Vietnamese singer Trọng Hiếu has released a song featuring 17 international artists including Germany Idol 2019 Davin Herbruggen and the winner of Malta X-Factor 2019 Michela Pace.

Việt Nam News contributor Anh Nguyên chats with him about the new song.

What inspired you to compose the song Under The Same Sky? 

I wrote the song during quarantine. I had a feeling that at the time everybody was looking for somebody or something to blame for.

Just think about the situation we have been in for the last couple of months. We all had the same problem and we’re all under the same beautiful immense sky.

This was not the only problem for a particular country like Việt Nam, England or the US.

It was a common problem for the whole world. So I decided to write the song to tell everyone to give them a message that like “everybody, let's stay together, we should stand up together and solve this problem, we should unite to do the right things and not waste our time to think about who to blame".

For me, no one is more or no one is less than a human being; that’s why we’re all important.

We need to respect each other, we need to support each other and we need to help each other. We should understand everybody is worried right now, everybody is scared.

We don’t know what will happen in the future, me neither. I was so worried about my career and my life so I totally understand why people had negative feelings.

So with this beautiful song, it will inspire people which gives us hope, strength and positive energy especially this time when we need it the most.

Like Martin Luther King Jr. once said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." Let share love together to the world because that’s the answer.

The song was chosen by UNICEF to be a part of a campaign for raising public awareness of the risk of violence against children and women. How do you feel about that and what do you think about the campaign?

I felt very happy and very proud that UNICEF Việt Nam chose this song as the theme song for the Blue Heart campaign for the protection of children and women against violence.

I really love the campaign because I really love and care for children and women.

First of all, women are like the other half of the world in my opinion. Like in my last song called Ông Trời Để Lạc Em Ở Đây, the English version is called See What I See, I think a man is nothing without a woman.

Behind a successful man, there’s always a clever and supportive woman. A man is fully successful if he has a woman beside him.

Women need to be respected and loved by everyone. If you check out my songs, in a lot of them I always sing about how I respect women, how I admire women because they’re so strong, very inspirational, and they’re doing so many great things in life.

And of course children, what can I say children are our future. I was raised in Germany and it was very sufficient, I got a chance to enjoy a German education and I got enough food and water and clothes to wear.

I am very grateful for that. This is something that I wish every child on this planet had. A child should not think about “how can I survive tomorrow “, “what do I eat “, “how can I make money".

It should be something like “oh what can I learn tomorrow at school" or “when can I play with my friends".

It doesn’t matter where you from, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter which family or country you were born in.

If you’re a child you should always smile and have fun. This is my dream and I will try my best to fulfill this dream.

Earlier this year, you were one of two Vietnamese artists attending the First BUDX Miami during Super Bowl week in the US. Could you tell us about the event?

It was such an honour for me to join BUDX Miami during the Super Bowl. I got a chance to connect with artists from all over the world, talk to them and learn so much from them.

I was kind of representing Việt Nam, young Vietnamese artists, young music and how strong we are.

More than 200 artists influenced from all over the world joined that event. It was like a dream come true.

I was very very happy and lucky because at that convention I got to know so many artists from Ecuador, Columbia and America.

Some of them later joined me in my song Under The Same Sky. It was an opportunity for me to bring these artists closer to Việt Nam – our country and our culture.

So they joined me in the song and donated to children in Việt Nam. I think that was a very beautiful action.

During that event, people were very respectful of the artists. We were working together, doing things together and we knew we could do bigger things in the world.

I still have a connection with some people. We went to the Super Bowl, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira performed and it was crazy.

What was it like winning Vietnam Idol 2015?

It was a great time and I could learn so many things. The biggest things were how a Vietnamese person thinks, how a Vietnamese person feels or what kind of music they would listen to.

It took a lot of time for me to understand. In that way, I show them my love, my understanding, my music to get closer to them so they can feel how I am, what kind of music I am doing.

I think it took a lot of time and I am still working on it. Right now, I feel that I have to be responsible for representing Việt Nam and doing a lot of things.

I have performed in front of 70,000 German people in Germany with Vietnamese songs produced by a German producer and a Vietnamese producer.

I think I can combine Vietnamese art and German art. The audiences in Việt Nam have acknowledged me as an artist and the positive energy that I want to bring them through my music and I think that’s my biggest achievement.

What is your next music project? 

I’ve just released a new song Yêu Trong Im Lặng (Love in Quiet)  and I think it’s much closer to the people around here.

It’s very positive in a way but it’s still got the emotion of the person. I’m talking about the guy in this song who has accepted the fact that his girlfriend has broken up with him.

I’m going to release more songs this year for Vietnamese audiences and send people positive energy.

With music, I can inspire people to love their life and to love themselves much more.

All these songs come from a deep place in my heart. I’m really happy and I can’t wait to show you guys because I feel like these songs are the best songs I’ve written.

I’ve also been working on an English song and a German song. I’m so proud that I can speak and sing three languages. I can connect and bring people together. So I am super excited right now. VNS