Huong Thanh is a Vietnamese singer from Ho Chi Minh, France, who works across traditional Vietnamese music and jazz. Born in Saigon, she comes from a family of respected traditional musicians and begins learning cai luong and traditional singing at the age of 10 within her family circle. Her parents’ home is a meeting place for visiting singers and musicians, many of whom also teach her.

She studies intensively at music and theatre schools in Saigon from the age of 13 and performs on stage for the first time at 16. Her singing draws on the close relationship between melody, tone and language in Vietnamese music, where six linguistic tones affect meaning and the emotional shape of a lyric. Her style is marked by detailed inflections, ornaments, subtle phrasing and a wide range of expression and vocal colour.

Career in Vietnamese theatre and recordings

After moving to Paris in 1977, she takes part in several cai luong theatre productions with major traditional artists, including her father, in Vietnamese communities in France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. She also returns to Vietnam for recording sessions with leading musicians there.

In 1997 she records in Los Angeles with her sister Hương Lan. She also appears on Maghreb & Friends, singing on “Louanges” with Algerian musician Karim Ziad; after translating the Arabic words into Vietnamese, she performs the response to the North African singers.

Work with Nguyên Lê and ACT

In 1995 she meets Nguyên Lê, who introduces her to jazz, a style she has not performed before. Their collaboration becomes the basis of Tales from Viêt-Nam, which tours major festivals in France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, England and Switzerland. In that project she sings and also performs as a dancer, presenting the traditional sword dance of Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, two Vietnamese heroines who train troops for battle.

Her first ACT album, Moon and Wind, is produced, written and engineered by Nguyên Lê and brings together lullabies and songs from different parts of Vietnam as a reflection on love, including child love, parental love, romantic love and longing for the homeland. Dragonfly follows in 2001, again made in close cooperation with Nguyên Lê, and features musicians from a wide range of backgrounds including Paolo Fresu, Tino di Geraldo, Renaud Garcia-Fons, Etienne Mbappé and Richard Bona, with whom she sings a duet.

Later releases and recognition

Her 2004 album Mangustao brings together Nguyên Lê, Paul McCandless, Paolo Fresu and Dhafer Youssef among others. In 2007 she receives the France Musique des Musiques du Monde award and releases Fragile Beauty, produced by Nguyên Lê.

She also sings at UNESCO for the anniversary of the declaration of human rights.