Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the performance market in Vietnam was quiet, with singers mainly holding small concerts, with a few notable concerts each year. The number of large-scale concerts with 20,000 - 30,000 audiences could be counted on one hand.
In 2022, when My Tam held the "Tri am" live show with 20,000 spectators at My Dinh Stadium, it "overwhelmed" the public. Vietnamese artists can spend a lot of money to invest in large live shows at stadiums, which is very rare.
Therefore, on the evening of October 19, an unprecedented feat was achieved in the Vietnamese performance market when in just one night, in the same city, two large-scale concerts were held and both tickets were sold out.
When businesses invest in the performance market
"Call Me by Fire" is a Vietnamese adaptation of the original version "Call Me By Fire" by MangoTV. This music reality TV show was copyrighted by 1Production Company (under Yeah1), then coordinated with VTV to produce.
According to data from Kantar Media Vietnam, "Call Me by Fire" ranked first in viewership ratings during the 8-11pm time slot from Monday to Sunday on VTV3.
The third quarter of 2024 is the period when "Call Me by Fire" will air on both VTV3 and YouTube platforms.
Compared to "Call Me by Fire", "Anh trai say hi" also has a certain dominance in terms of virality, appeal, and the ability to dominate the Top trending music on digital platforms. Dat Viet VAC, behind "Anh trai say hi", has produced "Em xinh say hi" and is preparing to air in early 2025.
The attraction of the two music reality shows has brought in huge advertising revenue for businesses. Concert tickets are also always sought after by audiences before they go on sale.
Experts consider this a strong rise of the performance market, creating unprecedented miracles. At the same time, Vietnamese music also witnessed a wave of enthusiasm from the audience that they have always reserved for KPop idols.
Before achieving "overwhelming" success with ticket sales, it is necessary to mention the business's investment in the performance market.
At the beginning of its broadcast, "Anh trai say hi" did not have much appeal because most of the contestants on the show were names that were somewhat unfamiliar to the audience. Meanwhile, of the 33 artists participating in "Call Me by Fire", many were names that were past their prime.
Sharing with Lao Dong Newspaper reporter, singer Doan Trang, who participated in the reality show "Sister Who Makes Wave" season 1, said: "The investment of the producers in programs like this is huge. The audience only watches the performances performed by the artists, but to have that performance, behind the stage there are hundreds of staff from many different crews supporting and staging.
For an artist to be on air, behind them are a large team of makeup artists, costume designers, prop artists, along with a team of dancers, choreographers, stage directors, lighting directors, music production teams, orchestrators... Hundreds of people take care of an artist's shine. That is to say, if 30 artists shine, what will the human resources behind them be like?
According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan An - Communications Director of "Call Me by Fire", they needed more than 1,000 staff to organize a large-scale concert.
A show organizer commented that to organize a reality TV show that airs for nearly 4 months, or a large-scale concert, the investment must be in the millions of USD.
Strong influence
In "Anh trai say hi", the songs performed in each livestage (stage performance) are all newly composed works, in which, many songs were composed by the contestants themselves such as: Quang Hung MasterD, Duong Domic, Rhyder.... From the new names, the "brothers" created an unbelievable stir when releasing a series of "hits" (songs that are listened to a lot).
Right after the live stage, many songs were widely shared such as: "Catch me if you can", "Hao quang", "Dau doc hon", "Ngao ngo"... The songs quickly reached millions of views on digital music platforms and dominated the music charts since July until now. When "Anh trai say hi" ended, the series of songs continued to increase in views and listens due to the heat brought by the 2 concerts.
Musician Nguyen Van Chung commented that performances from reality TV shows account for a large percentage of listenership and dominate the charts, showing a strong influence, overwhelming and even "sink" the products of many solo singers.
In 2024, many singers released new products, but struggled to find rankings on YouTube and were almost overshadowed by the appeal of "Anh trai say hi" and "Call Me by Fire".
While "Anh trai say hi" released new songs, Call Me by Fire tried to renew old songs. The final night of "Call Me by Fire" brought the song "Mother loves child" by musician Nguyen Van Ty to the center of attention, drawing emotions and tears from the audience on the eve of October 20 - Vietnamese Women's Day.
In a short time, a series of "hits" were born, combined with classic songs that suddenly "went viral" again in a new look, which is also rare in the music market.
It is undeniable that the heat of reality TV has helped the music market and performance market in 2024 become vibrant, bustling, and achieve rare feats.
From here, experts have high hopes for the performing arts industry in the near future, seeing the love and enthusiasm of the audience for Vietnamese music and Vietnamese artists.
Among the 12 key industries of the Strategy for developing Vietnam's cultural industry to 2030 with a vision to 2045 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, there is the performing arts sector (including music, circus, dance...).
For music to reach far and become a billion-dollar performing industry like KPop, many factors are needed. It needs support mechanisms and policies, the explosion of music programs, the audience, the investment participation of businesses, and above all, as musician Quoc Trung said, it needs great effort, hard work and ambition from performing artists.
