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Artist
Như Mai
12+ albums
vietnamese bolerovietnamese
about
Nhu Mai (1960- ) is a popular overseas Vietnamese singer who began her career during the early 1980s after resettling in the United States. She along with Ngoc Lan and Kieu Nga were the three primary divas who dominated the overseas Vietnamese music industry for much of the 1980s and well into the 1990s. At the age of 20, Nhu Mai had made the courageous decision to flee from the communist regime in her native Vietnam by boat in search of freedom. As fate would have it, the boat landed safely on Christmas Day of 1980 at a refugee camp in Thailand and she would arrive to the United States on Independence Day of 1981. Once resettled in Orange County, Southern California, Nhu Mai began singing with a local Vietnamese band at parties and weddings. Prior to that, Nhu Mai had never sung professionally back in her native homeland and her only experience with performing live on stage was singing for her local church choir. On one night sometime in 1983, she along with several of her friends decided to stop by Lang Van, which was then a popular Vietnamese cabaret located in Santa Ana. During open mic, per her friends' request Nhu Mai went on stage and sang a song. Her amazing performance of Thuyền Viễn Xứ written by Pham Duy that night took everybody in the audience by complete surprise. Tung Giang, who was leader of the accompanying band, along with Lan, the owner of the cabaret were so deeply enchanted with her singing voice that Nhu Mai was offered a job as a regular per
