HÀ NỘI — The recently released album of popular Vietnamese pop singer Mỹ Tâm has made it to the World Albums category of Billboard. The album is titled Tâm 9.

With this feat, Tâm has become the first Vietnamese singer to get her music in the music chart.

Billboard World Albums chart lists top-selling music albums of the world, excluding that of the United States, on the basis of sales data compiled by Nielsen Music. It is usually dominated by K-pop singers and bands with a large global fan following, such as Bigbang, G-Dragon, SNSD and EXO.

“It is the first time a Vietnamese musical product has made it to the global Billboard chart! Unbelievable! I did it! It feels so wonderful!” the Đà Nẵng-born singer wrote on her official Facebook fanpage.

“Many years ago, and most recently in May 2017 when I was in the United States, I looked at the Billboard World Albums chart and wondered when Việt Nam would have its name in it,”

“I was celebrating the victory of the Vietnamese U23 football team in the semi-final match (of the Asian Football Confederation U23 Championship) and was overwhelmed with pride when I received the good news that Tâm 9 had climbed to No.10 on the Billboard World Albums chart. I was speechless,” she wrote.

It took four years for Tâm to release her new album. The release also marked the 20th anniversary of the singer’s career, which gave fans soulful pop numbers composed by Đức Trí, Khắc Hưng, Vũ Cát Tường and Phan Mạnh Quỳnh, as also her recent hits such as Đừng Hỏi Em (Don’t Ask Me) and Đâu Chỉ Riêng Em (It’s Not Only You).

Tâm 9 was mixed and mastered in South Korea with a team of Korean and Vietnamese mixing artists, including Cho Sung-kin, Kwak Jung-shin, Yun Shang-chul and Phạm Tuấn, along with mastering artist Jun Hoon.

The album, which is the singer’s ninth, has 13 pop tracks. It had broken another record when it swiftly climbed to the No.1 position of the top trending iTunes in Việt Nam just two days after being released online on January 14. Some 5,000 copies of the album were sold in the first hour of its release on December 3 last year.

Mỹ Tâm, 37, is the first Vietnamese singer to receive the Best Asian Artist at the Korean Mnet Asian Music Awards in 2012 and MTV Europe Music Awards’ Best Southeast Asia Act in 2013. She was awarded the Big Apple Music Award’s Bestselling Artist of Asia in 2015. — VNS