2024 witnessed Thanh Lam's strong comeback in reaching a new audience. No longer too attached to the image of a "singing woman" who is always passionate and strong to the point of causing controversy, Thanh Lam got closer to the young audience through the program Our Song , where she covered new songs and showed off her performance and dancing skills.

However, for audiences who have loved Thanh Lam for a long time, they still love the singer's style of venturing into difficult genres and her characteristic passionate singing style that no one can imitate. Participating in Our Song is not a move to completely change Thanh Lam's direction, but rather a way to renew herself, approach the current music trends, as well as re-introduce the class of one of the four divas of contemporary Vietnamese music.

The most obvious evidence is in the latest single "General and Husband" , Thanh Lam does not use the materials that are dominating the market or the music style she sings in Our Song , instead it is what only Thanh Lam dares to do, dares to create.

New creations in contemporary folklore

Thanh Lam has always been considered one of the leading figures since the concept of "contemporary folk" was widely used in Vietnamese music in the early 21st century after a series of albums that were highly appreciated by both the public and experts.

If May Trang Bay Ve beautifully and neatly displayed the diva's captivating voice with the compositions of musicians Quoc Trung and Duong Thu, then the series of collaborative albums with musician Le Minh Son, Nang Len, Em & Dem , showed a free-spirited and spontaneous Thanh Lam. Up to now, these albums still have a great influence on Thanh Lam's singing and performing style.

In recent years, besides focusing on large-scale stages and concerts, Thanh Lam has continued to explore this genre with a series of songs in collaboration with musician Nguyen Vinh Tien. Tuong Phu The is the first official single of this duo after a series of songs were posted on the musician's YouTube channel.

And fans' wait for an album that truly bears Thanh Lam's mark instead of cover and remake projects is not in vain. General Phu The clearly shows her ambition in reaffirming the singer's unshakeable leading position in contemporary folk music.

Single General Phu The shows a very ambitious and also very creative Thanh Lam.

Completely different from the popular folk exploitation method when combining with electronic materials, EDM, Thanh Lam remains faithful to real musical instruments by inviting a series of quality musicians: violin of Trinh Minh Hien, My Huong, piano of Thanh Vuong, zither of Van Mai, erhu of Xuan Hien, bamboo flute and flute of Ngoc Anh,... all are specifically noted by Thanh Lam's team as a very important part of the song.

Indeed, the combination of Vietnamese folk instruments with international modern instruments creates an extremely impressive performance. While the zither, two-stringed fiddle, and bamboo flute bring an atmosphere rich in the colors of traditional music, the violin, cello, and piano create a very dramatic Western color, while the orchestra including drums, guitar, and bass are added in the back to create a modern material for the song. The mid-piece section combining violin, drums, and zither in the middle of the song is truly priceless, creating an extremely explosive moment that has not been seen in the "contemporary folk" music genre in Vietnam for a long time.

To coordinate such difficult instruments, the producer role of musician Tran Duc Minh and the post-production role of musician Tran Thanh Phuong play an important role. Each instrument has its own place to shine, and when combined together, each separate sound can be clearly heard.

And especially, Thanh Lam proves her diva status when she can "balance" the brilliant radiance of the instrumental part with a very well-regulated vocal performance, when the instruments shine, she sings softly, when the instruments recede, Thanh Lam opens her voice strongly. That makes the whole song have no dull or forgettable moments but always burning. Thanh Lam also does not hesitate to keep her characteristic laughter at the end of the song, maintaining the freedom that is clearly shown from the beginning to the end of this single Tuong Phu The .

Thanh Lam and Nguyen Vinh Tien

During the boom of the “contemporary folk” wave in 2004-2005, musician Nguyen Vinh Tien emerged as a phenomenon. Although he did not receive formal training in music, he possessed compositions that were very characteristic of the genre and left a deep impression on the audience. His songs performed by singer Ngoc Khue such as My Grandmother, Flying Dew Drops or Birds of Lau Flowers Looking for Shadows are still the most typical products of the music genre that the musician pursues.

In recent years, Nguyen Vinh Tien has still had compositions that are loved by the public such as Thu Ha Noi sung by diva Hong Nhung, or If I am a woman, I know where you are, performed by Tung Duong. In particular, the combination of Nguyen Vinh Tien and Thanh Lam in the song Cat Tien Duyen once made fans "restless" and expected more collaborations between this musician - singer duo.

Thanh Lam and Nguyen Vinh Tien have a very good combination in General Husband and Wife .

General of husband and wife still carries the style that has made Nguyen Vinh Tien famous since his debut in My Grandmother until now: Lyrics full of poetry, difficult to guess melody. However, if in previous songs he often associated with images of the countryside or quite unique, metaphorical meanings, then General of husband and wife is a song about gentle, easy-to-understand love with somewhat modern comparisons such as "Meeting each other and wanting to meet each other again, like coffee with sugar and wanting more milk, like cold winter and wanting the warm spring" .

That adds to the novelty of the song when it is still built on a rather "traditional" idea with a very poetic rhyme construction "Husband and wife, no need to take a picture together, already a loving portrait, meeting each other and smiling shyly" but dotted with reasonable unconventional elements, closely matching the diverse musical arrangement from folk to contemporary for the song.

There are some passages where Nguyen Vinh Tien found it very difficult to write lyrics because the rhythm changes constantly : “Take each other to meet friends, even though we’ve just met/ Take each other to go home to greet our parents, to then become husband and wife” . These are good verses, but to put them to music is a challenge for singers to perform. And Thanh Lam is very skilled in handling such lyrics. The female singer still sings each word clearly even though she has to constantly switch from singing to singing - speaking, especially in the heavy accents, she performs firmly and impeccably.

General Phu The is a promising opening song for the album Cuon Phim that Thanh Lam collaborated with Nguyen Vinh Tien. The unique composition, both poetic and musical, combined with a skillful and free-spirited voice, and an ambitious arrangement make General Phu The a very creative and unique song. Clearly, "big sister" Thanh Lam is back and more energetic than ever for projects that only she can complete properly.

Source: https://znews.vn/kho-ai-giong-duoc-thanh-lam-post1535916.html