performs at the Hoàn Kiếm Lake in Ha Noi last Sunday. – Photo 2sao

HÀ NỘI – Fans of pop singer Mỹ Tâm will flock to the open-air concert at the Phạm Văn Đồng Park in Đà Nẵng tomorrow to watch their idol perform songs from her latest album. 

It took four years for the new album, Vol.9, to be released. It includes soulful pop songs composed by Đức Trí, Khắc Hưng, Vũ Cát Tường and Phan Mạnh Quỳnh, as also two recent hits, Đừng Hỏi Em (Don’t Ask Me) and Đâu Chỉ Riêng Em (It’s Not Only You). 

Mỹ Tâm’s recent free performances – on the Nguyễn Huệ walking street in HCM City on December 3 and at Hà Nội’s Hoan Kiem Lake last Sunday – full achieved their am of popularising the album. A record 7,000 copies were sold at the shows. 

"I planned to produce 10,000 copies," the singer said at a press conference held in Hà Nội after the show. "I kept one copy for myself and the remaining number, all nines (9999) suits the album’s title.

However, the number of copies sold at the HCM City and Hà Nội shows as well as online have well exceeded 10,000.”

The singer also said that the songs from Vol.9 will be released with music videos (MVs) containing just the song’s lyrics. The teaser video Cô Ấy Là Ai (Who is She) has been produced professionally, but it is not an official MV attached to the CD. The teaser simply advertises the album Vol.9, she explained.

Along with traditional CD sales, Vol.9 will be released on iTunes on December 23. The singer has not distributed the album domestic online music websites in order to hold on to her copyright. 

"Young people can buy the CD and copy it to share with each other," said the singer. "Please don’t hesitate. I will not be sad because many young people don’t have CD players. I only need you not to share this publicly on the Internet."

Sudden inspiration

The idea for Vol.9 came to Mỹ Tâm suddenly when thought about making a CD at the beginning of this year. She wrote a few new songs and was looking for a producer. The HCM City-based singer came to Hà Nội to work with musician and producer Khắc Hưng on another project in March. She felt she could work well with Hưng and the Vol.9 officially took shape. 

All the songs in the album were not commissioned for Vol.9. The composers sent their new songs to her, and she like them immediately because they dealt with aspects of love that she had herself experienced in the past. 

The album was mixed and mastered in South Korea with a team of Korean and Vietnamese mixing artists including Cho Sung-jin, Kwak Jung-shin, Yun Shang-chul and Phạm Tuấn; as also mastering artist Jun Hoon. 

Mỹ Tâm, 36, is an A-listed pop singer in Việt Nam. She graduated from the HCM Music Conservatory and became popular a rendition of Nguyễn Hà’s song Nhé Anh (Please, Dear). Her first single, The Guitar of Students, was a hit in the early 2000s among university students, setting the stage for her 2004 tour of various universities and colleges in the country. 

She became the first Vietnamese singer to participate in the Asia Song Festival in Seoul in 2004 and received a Plaque of Appreciation and Best Contribution Award from the Korean Minister of Culture and Tourism.

Mỹ Tâm is also the first Vietnamese singer to receive the Best Asian Artist at the Korean Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2012 and MTV Europe Music Award’s Best Southeast Asia Act in 2013. She was awarded the Big Apple Music Award’s Best Selling Artist of Asia title in 2015. 

Mỹ Tâm is also the first Vietnamese singer to purchase recording and performing rights to international songs after the Berne Convention took effect in Viet Nam in 2005. — VNS