2 concerts and the unthinkable
Concert “Call Me by Fire” 2024, taking place on the evening of October 19 at the Saigon Riverside Park stage (Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) took place amid the cheers and excitement of 20,000 spectators. On the same evening of October 19, concert 2 of “Anh trai say hi” took place at Van Phuc City, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City.
Previously, on September 28, the first concert of “Anh trai say hi” “fired the first shot” with a scale of about 15,000 - 20,000 spectators at Saigon Riverside Park. The concerts of these two programs attracted attention because of the overlap in time and location, creating an unprecedented competitive situation in the history of VPop.
Talking to Lao Dong, “million-view director” Huynh Phuc Thanh Nhan said: “It can be said that holding an international concert can be simple, but organizing it is difficult. And the deciding factor is still the budget. Most concerts currently have a budget from the marketing budget of sponsoring brands. There are large-scale concerts like that, requiring the production team to make a lot of effort to create a true music night in both audio and visual aspects.”
Mr. Hoang Van - General Director of Clover Media Company, Ho Chi Minh City - said: "Concerts like Call Me by Fire or Anh trai say hi all have huge investment levels, which can be calculated in millions of dollars. This requires a strong team along with reasonable calculations and plans for the script line, organization...".
Responding to Lao Dong, Mr. Nguyen Xuan An - Communications Director of "Call Me by Fire" said that organizing a concert poses many challenges: "Organizing a concert with nearly 20,000 people is definitely a challenge. The problem of arranging optimal positions for the audience to enjoy the concert is also a challenge for us. Calculating adjustments to music, lighting, and stage design is also another challenge that we are forced to overcome and do our best within limits."
Open up new opportunities
With a concert, love and hate are inevitable. Despite the fiery music space, passionate artists and explosive fans, these concerts still have some unfortunate downsides.
Concert night 2 “Anh trai say hi” lasted much longer than expected due to a power outage. The concert also made the audience “hesitant” because of 2 names - Negav and Myra Tran because they had caused controversy in the past. Meanwhile, “Call Me by Fire” also caused controversy with guest Ho Ngoc Ha because of her sensitive outfit.
Apart from the unfortunate shortcomings mentioned above, the crew of the two concerts has managed to build trust in the audience about a new music flow. With this premise, it shows that Vietnamese concerts are becoming a trend and keeping up with international concerts.
The concert “Call Me by Fire” 2024 or “Anh trai say hi” was successful and magnificent, but above all, it opened up a belief in the revival of Vietnamese music live shows. And after all, the answer to reviving Vietnamese music is not big or far away, as long as the music is good, there will be an audience.
Remember in 2022, My Tam caused a storm when she organized the live show "Tri am" at My Dinh Stadium with an audience of up to 30,000 people. The success of this live show opened a new standard for the level of investment, scale of live shows and concerts of Vietnamese artists.
It was thought that explosive shows like My Tam's would be a standard that would be difficult for any crew to catch up with, but now, the Vietnamese music industry has concerts that are not inferior like "Anh trai say hi" or "Call Me by Fire".
Despite its shortcomings, it cannot be denied that the concerts of “Anh trai say hi” or “Call Me by Fire” have changed the cultural landscape of Vietnamese idol artists in a powerful way. At these concerts, for the first time, people witnessed the potential of Vietnamese music groups, modern music trends, explosive performances and attracted such a large audience.
