Trịnh Công Sơn

Trịnh Công Sơn was born in Buôn Ma Thuột, Đắk Lắk Province, Vietnam, but as a child he lived in the village of Minh Huong in Hương Trà in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province.[3] He grew up in Huế, where he attended the Lycée Français and the Providence school. When he was ten he lived with his father in Huế's Thừa Phủ Prison for a year in 1949.[4] Later he went to Saigon and studied western philosophy at the Lycée Jean-Jacques Rousseau, from which he graduated with the baccalaureate degree. In 1961, he studied psychology and pedagogy in a school for teachers in Qui Nhơn in an attempt to avoid being drafted into the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces. After graduation, he taught at an elementary school in Bao Loc, Lâm Đồng.

Trịnh Công Sơn wrote over 500 songs during the 1960s and 1970s. Sơn was influenced by the shrill demands of American anti-war protesters, which had been brought to Vietnam by none other than young American soldiers."</ref>[5] He became one of South Vietnam's notable singer-songwriters, after his first hit, Ướt mi (Tearing Lashes) in 1958. He was frequently under pressure from the government, which was displeased with the pacifist's lyrics of such songs as Ngủ đi con (Lullaby, about a mother grieving for her soldier son).

Before April 30, 1975, Trịnh Công Sơn went on the radio in Saigon to sing the song "Joining Hands/Circle of Unity" ("Nối vòng tay lớn") about the dream of national reconciliation between the North and the South, which he had written in 1968. On the afternoon of April 30, following Dương Văn Minh's proclamation of surrender, Trinh went on the radio to say that the national dream had been realized and that liberation had been achieved.

After the reunification in 1975, Trịnh Công Sơn was sentenced by the new communist government, to "retraining" in a labour camp after his family had fled to Canada. However, he was eventually honoured by the government and many officials sent their respects with floral tributes. His often melancholic songs about love and postwar reconciliation earned new acceptance and popularity in later years. Many of his songs have been re-licensed to Vietnamese music companies such as Thúy Nga and Lang Van and sung by other artists. There are two singers' names often associated with Trịnh Công Sơn. One is Khánh Ly. The other one is Hồng Nhung.

Khánh Ly helped popularize Trịnh Công Sơn's music in the early years. They often performed together in South Vietnam University campuses. Later on in his life, Hồng Nhung (born 1970), many years his junior, replaced Khánh Ly's place until his death, breathing new life into his songs.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at his funeral in Ho Chi Minh City, for a spontaneous ad hoc funeral concert, making such a spectacle the largest in Vietnamese history, next to the funeral procession of Ho Chi Minh.

On 28 February 2019, Google celebrated what would have been Trịnh Công Sơn's 80th birthday with a Google doodle.[6]

Till now (2017) according to Nguyễn Đăng Chương, director of the Performing Art department of the ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, 70 songs of Trịnh Công Sơn are allowed to perform in public.[7] The latest song which has just been permitted, is Nối vòng tay lớn, on April 12, 2017.[8]

• BBC News article on Trịnh Công Sơn's funeral
• A tribute to Trịnh Công Sơn
• An extensive site on Trịnh Công Sơn, including most of his songs, writings, and articles about him
• Trịnh Công Sơn songs on writeopenstory, with links to many Vietnamese songs on him