Concert «The Brothers»

   Four voices that usually live in different corners of the Vietnamese scene meet in Hanoi for a single night: a rock frontman, a ballad singer, a rapper who rebuilt a classic songbook and the youngest songwriter of the four. All of them work with a live band instead of backing tracks, so you get familiar songs in unfamiliar hands.

   Do Hoang Hiep (Đỗ Hoàng Hiệp) spent years as the voice of Ngũ Cung, a Hanoi rock band formed in 2007 and known for rock built on the melodies of the country's north-western highlands; its best known song is «Cướp vợ». He left the band in November 2023, and in the summer of 2024 he was one of the 33 contestants on the VTV3 music reality show «Anh trai vượt ngàn chông gai», the Vietnamese take on the Chinese format «Call Me by Fire», finishing in the finalist line-up of 17.

   Tang Phuc (Tăng Phúc) came to music from drawing: he worked as an illustrator, designed books and directed animation before turning professional singer in 2016, and is now recognised for «Đừng chờ anh nữa» and «Chỉ là không cùng nhau». Ha Le (Hà Lê) took a degree in economic mathematics in England, came home in 2008 as a dancer and choreographer, and in 2019 launched Trịnh Contemporary, a rework of the Trinh Cong Son (Trịnh Công Sơn) songbook that later grew into the albums «Ở trọ» and «Đơn sơ».

   The youngest of the four is Cheng, a singer and songwriter born in 1995, who went through the second season of the same show with «Zung zăng zung zẻ». Bình Văn Band backs all four on stage. The hall is laid out on two levels, stalls and balcony, so it is worth thinking about where you want to sit before you book.

   The night is built for anyone following Vietnamese pop of the last few years who would rather not choose between rock, ballad and hip-hop. If you have only recently started listening to local music, this is a short cross-section of four of its directions, heard the way they sound live rather than on a recording.

   Check-in opens at 18:00 and closes when the show starts. One ticket admits one person and scans once, and the organiser warns that if a code is used twice only the first person through will be let in. Professional gear — cameras, tripods, selfie sticks — and any form of livestreaming are not allowed, and outside food and drink stay at the door.

   Flowers and gifts are asked to stay off the stage while the artists are performing; the curtain call is the moment for that. Line-ups like this one are rare in Vietnam and almost never repeat, so if you have been waiting to hear these four together, this is your night.