People’s Artist Thuy Huong Born in 1967 in Cach Bi commune (Que Vo, Bac Ninh). She is known as one of the quan ho singers loved by many people for her natural, rustic and vibrant voice.
Awarded the title of People’s Artist at the age of 45
Year 2012, Thuy Huong was awarded the title of People’s Artist at the age of 45. She is also the youngest People’s Artist among 74 People’s Artists nationwide to be awarded the title in 2012.
Although she was awarded the title of People’s Artist, according to her, maintaining the affection and love of the audience is the most important thing. Therefore, she always keeps herself within the rules, trying to bring to the public the image of an artist who is not only talented and beautiful but also an artist with ethics in the hearts of the audience.
Also in 2012, People’s Artist Thuy Huong Lecturer in the Quan Ho Folk Songs Department at Bac Ninh College of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
People’s Artist Thuy Huong has released several albums such as: Nguoi o dung ve; Lung lieng; Nho mai khon nguoi; Cap conon dem do; Ban tinh oi; Ly giao duyen; Cay truc xinh.
| Artist Thuy Huong was awarded the title of People’s Artist at the age of 45. Photo: FBNV |
Although she has no training in acting, she has had 3 leading roles in movies, the most notable of which is the leading role in “Thuong nho dong que” – a classic work of Vietnamese cinema.
Life story is exactly like Ngu in Nostalgia for the Countryside
It was her own experiences that helped People’s Artist Thuy Huong “act as if she wasn’t acting” as Ngu in the film “Thuong nho dong que” by director Dang Nhat Minh. She once confided: “Huong is a rose but it’s not certain that rose is happy, sometimes it’s very difficult”.
According to People’s Artist Thuy Huong, she “fell in love” with the role of Ngu in the movie “Thuong nho dong que” since reading the script. In particular, she found that Ngu had many things in common with her: “I’m not as good an actress as people think, but only because the role of Ngu is so similar to me. Holding the script in my hand, I was startled, not understanding why Ngu’s life, hardships, resignation to women and misfortune were so similar to mine. It felt like director Dang Nhat Minh was writing about his own life.
When filming, I almost never had to do a double take, even the most difficult take the director chose to film when filming started was the scene where Ngu cried in the kitchen, telling her mother-in-law: “He lied to me, he abandoned me, locked me up at home to marry a second wife”. While filming, suddenly Minh shouted cut and said: “There’s nothing more to say, no more second take!”.
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| People’s Artist Thuy Huong in the movie Missing the Countryside. Photo: FBNV |
People’s Artist Thuy Huong added that at that time, no one in the film crew knew she was crying about her own life.
Recalling her memories while filming the movie “Thuong nho dong que”, People’s Artist Thuy Huong recently said that in the first scenes, director Dang Nhat Minh did not let her hold anything, including a mirror. At that time, the director told the crew to make People’s Artist Thuy Huong “older, with dark lips” but did not let her look in the mirror.
Curious about her appearance, People’s Artist Thuy Huong secretly looked in the mirror and saw that she was very ugly. At that time, she was young and was shocked and cried because she felt so ugly. At that time, a cameraman passed by and saw the female artist crying, so he took advantage of her mood to perform a crying scene in the film.
That was the scene where Ms. Ngu was cooking rice in the kitchen with her mother and talking about her husband having another woman: “There’s no smoke without fire, he has a second wife, he left me, mom…” At that time, Thuy Huong cried. The crew filmed it in just one take and it was “hit” right away.
People’s Artist Thuy Huong said that when director Dang Nhat Minh chose her to play the role of Ngu in the movie “Thuong nho dong que” (Remembering the Countryside), it was a great honor and pride in her life. The female artist also said that Ngu’s life in the movie is somewhat related to her in real life.
In recent years, people have met Thuy Huong in another “playground”, when she took advantage of social networks to post performances and instructions on how to sing some Quan Ho songs on her YouTube channel. Her YouTube channel currently has more than 8 thousand subscribers and each clip she posts has hundreds of comments.
Along with her YouTube channel, she uses her Facebook as an effective information channel to spread her love and responsibility for Quan Ho. “Having performed in many places, I know that many audiences really want to learn more about Quan Ho, to sing a few Quan Ho songs fluently, but no one has given me specific instructions. Therefore, I created a YouTube channel to not only perform but also to convey how to sing some familiar Quan Ho songs. It is touching that many people have left comments on the channel, saying that my teaching method is easy to understand and they have been able to follow it,” the People’s Artist confided.
Passionate and passionate about Quan Ho, Thuy Huong can no longer remember how many performances she has performed, how many countries she has visited, and how many audiences she has met and talked to. She only knows that every time she performs, she gets to do the job she loves the most, which is to spread the love of Quan Ho to everyone. But there are also cases where the audience has given artist Thuy Huong more faith and responsibility for Quan Ho.
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| People’s Artist Thuy Huong at the recent Da Nang Asian Film Festival. Photo: FBNV |
With nearly 40 years of experience, People’s Artist Thuy Huong has worked in many units. When she was at the Ha Bac Quan Ho Folk Song Troupe, she traveled everywhere to learn and perform. When she returned to teach at the Bac Ninh Intermediate School of Culture, Arts and Tourism, she devoted all her knowledge to imparting it to her students. She was always aware that in order for Quan Ho to last and spread, it was necessary to build a strong team of successor artists. Therefore, during her time working at the school, she researched ways to teach and inspire students so that they could understand and feel it most easily.
Currently, in her position as Chief of Office of the Vietnam Stage Artists Association, she no longer has many opportunities to perform and teach Quan Ho, but her responsibility remains intact. People’s Artist Thuy Huong plays the role of a bridge between members to create a truly close-knit, united, and loving professional association.