Vietnam Idol ( or from season five) is a Vietnamese reality television competition to find new solo singing talents. It is part of the Idol franchise; it originated from the reality program Pop Idol created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller. Starting from season eight, the show is produced by Vietnam Television and Cát Tiên Sa.
Vietnam Idol was created based on the British show Pop Idol and U.S. show American Idol. ÃÂông Tây Promotion and its sponsor partner Unilever secured the format license for US$2 million, which was the highest licensing fee paid for a reality TV show in Vietnam at the time. The show debuted in 2007 in Vietnam under the name Thần tðợng âm nhạc: Vietnam Idol ("music idol: Vietnam idol"), broadcast by Ho Chi Minh City Television under the production of ÃÂông Tây Promotion. Due to declined ratings in season two, the TV station and production company lost the license to produce a season to BHD Corp. and Vietnam Television. From season 5, the show was retitled to the full Vietnamese title ' ("Vietnamese music idol") as per branding regulations set by Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
In 2017, BHD announced that the production of Vietnam Idol was on hiatus in hopes of "finding new talents" amidst a rise of new reality singing shows in Vietnam and fierce competition against existing formats including The X Factor and The Voice.
In January 2023, it was announced that the show would make a return to VTV3 with Cát Tiên Sa as the new production company.
In the first season, Vietnam Idol was co-hosted by Thanh Thảo and Nguyên Và ©. In the second season, Nguyên Và © was replaced by Sỹ Luân. From season 3 onward, there was only one host per season. Phan Anh hosted the show in three non-consecutive seasons, the most out of all the hosts in the show's history.
Vietnam Idol maintained a 3-people panel across the series run except for season 3 when there were 4 judges. The panel usually consists of a singer, a producer and a composer.
<small>:In season 7, Phan Anh was the primary host throughout the season while Quá»Âc Minh hosted the grand finale.</small>
The first season of Vietnam Idol premiered on May 23, 2007, on HTV9. It was hosted by Thanh Thảo and Nguyên Và ©. The judges panel includes Siu Black, Tuấn Khanh and HàDà ©ng. The grand finale was held on October 3, 2007, at Hòa Bình Theater with Phðáng Vy crowned the winner over Ngá»Âc ÃÂnh; Vy then sang her coronation song "Nụ cðá»Âi vànhững ðá»Âc má" (Smiles and Dreams) but did not release it as her single. Over 720,000 votes were counted for the finale and this was the only season to announce the number of votes. Phðáng Vy, Ngá»Âc ÃÂnh, Thảo Trang, TràMy, Duy Khánh released their solo albums afterwards and enjoyed moderate success after the show.
Following the success of season one, it was confirmed by the producers that Vietnam Idol had been renewed for a second season with auditions would take place in June. However, the authorities subsequently postponed the contest until late July, early August, stating that there were many similar contests on HTV from then to the year's end and the event was not suitable in the country's current social and economic situation. As a result, auditions commenced a month later than the original schedule. The season premiered on September 3 on HTV7. Sỹ Luân replaced Nguyên Và © in season 1 to co-host the show with Thanh Thảo. The judges panel welcomed Há» Hoài Anh and Trần Mạnh Tuấn as two new judges along with the original judge from season one - Siu Black.
At the Grand Finale, Quá»Âc Thiên was announced the winner, taking the title over Thanh Duy. The coronation song for season one "Nụ cðá»Âi vànhững ðá»Âc má" was used again for this season.
After the show took a one-year break in 2009, it was renewed for a third season in 2010. The biggest change is the production team of the Vietnam Television and BHD film studio took over the production of the series from previous producers HTV and ÃÂông Tây Promotion. Siu Black returned as a judge while Nguyá» n Quang Dà ©ng, Quá»Âc Trung and ÃÂặng Diá» m Quỳnh replaced Há» Hoài Anh and Trần Mạnh Tuấn. Phan Anh took over as the season's sole host. While nearly 40,000 people signed up for the contest only 25,000 arrived to audition. This season followed the same structure as season 9 of American Idol, introducing "Save" option, inviting mentors for each round. The winner gets a recording contract with BHD Entertainment instead of Music Faces Records as in the previous seasons. The semi-final and final rounds were filmed at BHD Pictures Studio and the grand finale took place in Lan Anh Music Center.
At the Grand Finale, Uyên Linh was announced the winner, taking the title over Mai Hðáng. Linh then performed a new coronation song called "Cảm án tình yêu" (Thanks for Love) and released the song as her debut single a week later.
Uyên Linh and VÃÂn Mai Hðáng achieved significant media attention after the season ended. Both Linh and Hðáng have reached number one on Vietnamese Favorite Song chart. Other alumni in season 3 also went on to enjoy notable mainstream success like Trung Quân and BÃÂch Phðáng, who both have spawned many well-received hits since mid 2010s.
It was officially confirmed that the show would return for the fourth season. Siu Black ruled herself out of returning to judges' table only before the official press conference. On May 29, it was publicly unveiled the new judging panel, the new format and some changes. Mỹ Tâm replaced Siu Black, after her departure while Huy Khánh replaced Phan Anh as the host. Auditions started in June 2012. Broadcast commenced on Friday, August 17, 2012, at 8PM slot, replacing The Amazing Race Vietnam.
