Vietnam Idol – modeled upon the American version American Idol – is generally considered a successful singing contest and an effective channel through which to search for talents on Vietnamese television. As the program’s slogan “From zero to hero” suggests, the best singers will be selected from thousands of unknowns and propelled to prominence by local viewers.
Generally, the Vietnam Idol’s script has two parts. In the first round, the audition round, the audience will have a chance to entertain themselves with hilarious scenarios, the equivalent of watching slapstick comedies. Several scandals exposed during this stage help the program to become a magnet for the media.
Next comes the second round, the real acid test in which the singers compete with each other week after week, trying to win the audience’s hearts with their best performance, best music, songs, and hot dancing.
What makes the show riveting to the thousands of viewers sitting in front of their tubes is the fact that the contestants are forced to eliminate each other to go through to the next round and eventually to win the title.
For those contestants who accept this tough rule and are willing to endure the emotional hurt that comes with the elimination, the contest offers them plenty of benefits that would help them hone their talents and develop their professional career.
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2010 Vietnam Idol-crowned Uyen Linh
Behind the scene, singers are trained by vocal experts, choreographers, fashion designers, and music directors. These professionals would teach them some singing techniques and train them to handle questions from the media. Appearing on Vietnam Idol also gives the contestants an opportunity to establish working relationships with the right people, a shortcut to getting a foothold in the recording industry and securing their first recording contract without too much sweat.
The audience as the judges
In 1990s, the contestants performed on the local television and would be evaluated by the judges who decided who the winner was. But starting in 2006, with the appearance of Vietnam Idol, the imported version of American Idol, the audience’s vote determined the winner of the contest. Today, both Vietnam Idol and Sao Mai Diem Hen (Morning Star – Rendez Vous) follow this format.
Unlike American Idol, where the judges are often unsympathetic and even hurtful with their harsh comments, Vietnamese judges, due to cultural differences, often give constructive comments or feedbacks, and choose to avoid hurting the participants.
Generally, most Vietnamese singing contests aim to produce instant celebrities by giving the contestants as much face time on television and in front of the media as possible. In addition, the organizers publish moving, Horatio Alger type of stories about the contestants to boost their images and catapult them to stardom.
This formula has proved very successful in American Idol. For example, Carrie Underwood – the winner of 2005 American Idol – was promoted as a farm girl who dreamed big dreams, and in a series of photos Carrie was seen helping her father on the farm. Temptress Brown, another contestant, intimated to thousands of viewers that she joined the contest to please her ailing mother in the hospital.
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The audience, therefore, has been regarded a vital element of the competition’s success. In the growing consumer era, singing contests help the viewers choose the winner based on their own taste.
Will a shining star ever emerge?
After the competition, record companies, television manufacturers and other businesses begin to conduct projects to exploit the winner’s name.
However, the local showbiz industry in Vietnam has yet to learn the world’s expertise in turning new winners into celebrities and sustaining their stardom status.
“The showbiz industry in Vietnam fails to do that, just like a poor man who doesn’t have enough money left to buy gas for his newly-purchased Lexus,” said Vo Thien Thanh, a well-known musician.
The success of recent singing contests has shed plenty of light on Vietnam’s contemporary culture. Like a hero, the winner has been portrayed as a talented, hard-working individual who, with a little bit of luck, have risen to fame and fortune. He or she, in other words, represents all that celebrities have and all that ordinary people lack.
However, in the most anti-hero fashion, the winner is actually a product of the entertainment industry, an item manufactured for commercial purposes.
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2006 Vietnam Idol-crowned Phuong Vy
As Christopher E. Bell, author of American, Idolatry: Celebrity, Commodity and Reality Television, comments in his book, “[Their public acclaims] are not entirely the product of their own deeds, nor are they entirely the product of media construction. They are a hybrid form.”
Talents not built in one day
Musician Bao Chan does not believe that talent could be cultivated in one day.
From 1995–2005, famous singers like Thanh Lam, Hong Nhung, My Linh, Tran Thu Ha and My Tam enrolled in and won many singing contests, but no one could claim that their success derived from such contests.
Their top positions, their existing diva status in the music industry should be seen as a result of a series of factors, like their formal musical training, hard work and persistent efforts over a long period of time, Chan said.
Just a Will-o'-the-wisp
In some quarters, there is the belief that Vietnam Idol provides the local showbiz with new talents and saves them a lot of time and trouble searching for these idols on their own. Not to mention the many nights and hours of good entertainment supplied to the audience.
According to musician Quoc Bao, singing contests like Vietnam Idol just created so-called “colorful entertainment bubbles”, out of which few truly talented singers have ever appeared.
At present, most singing contests are targeted for commercial purposes. While there is nothing wrong with making money and providing entertainment for the masses, they create an illusion of grandeur among young people that winning the title would automatically take them to the moon and transform them overnight into a shining star.
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