Khanh Ly postpones show in Vietnam, again, over husband’s death

A seasoned expat Vietnamese singer has postponed her live show in southern Vietnam – once again – following her husband’s death.

Khanh Ly, a beloved singer who lives in the U.S., on Thursday sent a letter to local media, announcing the postponement of her upcoming show called “Khanh Ly Live Concert in Binh Duong.”

The concert was scheduled to take place next Friday at the Convention and Exhibition Center, located in the heart of the New Binh Duong City, the namesake province’s new administrative center, a 1.5-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City.

The 70-year-old artist said she would not be able to sing in the show as she is still mourning the death of her dearly loved husband.

Ly’s husband, Nguyen Hoang Doan, passed away at 71 on Wednesday last week in California.

The postponement came as no surprise to many fans, as they had speculated that the singer, who is a highly sentimental woman, is very unlikely to stick to the plan.

The show may be organized in March this year, sources said.

The much-awaited concert was already postponed in October 2014.

The veteran singer held two live shows in Hanoi and the central city of Da Nang on August 2 and 8, 2014, respectively.

Right before the Hanoi show, Vietnamese composer Pho Duc Phuong, director of the Vietnam Center for Protection of Music Copyright (VCPMC), personally went to the performing venue and demanded payments from the organizer for the right to use several songs by late composer Trinh Cong Son in the musical event.

According to Phuong, the concert organizer did not sign any contract with the center regarding the copyrights of the songs even though the VCPMC had sent a document on the issue to them 10 days before the show.

A representative of the show organizer, Dong Dao Entertainment Company, admitted in early August that the company had difficulty paying for the song copyrights as tickets did not sell as well as they had expected.

The issue ended with a brief meeting between the two sides only minutes before the concert began in the capital city, and Dong Dao Entertainment Company finally agreed to pay the song copyright fees.

The royalty hassle led to the Binh Duong show being called off.

Ly began her singing career in Vietnam in 1962.

Five years later, she met Trinh Cong Son, whose songs helped turn her into a legend in the local music area for many following years.

Her fame remains intact during her years living abroad. Ly left Vietnam for the U.S. in 1975 when the country was reunified following the fall of the former Saigon regime.

In 2012, Ly received a license from the Department of Performing Arts under the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, allowing her to sing in Vietnam for the first time after nearly four decades.

Trinh Cong Son was a composer, musician, and songwriter widely considered one of the three salient figures of modern Vietnamese music, along with Pham Duy and Van Cao.

Son passed away in 2001 at the age of 62.

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