About

BACH YEN : bio

Bach Yen : bio  ( English)

Bach Yen (or “White Swallow”) was born in the Mekong Delta, in South Vietnam. She began perfroming nightclub and variety music in Saigon while still very young, learning to sing with ease in Vietnamese, French, English, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew. When she had made her name there she went to Paris, in 1961, with the idea of singing “à la Piaf”, but Polydor, who had her under contract, wanted her to sing the then popular “sentimental twist”, very sixties in style. Three albums and several videos came out of this first period in Europe, when she also toured in Belgium, Germany and Austria.

She crossed the Atlantic in 1965 at Ed Sullivan’s invitation, to appear in the reknowned show, far and away the most widely watched in all the USA. America kept her a very long time, because the two weeks at first proposed became an engagement lasting twelve years ! Her growing popularity led to other television appearances – with stars like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, alongside great names like Jimmy Durante, Liberace. Joey Bishop, Mike Douglas, Pat Boone, Frankie Avlon and others – and she appeared in 46 different US states and in Canada, Mexico, in South America Caracas /Venezuela, Bogotá /Colombia, Panama /Central America and Curaçao /Antille.

Hollywood asker her to sing for the film “The Green Berets”, starring John Wayne.

Coming back to Paris marked a decisive change in Bạch Yên’s career. She met up with Trần Quang Hải, a brilliant musician and ethnomusicologist, who persuaded her to sing traditional Vietnamese music. This was the dawning of yet another of Bạch Yên’s varied talents.

In company with Trần Quang Hải, she has since given over 3,000 recitals and concerts on the five continents. Together they have made 7 albums, one of which gained the Grand Prix du Disque from the Académie Charles Cros in 1983 – and now there is, of course, a CD.

As an ardent and talented ambassador for Vietnamese music, Bạch Yến is considered among the great artists of song, both modern and traditional.