Lệ Thu (1943- 2021) was one of the most famous singers in South Vietnam from the 1960s up until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Born in Hải Phòng as Bùi Thị Oanh, she and her mother would leave their home in the communist North for a new life in South Vietnam when she was just 10 years old. At age 16 while still in high school, she and a few friends decided to stop by Bồng Lai Nightclub in Saigon one night where she went up on stage to sing a song during open mic. The owner of Bồng Lai was so impressed with her performance that he immediately approached her with a job offer to sing regularly at his club. Concerned that her parents would object should they find out, she accepted the offer to sing nightly at Bồng Lai under the alias, Lệ Thu, which would become her permanent professional stage name. After 3 years, Lệ Thu left Bồng Lai to perform nightly at Tự Do Nightclub in Saigon in 1962. In the years that followed, Lệ Thu would collaborate with Jo Marcel and become one of the most popular headliners at major cabarets and nightclubs of Saigon such as Hòa Bình, Ritz and Queen Bee. Lệ Thu also recorded for numerous record labels in South Vietnam prior to 1975 such as Shotguns, Continental, Premier, Sơn Ca and Mây Hồng. Among her most popular signature songs include Ngậm ngùi, Đừng Bỏ Em Một Mình, Cho Tôi Được Một Lần, Nửa Hồn Thương Đau, Thu Hát Cho Người, Hạ Trắng and Chiếc Bóng Bên Đường, the theme song of a movie by the same name which had starred Kiếu Chinh, Kim Cương and Thành Được that had also featured a cameo appearance by Lệ Thu in 1973. Lệ Thu fled from Vietnam in 1979 by boat and spent 8 months at Pulau Bidong, a refugee camp in Malaysia, before permanently resettling in Southern California in 1980. In the United States, Lệ Thu has successfully managed to continue with her career as a Vietnamese singer recording for various overseas Vietnamese music production labels and performing at live shows for overseas Vietnamese audiences worldwide. During the mid 1980s, Lệ Thu recorded what would later become another of her signature tunes, a song written and composed by Trần Quảng Nam, Mười Năm Tình Cũ (A Ten Years Apart). Her particular rendition of the song had become extremely popular with overseas Vietnamese audiences and gained her a following of new fans of younger generations. Lệ Thu had made many appearances on both music video live shows series of Thúy Nga Paris and Asia Entertainment. On Thúy Nga's Paris By Night, Lệ Thu's most memorable performances have included her renditions Mái Tóc Dạ Hương written by Nguyễn Hiền, Nước Mắt Mùa Thu written by Phạm Duy and Hải Ngoại Thương Ca written by Nguyễn Văn Đông. And for Asia Entertainment, Lệ Thu has appeared on video performing songs like Hương Xưa written by Cung Tiến, Giấc Mơ Hồi Hương written by Vũ Thanh and duets with Khánh Ly and Diễm Liên of medleys of songs written by Trịnh Công Sơn, Nhìn Những Mùa Thu Đi and Nắng Thủy Tinh, and Trường Sa, Xin Còn Gọi Tên Nhau and Một Mai Em Đi, respectively. During the final decade of her life, Lệ Thu had made headlines with several triumphant return concert tours in Vietnam. In the winter at the end of the year 2020, it was reported that Lệ Thu had been stricken with Covid-19 and had to be hospitalized. Only 16 days later, she would succumb to the disease on January 15, 2021. Her eldest daughter, Trần Thị Cẩm Tú, would also lose her battle with cancer less than two months later taking her last breath on March 22, 2021. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/L%E1%BB%87+Thu">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.