Concert «Bằng Kiều»

   An evening of Vietnamese love songs a few steps from the sea: the stage goes up inside the ballroom of a resort on the Hồ Tràm coast, and the distance between the voice and the audience is shorter than at any stadium. At the centre of the programme is one of the best-loved high male voices in Vietnamese popular music.

   Bằng Kiều, full name Nguyễn Bằng Kiều, studied at the Hanoi Conservatory and came up through the bands Chìa Khóa Vàng, Hoa Sữa and Quả Dưa Hấu before going solo. What made his name is a tenor that Vietnamese music professionals describe as unusually rich in feeling.

   The programme is billed as «Bản tình ca dưới ánh hoàng kim», a love song under golden light, and it runs through the enduring Vietnamese love ballads. The high point of the night is a set with special guest, singer Triệu Hồng Ngọc, built on duets.

   The short version

• — The stage is The Grand Ballroom, a function room inside the resort
• — Special guest is singer Triệu Hồng Ngọc
• — Every seat category includes an hour of light buffet before the show and drinks throughout the programme
• — The three zones differ only by where you sit, the perks that come with them are identical

   The night suits you if you are already spending the weekend on the coast and want something on the plan besides the beach and the golf course, and equally if you have known this voice from recordings and want to hear it live. Indoors you catch what open-air sound systems usually lose.

   The address deserves a note of its own. Since 2025 the commune of Hồ Tràm has been part of Hồ Chí Minh City and the province of Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu no longer exists, so on the ticket and on the map this stretch of coast reads as Hồ Chí Minh City, even though it sits about 100 km south-east of the Saigon centre. The Grand Ballroom is a hall inside the resort complex rather than a standalone venue.

   Tickets are sold online only and sales close at midday on the day of the concert, so book ahead rather than counting on the door.

   An evening of great ballads by the sea is reason enough to stay in Hồ Tràm for the night.