Lam Phuong: a talented musician who lost his life, longing to return to his homeland but failed

Lam Phuong (born 1937), real name Lam Dinh Phung, is known as a famous Vietnamese musician. He was born in a poor countryside in Vinh Thanh Van village, now Vinh Thanh Van ward, Rach Gia city, Kien Giang province.

Musician Lam Phuong is considered one of the most prominent names in the Saigon music industry before 1975. From the luxurious tea room to the poor immigrant villages, from the theater stage to the fierce fire zone, all reverberated. on the famous songs of this talented musician. He is also considered one of the pioneer musicians of South Vietnamese new music with about 200 works.

Lam Phuong's music does not carry a profound philosophy, but contains sincere emotions from the kind and honest heart of a person born in the beloved Western land.

Although he is a descendant of a famous family, in Lam Phuong's life, his life was very miserable. He was the first child in a family of six children. His father left home and disappeared for many years, his mother single-handedly raised him to become a man. The image of that gentle mother in childhood entered Lam Phuong's music, and famous songs such as Lamp Khue and Kiep Ngheo were also inspired by the late singer's life.

It is known that Lam Phuong's family's livelihood is very difficult, but even so, he is still lucky to go to a literacy school with the help of his maternal uncle. Those basic knowledge has formed a talented musician Lam Phuong later.

At the age of 10, musician Lam Phuong began to go to Saigon and only 5 years later, at the age of 15, he began composing the song "That autumn afternoon". However, it was not until 1954 that he became famous with two songs "Poverty Life" and "The parallel boat". At the beginning of composing, the musician faced many financial difficulties, he had to often borrow money from his friends to finance the release of musical works.

His music favors mambo but is diverse with many topics. Talking about the emigration in 1954, there are "The parallel boat", "The late night forest music", "The group of travelers" and "The beautiful sunshine of the South". Talking about military love, he has "Warrior's love", "Afternoon marching". When it comes to motherhood, he has "Late lights", "Thank you mom". Speaking of miserable lives, he had "Poverty Life", "Dinner". As for love songs, it can be said that he is a source of music in the South Vietnamese music scene.

In 1958, he enlisted in the army, on the night of leaving the training center, he wrote the article "War soldier's love". The song later became famous and almost every soldier sang it. Returning to his hometown for a while, Lam Phuong was ordered to re-enlist. He joined the Bao An art troupe, when it was disbanded, he joined the Hoa Tinh Thuong cultural group and eventually joined the Central Arts Brigade until 1975.

In addition to composing and performing with military bands, Lam Phuong also collaborated with the national cinema center, appearing in a number of films with themes of social improvement such as "New Horizons". , "New Faith".

After getting married, he began to write more bright works, most notably "Happy Days". The song is played every day as an anthem of military radio and is widely used by people in weddings. The song is famous for the line "Listen to me crying endlessly at night". The crying baby here is the first daughter of the musician, Anh Hang.

In 1975, musician Lam Phuong's family moved to the US to live. The late musician at that time faced many difficulties - in a foreign land, he had to earn money by hard manual work to support his family. He was deeply saddened and wrote a series of songs whose title only had one word such as "Crazy", "Say", "Unfortunately"... The most famous of which was probably the song "Lam" with the lyrics "Anh". mistakenly brought you here."

In early 1999, while visiting a friend, musician Lam Phuong suffered a stroke and hemiplegia. This time he faced many difficulties but also received a lot of love. From the story of his sister leaving the restaurant in France to fly to the US to take care of him, to the story of a music lover from Australia buying him a house and calling him every day to force him to talk. She even went to the place, threw the wheelchair away to make him go on his own. Those sentiments helped musician Lam Phuong gradually recover, but it could not be the same as before.

During his lifetime, Lam Phuong always wished to return to Vietnam once, but until his death, he had not fulfilled that wish.

In December 2020, Lam Phuong took her last breath in the US after a period of intensive treatment for severe heart disease and cerebrovascular accident. The father of the song "Lonely Love" died at a time when the Covid-19 epidemic was complicated, so the family could not bring the musician back to Vietnam as he always wished. Lam Phuong was cremated in the US. November 2022 - more than two years after the talented musician passed away, his family decided to bring his ashes back to his homeland, to let him rest in his motherland.

More than 40 years away from home is the time when he brings nostalgia for his homeland, the country, longing to return home after more than half a life of wandering in a foreign land. The late musician shared that his saddest period was after 1979, when his mother died in Vietnam and he could not return home to see her one last time, light her incense and fulfill the last duty of a musician. Son.

That torment prompted Lam Phuong to compose the song Crying Mother, Thanking Mother to commemorate her birth and upbringing. The gentle whispers: "Mom, I dream of one day, lying still in your arms, let me go to sleep forever" of the song Crying Mother was associated with the singing of Huong Lan - Nhu Quynh and touched the hearts of so many music lovers.

Along with the desire to visit her mother, Lam Phuong also aspires to return to Vietnam to meet the audience who have always supported and loved her music. Unfortunately, so far, Lam Phuong music lovers can only meet him in a few countries such as the US, France, Australia, Canada... and once in Singapore in August 2016, when the late musician and Trung joined China. Thuy Nga Center implements Lam Phuong Love Song program in Singapore .

In an interview with the press in 2018, this talented musician once expressed his desire to visit his homeland: "It is true that my big wish is still to visit my hometown once, 'collect my love'. home...' ( Loneless Love lyrics) But now my health is much weaker, it's difficult to move, it's very hard for everyone to get up and down. If I fly far away, my heart will often get tired, it will be difficult to breathe. So now I really want to, but I can't go."

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