Live night «E Là Không Thể Bỏ Em Cho Ai» (I Could Never Give You Up): Nguyen Kieu Oanh & Chu Thuy Quynh

   A phòng trà is Vietnam's own version of a music lounge: a small room with tables, a live band, and a singer close enough that you hear the breath between the lines. In the centre of Ho Chi Minh City the format has survived where bigger venues went for screens and stage effects, and this night puts two women with very different voices on the same stage. The title, «E Là Không Thể Bỏ Em Cho Ai», reads roughly as «I just can't leave you to anyone else»; «E là không thể» is the running name of Chu Thuý Quỳnh's series of evenings.

   Chu Thuy Quynh (Chu Thuý Quỳnh), born in 1997, trained at Hanoi's Military University of Culture and Arts under People's Artist Ha Thuy (Hà Thủy). Her unusually low register — Vietnamese media call it a «genderless voice» — carried the hit «Xem như em chẳng may», whose line «Ngọt ngào đến mấy cũng tan thành mây» («however sweet it was, it all melts into cloud») became a social-media staple. She took the pop-category title at the Tài năng Âm nhạc Việt contest in 2021, appeared on The Heroes in 2023, and in August 2025 sang her first film soundtrack, «Mong một lần yêu thương», written by composer Dong Thien Duc (Đông Thiên Đức) for the horror film «Khế ước bán dâu».

   Nguyen Kieu Oanh (Nguyễn Kiều Oanh) came up through television contests: runner-up at Ngôi sao phương Nam in 2015 and at Be a star in 2017, then a contestant on The Voice Vietnam in 2018. Her mid-2025 EP «Tự em» made her a streaming fixture — «Có còn yêu em» has around 110 million views on TikTok and «Tự thành người đáng thương» about 100 million. The releases kept coming, but for nearly two years she barely appeared on stage or in the media for family reasons. In April 2026 she came back with «Lạc», a five-track EP, saying she wanted «to find myself again and go the long road with music».

   If you have met Vietnamese ballads through TikTok and want to hear them without the algorithm in between, this is the room for it: a live band, no effects to hide behind, and every register change audible from any table. Regulars will also catch the wordplay in the title, which echoes Kiều Oanh's song «Còn em anh bỏ cho ai»; her fan club calls itself «Ổ hoa hướng dương», the sunflower nest, after the flower she is known to love.

   Seating is at tables, and no price has been published for this night: the venue holds places through Facebook messages and by phone. Worth knowing before you go:

• — The lounge serves food and drinks; bringing your own is not allowed
• — Guests who order nothing pay a surcharge of 80,000 VND per person
• — Places are set by the venue's seating chart, in the order the bookings come in

   Besides the hotline listed above, tables are also booked on 0343428388 and at [email protected].

   Write to them early if you want a table near the stage — the room is a small one.