Concert «Ai Cũng Giấu Trong Lòng Tảng Băng» (Everyone Hides an Iceberg Inside): Mr. Siro

   Some songs in Vietnam are made for staring out of a bus window in silence, and a fair share of them were written by one man at a piano. In November he plays an extra night in Hanoi, added to the calendar after the main run of the show had already closed. If you know Vietnamese pop mainly through its sad ballads, you will recognise the material within seconds.

   Mr. Siro is the stage name of songwriter and singer Vương Quốc Tuân, born in 1982, who set up his own studio EGG Production in 2012. He performs his own catalogue — «Em», «Lắng Nghe Nước Mắt» (2012), «Dưới Những Cơn Mưa» (2015), «Một Bước Yêu Vạn Dặm Đau» (2019) — and writes for other singers as well: «Em gái mưa» for Hương Tràm became the most streamed Vietnamese track on Zing MP3 at the time, «Chạm Đáy Nỗi Đau» went to Erik, «Không thể cùng nhau suốt kiếp» to Hòa Minzy, «Sống xa anh chẳng dễ dàng» to Bảo Anh.

   The title translates roughly as «everyone hides an iceberg inside»: what shows on the surface is only a fraction of what a person carries. The artwork keeps to the same image — the singer at a grand piano in the middle of a frozen sea under the northern lights. Even the seating tiers are named after his songs: «Em», «Dưới Những Cơn Mưa», «Lắng Nghe Nước Mắt».

   The show has been running since the start of the year: 10 January in Ho Chi Minh City, 29 March in Hanoi, and a first encore in Ho Chi Minh City on 20 June. The November night continues the same series under the encore extended banner, an added performance beyond the announced tour. In spring the Hanoi audience heard him at Nhà Hát Quân Đội; this time the concert moves to Trung tâm Hội nghị Quốc gia, the capital's main convention hall.

   It is an evening for long-time listeners who sing along without thinking, and equally for anyone who knows these songs through other performers and never connected them to their author. The staging leans on voice and piano rather than spectacle. The organiser admits guests from the age of 14.

   Practical points worth knowing:

• — tickets go on sale on 9 September at 12:00 and only through Ticketbox; the organiser will not help with tickets bought from resellers;
• — up to eight tickets per account, with no refunds and no change of date;
• — doors are open from 15:00 until 18:50, after which latecomers are not admitted;
• — outside food and drink stay outside the hall, the night is filmed, and personal live streams are not allowed.

   If Vietnamese melancholy at its most sincere is your kind of evening, this is the one to keep your Sunday free for.