From Then singing, Cai Luong to "Weaving flowers and brocade
Episode 11 of "Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai 2026" is one of the clearest examples of the trend of bringing traditional culture back to the entertainment stage.
In the same performance, the audience heard then singing, dan tinh, Northern folk songs and Southern cai luong. Notably, Hoang Dung brought his mother onto the stage to perform then singing together. Meanwhile, Jun Pham for the first time tried his hand at cai luong in "On my own land" - a performance inspired by the legend of Saint Giong and using Southern folk music material.
Folk material does not only appear in one performance. Right from Performance 1, "Ly Ngua O" was brought to the stage with Hue folk music material. Indigenous cultural elements are gradually becoming one of the important raw materials of the program.
At the same time, "Tinh Ha Say Hi" entered the final with four demo versions "Thêu hoa dệt gấm", "Bức tranh tháng 6", "Trễ giờ cơm" and "Sau hình bóng khác".
Names such as "Thêu hoa dệt gấm", "Trễ giờ cơm" have evoked images close to Vietnamese life and culture.
This trend does not start from 2026. In the first season of "Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai", "Trong Com" through the performance of NSND Tu Long, Soobin and Cuong Seven once created an effect.
Phuong My Chi is a case that goes further when building a direction for music development around combining folk music with contemporary language. After "Co bay universe", the female singer continues to release "Dân chơi dân ca" at the end of August 2026, experimenting with bringing traditional elements into new music structures.
If folk music used to appear in specialized programs or themed performances, now Then singing, Quan Ho, Cai Luong, folk songs can stand in the middle of a gameshow aimed at young audiences.
Indigenous materials create differentiation
There are many reasons why traditional materials become attractive to producers and artists.
In a market where pop, rap, R&B or EDM are increasingly easy to create a sense of similarity, local materials provide a range of sound and images to create differentiation.
A zither sound, then song, or Cai Luong segment can immediately create recognition points. When placed next to electronic beats, rap, dance and stage technology, the contrast between old and new can also easily create moments of attention on social networks.
More importantly, young audiences no longer seem to see traditional music as something that needs to be "preserved". The successes of Phuong My Chi or the performances in "Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai" show that folk materials have the potential to become mass products if translated appropriately.
The approach thinking is also changing. Instead of just trying to bring young people to traditional music, producers bring traditional materials to where young people are focusing - gameshows, concerts, YouTube, TikTok and music listening platforms.
But when a method continuously creates an effect, the risk of becoming a "formula" also appears.
It is not that just adding zither, zither, a few folk songs, ao dai or traditional motifs to a modern arrangement is a product that naturally has cultural depth.
The gap between exploiting and decorating folk materials is quite fragile. If artists only use a few traditional sounds to create novelty, "Vietnamese quality" can quickly become an aesthetic shell.
The bigger challenge lies in understanding the material they use. Then singing, Quan Ho singing or Cai Luong singing all have their own cultural space, performance techniques and history. Bringing them into pop, rap or EDM requires creators to be both free enough to create new things and knowledgeable enough not to turn heritage into stage effects.
Phuong My Chi is a noteworthy example. Instead of using folk music in a separate song, she and her crew transformed the material into a long-term orientation. From "Co bay universe" to "Folk players", traditional elements become a part of the artist's identity.
Gameshows have an advantage in scale. A program that gathers dozens of artists can experiment with many regional materials, from the North, Hue to the South, and then bring them to a large audience in a short time.
However, if traditional materials only stop at a few performances to create highlights, this formula can also quickly saturate. Conversely, if the experiments on gameshows become the starting point for products and long-term music paths, "Vietnamese quality" can overcome a temporary trend to become a significant flow of contemporary Vietnamese music.