On February 1, 2013, the Grand Finale took place in Quân khu 7 Stadium. Ya Suy was crowned as the season winner over Hoàng Quyên. The season's coronation song was "Giây phút khát khao" (The Moment of Aspiration). After the season, Ya Suy's singing career was relatively inactive. He released his first single "Vá» vá»Âi lúa" in late 2013 and proceeded to release two more singles in 2014 and 2017 before announcing his retirement from singing due to an issue with his vocals in April 2018.
Nguyá» n Quang Dà ©ng and Mỹ Tâm was confirmed to come back for the fifth season while Anh Quân was introduced as a new judge. Phan Anh returned as the host, replacing Huy Khánh from season 4. The season ran every Sunday from December 15, 2013, to May 11, 2014, at 8 pm. The season's top two were Trần NháºÂt Thủy and Trần Thá» Thùy (stage name Minh Thùy). At the end of the finale, Phan Anh announced that NháºÂt Thủy received 52% of the vote, effectively becoming the winner of season 5.
Thủy released her first album entitled "Tá»Ânh giấc" (Awakening) in 2015. The album was a part of a project called Young Hit Young Beat, initiated by Vietnamese diva Mỹ Linh, former Vietnam Idol judge Anh Quân and Vietnam Idol's music director Huy Tuấn.
Two new judges of this season were Thanh Bui and Thu Minh; Thanh Bùi replaced Anh Quân and Thu Minh replaced Mỹ Tâm. Duy Hải became the new host. Broadcast commenced on Sunday, April 5, 2015, at 8PM.
Nguyá» n Trá»Âng Hiếu, having received 71.5% of the audience's vote, was declared the winner over runner-up Nguyá» n BÃÂch Ngá»Âc. Trá»Âng Hiếu, born in Germany and having been placed top 25 in season 5 of the German version, was the first foreign winner in the show's history. Hiếu's winning song "Con ÃÂðá»Âng tôi" (My way) was subsequently released as a single in both Vietnamese and German.
For season 7, Bằng Kiá»Âu replaced Thanh Bui on the judging panel while Phan Anh returned for his third season hosting the show. The season ran from May 27, 2016, to September 30, 2016, every Friday at 9.10 pm.
For the second season in a row, a foreigner was named Vietnam Idol as Janice Aranjuez Buco (stage name Janice Phðáng) from the Philippines received 54.25% of the votes, beating Phạm Viá»Ât Thắng's 45.75%. Janice released her coronation song "Love You in Silence", which contains lyrics in both English and Vietnamese language, as a single after the show.
Post-season, Janice released a new Vietnamese-language singled called "Tâm tð" (Feelings) in 2017. Janice cited language barriers as to why she had yet to make a breakthrough in Vietnamese music industry.
Ha An Huy, from Hanoi was named as the winner of the eighth season of Vietnam Idol, which ended in HCM City on Saturday evening October 21st, 2023.
After a convincing finale, fans were extremely excited to dig up Ha An Huy's performance "Like you a little too much" that caused a storm on the internet during the top 15 competition night, the song is considered the work that gave the name. Ha An Huy's age gets closer to the audience.
Many viewers also commented happily that viewers may not regularly watch Vietnam Idol, but Ha An Huy's performance "Like you a little too much" at the show is definitely something you should know.
Because this is the song that best demonstrates the musical maturity of the male contestant, making My Tam exclaim, "I like Anh Huy a lot." Currently on Youtube the song has reached more than 1,6 million views; on Facebook 26,6 thousand favorites with more than 2 thousand positive shares.
No longer the image of a gentle guy, the audience was delighted with a Ha An Huy who looked extremely "cool" with the hit "Like you a little too much" by Wren Evans.
In particular, the male contestant confidently showed off his "rapping" talent. Commenting on Ha An Huy's performance, the powerful trio did not contribute too much because the male contestant maintained very good performance every night.
At the Vietnam Idol 2023 contest, with the strategy of singing all songs familiar to the audience and songs composed by himself. An Huy successfully debuted with the self-composed song "Roi" in the qualifying round, then continued with an elaborate remix of "Roi" to conquer the championship position with the song Stranger.
The young singer-songwriter had excellent performances and triumphed over competitors, Ha Minh and Lam Phuc with the highest votes accounting for more than 43.7 percent.
Huy previously won the third season of Big Song Big Deal songwriting contest which took place from September 2022 to February 2023. He can play a number of musical instruments and is highly appreciated for his music composition skills.
The show has been criticized for alleged voting irregularities and lack of transparency. Major newspapers such as Thanh Niên and Tuá»Âi Trẻ ran stories about votes for a contestant being counted for another contestant, though there was no concrete evidence to verify this claim, and the organisers stated that the results were not tampered with. While the organizers maintain that allowing up to 500 votes per phone number and not publicly tallying votes are standard practices seen in other Idol versions, they have been accused of doing so to maximize profits at the expense of fairness. Furthermore, there were rumors about contestants' relationship with one of the judges and the PR manager of Vietnam Idol. A public auditor from the Singaporean auditing firm Paul Hooi & Co. was hired to audit the vote counting process during the final.