page_title: Vietnamese diasporic music
section_title: Overseas Vietnamese artists
hierarchical_section_title: Vietnamese diasporic music / 20th Century: In Diaspora / Overseas Vietnamese artists
caption_attribution_description: English: pham duy, vietnamese composer
context_page_description: Vietnamese exiled music, also called Vietnamese diasporic music, refers to the Vietnamese music brought overseas, especially to the United States and France by the forced migration of Vietnamese artists after the Fall of Saigon in 1975.
context_section_description: Among exiled Vietnamese composers, Pham Duy remained the best-known composer. His songs written before 1975 represent 90% of cassettes and CDs produced abroad. All singers have had at least one song written by Pham Duy in their repertoire. His songs, written since 1978 on the situation of exile and on life deprived of freedom in Vietnam, have received a good response. Since 1985 he has composed less but rather has written Vietnamese lyrics for western pop songs. In the year of 2000, he was allowed to return to Vietnam for one month to see his native country for the first time after 25 years of exile. 
  On the other hand, a new generation of young composers has been born abroad. For example, in the United States, Nguyet Anh (known only since 1980), Viet Dzung, Chau Dinh An, Phan Kien, Huynh Cong Anh, and Khuc Lan all belong to the Hung Ca movement. They have written songs on themes of struggle and resistance: Duy Quang on problems of exile; Le Uyen Phuong on boat people; Ha Thuc Sinh on penitentiary conditions in Vietnam; and Due Huy on love. Together, they have all written thousands of new songs on present problems, on their aspirations, on the resistance. Many musicians have continued to work thanks to official receptions, tours, and recordings on cassettes (until 1988), then on CDs (since 1990) and laser discs (for karaoke since 1995) and DVDs (since 1999). Pop groups known in Saigon, such as CBC, Dreamers (children of the composer Pham Duy), Up Tight (children of the musician Lu Lien), Crazy Dogs (children of the actor Viet Hung), Family Love in the United States, and Blue Jet in France continued to play abroad until 1990. New pop groups have been formed by young musicians to answer the needs of cabarets and dances held for Vietnamese in the United States, France, Canada, and Australia. 
  Among singers known in Vietnam, Khanh Ly, who was best known for her frequent cooperation with a famous Vietnamese composer Trinh Cong Son, continued to be a Vietnamese idol of popular songs among the Vietnamese community abroad despite less publications of CDs, cassettes, and videos since 1995. She frequently gave performances, presenting on the market of music until 1995. Khanh Ly has appeared on many stages in countries where the exiled Vietnamese live. Few new compositions were included in the repertoire of singers, maybe because the old pieces encouraged the exiled Vietnamese to go through their hardship of life. Moreover, several productions houses have appeared in the United States and publish a great number of cassettes and CDs. There have been three big houses of productions, Paris By Night Thuy Nga Productions (PBN), Trung Tam Asia and Kim Loi.
  Some of the early music producers in the United States owned music businesses in Viet Nam before the fall of Saigon. For example, Tung Giang who produced works by famous singers like Khanh Ha and Khanh Ly continued with his work when he arrived in the United States. He was able to record on 16 track, which was an improvement from the 4 track available in Vietnam. The early years of resettlement music served as a time of preservation since the objective at this time was to make quality copies of pre-1975 music.
  During the late 1970s and early 1980s, those with experience in the music industry of Vietnam redeveloped their business in the U.S. One strategy to increase their market via merging other small music companies. In this period, Thuy Nga Productions made their branch in France. When living in Viet Nam, they had access to a studio owned by Thuy Nga. Once being rooted in France, Thuy Nga's husband, Mr To Van Lai, a former professor in Viet Nam, participated in the building of their first music house. With a better sense of the diasporic market, Lai created a division of Thuy Nga called Paris By Night, which produced videos of Vietnamese diasporic shows.
caption: Pham Duy performing in Ho Chi Minh City
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot G1", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:20 18:54:18", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "236", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1030", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7410", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2003:05:10 14:46:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2003:05:10 14:46:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "85/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "73/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "2", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "2037/500", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "467/32", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2048", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1024000/139", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1536000/209", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}