Genderless Voice Tran Tung Anh just returned with the Special Award – Thanh Am Award at the international final round of the “QINGYIN AWARD – YOUTH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024” competition organized by one of China’s leading music conservatories, Hangzhou Zhejiang Conservatory of Music. Tran Tung Anh competed with 600 contestants from China and many other countries.
The male singer from Bac Giang shared that although he knew this was the result of more than 3 months of hard work preparing for the contest, he was still very surprised. Tran Tung Anh said that the contest gathered many contestants from China and many countries around the world, so at first he was a bit lacking in confidence.
| Tran Tung Anh participates in the “QINGYIN AWARD – YOUTH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024” competition. Photo: NVCC |
“The competition was so crowded that it made me a bit “shocked”. Until I went up to perform, I still thought that the crowd below was the audience, but then I realized that the majority were contestants. The judges worked very seriously, so while waiting for the competition, I was shaking and had to drink a lot of water. But I always told myself to do my best and be confident first for the sake of the flag. Luckily, when I went up to perform, showing my two natural voices, I heard many surprised wows from the audience from my international friends, I became much more confident”, Tran Tung Anh said.
However, after the first competition night, Tran Tung Anh thought he probably… wouldn’t have to compete anymore, but unexpectedly the next day the Organizing Committee announced that in the Opera competition for young people, Vietnam had chosen the most outstanding performance to perform on the opening night, which was Tran Tung Anh’s performance.
“At that time, I was both surprised and worried because I… did not bring any more costumes. In my happiness, I quickly thought of cutting the hem of the suit to “transform” it into a new suit to perform on the opening night,” Tran Tung Anh said.
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| Tran Tung Anh compete in the Youth Opera category. Photo: NVCC |
Thinking back to the award ceremony night, Tran Tung Anh still felt unbelievable emotions. The award ceremony took place at the large concert hall of the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, with a large audience and contestants, making Tran Tung Anh feel… “overwhelmed”. While waiting for the award announcement, because he did not know Chinese, Tran Tung Anh mainly observed, until the end when he heard the organizers call out his name and the two words Vietnam, Tran Tung Anh guessed that he had won the consolation prize.
“I thought I would only win the consolation prize because my name was called last, but I ended up winning the championship in my category. My initial feeling was one of surprise. Then, I was overwhelmed with happiness when I was judged to have a good and excellent performance. Until now, I am still very happy because I dared to challenge myself and tried my best to achieve good results, bringing honor to myself and to my homeland and country,” Tran Tung Anh expressed.
Genderless singer Tran Tung Anh compete in the Youth Opera category and sing a mashup of famous Vietnamese chamber songs: Spring in the war zone, The girl sharpening spikes, The bird that announces good news, The ferryman on the Poko river, and The Lo River epic. This mashup was arranged by Tran Tung Anh to suit his voice and musical style for the competition.
At the competition, Tran Tung Anh performed with his two natural voices: a genderless voice and a real male voice. Tran Tung Anh said that when participating in an international competition, he could have chosen to sing international songs that might have been more suitable, but what he wanted when participating in an international competition was to bring the quintessential songs of Vietnamese chamber music to “show off” to international friends as a way to introduce the beauty of Vietnamese music to the world. That was also what made Tran Tung Anh even happier when receiving the award.
“I am very proud and happy to perform Vietnamese songs on the international stage and win the highest prize. That is the motivation for me to try harder to contribute to my career and my future endeavors,” said Tran Tung Anh.
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| Tran Tung Anh was surprised to win a high prize at the contest. Photo: NVCC |
Tran Tung Anh participated in the contest “QINGYIN AWARD – YOUTH MUSIC FESTIVAL 2024” (Thanh Am Award – Young Music Talent Search Competition 2024) from the invitation of Pianist Nguyen Le Thuyen Ha – Artistic Director of Polaris Art & Music School, representative artist of QINGYIN AWARDS MUSIC FESTIVAL in Vietnam. Initially, Tran Tung Anh was very hesitant and thoughtful because he had never participated in any international competition, especially the first time competing in an academic competition like Opera. Previously, he often participated in entertainment competitions. However, after learning about the nature of the competition as well as competing at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, one of the largest music academies in China, Tran Tung Anh was excited to try.
Although he has competed in many competitions and often performed on many big stages, Tran Tung Anh always felt nervous and pressured when participating in this competition. Tran Tung Anh is a perfectionist, he shared that he was worried about not winning the competition. Thanks to that pressure, Tran Tung Anh prepared very carefully from choosing songs, arranging music, preparing performance costumes…, especially practicing tirelessly with the instruction, guidance and comments of his teacher, Master – Meritorious Artist Lan Anh.
Tran Tung Anh passed the entrance exam to the National Academy of Music, but after a period of studying, he chose to go to the South to pursue singing pop music and find opportunities in game show competitions. Therefore, Tran Tung Anh admitted that his knowledge of academic music was still lacking. However, with the dedicated guidance of teacher Lan Anh, Tran Tung Anh quickly improved and was ready for the competition.
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| Tran Tung Anh and his teacher – Meritorious Artist Lan Anh. Photo: NVCC |
“For this success, I am very grateful to teacher Lan Anh for her dedication and devotion to teaching me. I would like to thank pianist Nguyen Le Thuyen Ha for inviting me and encouraging me to participate in the competition. This is just the first step in my desire to try my hand at singing opera. I still have to practice more to pursue the music I love and explore my full potential. I hope that the audience will always love and appreciate my efforts,” Tran Tung Anh shared.
Following the joy of winning a music competition award in China, on August 2 and 3, Tran Tung Anh is honored to be one of the delegates from Luc Nam district, his hometown, to attend the Congress of the Youth Union of Bac Giang province. Tran Tung Anh said he is happy and proud to participate in activities in his hometown.
Tran Tung Anh entered the singing career in 2017 when he participated in The Voice. Possessing a scholarly appearance, a deep and masculine voice, Tran Tung Anh has the ability to sing a sweet and high-pitched female voice. Many audiences believe that Tran Tung Anh has the ability to sing the highest female voice compared to male singers singing female voices in Vietnam today. That is the reason why the guy born in 1995 from Bac Giang once surprised the coaches of the “The Voice 2017” playground and gave many compliments when witnessing his unique performances on stage. At The Voice 2017, Tran Tung Anh stopped at the Top 13 finalists. After the competition, Tran Tung Anh decided to go to the South to find a suitable path to develop his singing career. He participated in the music game shows “Tuyet dinh song ca”, “Guong mat than quen 2019” …
In 2021, the singer from Bac Giang released his first MV “Con yêu Thơ đại”. In 2023, he made his mark in his career when he released the album vol.1 “Nui hát” including 9 MVs – a major music project that the male singer invested a lot of effort and finance to carry out.