Singer Anh Khoa: "entering the Vietnamese music scene with a pair of seven-mile shoes", happy with his Hungarian wife

Singer Anh Khoa (real name is Tran Cong Khai), born in 1948, is known as one of the most famous male singers of the South before 1975.

It is known that he was born and raised in Phan Thiet in a family of 12 children. As a child, he attended Bo De High School (now Tuyen Quang Primary School) - a school for children of Buddhist families and poor families. Then he transferred to Phan Thiet's famous high school, Phan Boi Chau.

Mr. Khoa showed his singing ability when he was still at school. In 1962, he excellently won the first prize of the National Strategic Hamlet Culture Competition at Quoc Thanh Theater (Saigon) with the song "Bieu Kinh Ky".

After the victory, he received the president's certificate of merit and a bonus of 5,000 dong - a huge amount at that time. He used this money to buy books about self-study music. And his career also blossomed from here.

Seeing that her son was fond of music, despite difficult conditions, Anh Khoa's mother still agreed to buy him a bass guitar. Having acquired this precious instrument, he seemed to be absorbed in singing.

Khoa just sang every night, while continuing to study at the high school (currently high school) at Nguyen Hue school. But because he could not concentrate on his studies, he failed the Baccalaureate 2.

The first band that Anh Khoa joined was a young band in the countryside called The Sea Bees, but it didn't last long. Because his family fell into poverty, at the age of 20, he decided to leave school to go to Saigon alone to look for opportunities to sing.

In the magnificent land of Saigon, he first played bass guitar for a band in an American club, then was accepted to play in Jo Marcel's band at Tu Do discotheque.

This can also be seen as a turning point in Anh Khoa's career, because after that time he was wholeheartedly guided and supported by Jo Marcel. From here, he gradually became famous in the Saigon music industry.

In 1969, Anh Khoa followed Jo Marcel to perform at the downstairs of Queen Bee (a luxury dance hall) with singers such as Carol Kim, Ngoc My, Nhu An...

But it was not until he was brought up by Jo Marcel to sing on the upper floor of Queen Bee (a more luxurious dance hall downstairs) in Le Thu's program, then Anh Khoa really attracted attention with the songs of musician Vu Thanh An.

In 1970, Jo Marcel left Queen Bee to set up the Ritz Tea Room, starting to perform music programs Jo Marcel recorded directly from the tea room. At that time, Anh Khoa's voice appeared in most of Jo Marcel's music tapes - becoming one of the most loved male lyric singers.

In just the first 5 years of the 1970s, Anh Khoa recorded hundreds of songs and left many imprints. The press at that time wrote that "singer Anh Khoa entered the Vietnamese music scene with a pair of seven-mile shoes".

When his career was at its peak, the April 1975 incident took place, and Anh Khoa lost all his career. After a while, he also sang with Ngoc Giao's band in remote areas, villages and small communes. In this troupe, he often met his fellow man, Nhat Truong, who had a similar situation.

From about 1977, 1978, Anh Khoa joined the theater group Tham Thuy Hang along with Bang Chau, Thao Ly, Hoang Hac, ... appeared in the new music performance.

After more than a year, Anh Khoa started singing at cultural venues and clubs in Saigon and was well known through the songs of musician Tran Tien: Young City, Baby Sun, Round Footprints in the Sand, etc. In the 1980s, Anh Khoa started singing again at Maxim's Tea Room.

At the age of 40, the male singer had the opportunity to meet and marry a foreign woman. It is known that this girl named Iren Karsai - is the daughter of the Hungarian ambassador to Cambodia. During a trip with her parents to Saigon, she went to Maxim's tea room and met Anh Khoa there.

Iren Karsai is fluent in 4 languages, so it is easy to communicate with Anh Khoa in English, and they decided to get married quickly just 1 year later. The wedding party was held intimately and warmly at Majestic restaurant in August 1989. After that, Anh Khoa and his wife lived in Hungary.

He once shared about his marriage: "We met in the 1980s. It was fate. Love is loved by everyone, but fate must come from both and no one can argue with fate. When two hearts have met, it is not difficult to overcome the language barrier, the cultural habits of the two countries to harmonize into one."

In 1995, Anh Khoa was invited by Thuy Nga Center to collaborate and made his first appearance on the show Paris By Night 15 with his forte song "I Visit You at Night 30" by musician Vu Thanh An.

In 2005, Anh Khoa started collaborating with Asia, and then returned to work with Paris By Night on a few shows. In addition, since the 1990s, Anh Khoa has also collaborated with many other music centers such as Giang Ngoc, Binh Duong Beauty; Love Me, Miss VN-USA, Nhat Truong, Rainbow Tu Quynh, Rain Pink...

In a faraway Eastern European country, although it is not convenient for a singing career because of the limited Vietnamese community, Anh Khoa in return has had a peaceful and happy married life with his gentle wife and beautiful daughter named Tran Diana.

Living in a country far away from the Vietnamese community in Europe - America, Anh Khoa focuses all of his activities on his family, accepting the quiet status in cultural activities, in addition to flying to California to work in the artist world here.

"Living there is just for the sake of family. Between the two Khoas, you have to choose one. One is a job, the other is a family. But when doing a job, Khoa can run back and forth, it's easy. Anyway, I need to have my family behind me! Khoa coming to the US to see that life is not necessarily as good as Khoa in Hung" - Anh Khoa said.

In 2015, singer Anh Khoa returned home to do a live show "Words of love" with musician Duc Huy. The show then received warm support from the Vietnamese audience.

Responding to Thanh Nien newspaper at that time, he revealed: "I sang all the famous songs before 1975, including a duet with Mr. Duc Huy about Drizzle. The guests in the show were Phuong Thanh and Hong Hanh. I will have a Tet holiday in my hometown Phan Thiet (Binh Thuan). The coming Tet reminds me of my childhood very much."

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