I Should Have Never Recorded That Song!

For years I've been told my several of my friends who happen to also be in the singing business that I have this one very bad habit at times.  And that is, I've had a tendency to make wrong selections on songs to record or sing live.  What happens is I'll hear a song recorded or performed by some other singer who did such a great job, for some reason I'll automatically want to take that song and sing it myself, thinking that I'll give the song equal justice.  Well, that's not always the case, regrettably.

During my trip back to Vietnam in the summer of 1998, I attended the concert of a local singer there named Thu Ha.  I had heard from several colleagues prior to this trip for many years such as Jenny Trang, Hoang Dung and Dai Trang, all rave about how fantastic this singer, Thu Ha, is.  So I had to go see her myself.  Now keep in mind, this singer is not to be confused with Tran Thu Ha, who is also extremely talented.  Thu Ha is another singer in Vietnam with an extremely powerful voice, not like those who scream and yell like Siu Black or Phuong Thanh but just naturally powerful.  At the night of her concert, I was just overtaken by Thu Ha's performance.  My friends were right.  She is amazing.

I saw a lot of qualities in Thu Ha quite similar to one of my other idols, Khanh Ha.  As a matter of fact, she did sound a lot like Khanh Ha with several of the songs she performed live that night.  Even on some of her recordings, Thu Ha sounded like an exact replica of Khanh Ha.  That didn't impress me much.  I've always thought singers should have their own unique style, rather than impersonating someone else who had come before them.  It's okay to borrow bits and pieces here and there from other singers.  We've all done that.  I certainly have, myself.  However, let's say if I'm going to listen to a singer that sounds exactly like another singer, why not just listen to one out of the two?  Does anyone share my sentiment on this matter?

Thu Ha

Anyway, when I watched Thu Ha sing live, I was really impressed.  She was a bit edgier than Khanh Ha in many ways.  I liked how how gutsy she is as a live performer, not afraid to improvise and experiment with her vocal acrobatics.  That is something completely different from Khanh Ha.  On one particular song she did that night that just blew me away was Tra No Tinh Xa written by Tuan Khanh.  I was so enthralled by her performance of this song that I had never heard of before, I just had to barge in on her backstage and pay her a compliment.  That was when I found out Thu Ha was actually Chinese.  When I heard her talk to another person in what sounded like Cantonese, I was really shocked.  Most other singers of Chinese-Vietnamese descent that I've known in the past all speak with a little twang when they speak Vietnamese and tend to sing in Chinese as well as Vietnamese such as Kim Anh, Tuan Dat, Lucia Kim Chi and more recently, Lam Truong.  Thu Ha spoke Vietnamese with no accent what so ever and hasn't recorded any songs in Chinese to my knowledge.  That was another thing I found impressive about her.

For the next several days, I couldn't get that song, Tra No Tinh Xa, out of my head.  Through an acquaintance I had just met in Saigon, the late musician and singer named Do Quang, I was given a compact disc that featured Thu Ha's studio recording of Tra No Tinh Xa.  I started listening to it religiously for the next several weeks.  When I got back to the United States, I contacted Vu Anh Tuan who was about to do the music arrangements for my next album, Ngay Em Di, about this particular song.  I became his biggest headache insisting he hurry up and finish the arrangements for it.  Never mind about the other songs, I've just got to record this song first.  Now that I think about it, Vu Anh Tuan often gave me a hesitant look each time I talked about this song, which I now know meant that he had been fully aware of how my voice was just not compatible for it.  But being the nice guy he is, he went ahead and did the arrangements anyway.  When it was ready for me to record in the studio, Alan Nguyen also expressed to me his reservations.  Knowing how stubborn I can be, I guess everyone just backed down and let me go ahead with my decision.  Once in the studio, I quickly found out that my decision to record Tra No Tinh Xa was not a good one.  It took me a total of 3 weeks, 7 long recording sessions to finally finish the damn song.  The end result proved that what everyone around me had been trying to tell me was actually true.  I should have just left this song alone.  I mean, what was I thinking?

Amazingly, since the release of Ngay Em Di which included Tra No Tinh Xa, I've received some positive feedback from some of the fans on my delivery of this song.   Even at my live performances, I've had fans come up to me requesting me to sing this song.  Of course, I'm very grateful.  But at the same time, I feel like asking these fans, "Are you serious?"  A few months after the release of Ngay Em Di, I ran into the late musician,Tung Giang, at a CD release party for Phi Nhung.  He put it best when he jokingly told me what he thought about my recording of Tra No Tinh Xa.  He said, "Don't worry, kid.  If Phi Nhung can record Trong Vang, then why shouldn't Thien Phu record Tra No Tinh Xa?"  Ouch!  That hurt.

Link(s) to This Post:

  Tra No Tinh Xa - Thien Phu