20 years of selecting talents for Cai Luong and Vong Co

In just a short while, 'Golden Bell of Southern Folk Songs' organized by HTV has gone through 20 seasons, starting from 2006 - 2025, there have been 20 times of 'panning for gold' to select talents for Southern Folk Songs.

The Golden Bell of Traditional Music is truly a prestigious award, attracting public attention and the enthusiasm of young people engaging in traditional art.

"Panning for sand" and "finding a lot of gold"

If the Tran Huu Trang award is for professional actors, then the Golden Rice Award and The Golden Bell of Southern Opera for amateurs has become an important competition for decades. Contestants come from all walks of life, including students, farmers, workers, and other professions... They love Southern Opera, so outside of school and work, they practice singing, or join amateur music groups, or even if they are studying at a formal theater school, they are not yet considered professional, just barely on the threshold of art. They compete with the hope that if they do not win a prize, they will learn many useful things.

Indeed, during the organization of the competition, there was a coaching team consisting of veteran artists who closely followed the contestants, meticulously taking care of each voice, each dance, each body shape... and the contestants clearly improved through each round. The competition rules became increasingly difficult, requiring not only singing with a good voice but also performing excerpts from traditional and social opera, which was not at all simple for those who had not attended school, especially when the training time was only exactly one week after the results of the next round were known. Yet the young people overcame spectacularly, and have now become a very promising successor team of cai luong.

Meritorious Artist Ngoc Doi and contestant Thuy Duong in the excerpt of Queen Thuong Duong

PHOTO: HK

For example, Vo Minh Lam, who has long been the most outstanding handsome actor, was awarded the title of Meritorious Artist. Minh Truong is also a bright star. And Ngoc Doi, Thu Van, Vo Thanh Phe, Bui Trung Dang, Kim Luan, Nguyen Van Khoi, Thanh Toan, Nhu Y, Le Hoang Nghi... are all admired by the audience. Many "golden bells, silver bells, bronze bells" officially joined Tran Huu Trang Theater, many of them ran shows until they were tired... In particular, many of them continued to study at a higher level, entered a regular theater school, took an acting or directing course, and even went straight to graduate school. Clearly, Golden Bell of Southern Opera has made great contributions in finding and training a team of successors for Cai Luong.

The 2025 season is full of surprises and… regrets

In 2025, there was a competition that made the audience gasp in admiration. Objectively speaking, this year no singer stood out as much as in previous seasons, only at a fair level. The most regrettable thing was that the singers who had a little hope fell out in the first rounds due to technical errors such as forgetting lyrics or being out of tune.

Tan Dat and Phu Yen are two young men with bright looks and warm, rich, sweet, and emotional voices compared to the other contestants. However, they had technical errors so they could not enter the final ranking round. Everyone had to accept the competition's rules. However, Tan Dat still won the prize from the Press Jury (20 million VND) because they saw that he had the potential to become a leading actor. Technical errors can be fixed later, but a beautiful voice is very valuable. And surprisingly, this year many contestants had technical errors, showing that their mentality was not stable.

From left to right, Ha Nhu won the Silver Bell, Thuy Duong won the Golden Bell, Quan Tri won the Bronze Bell in the 2025 Golden Bell season

PHOTO: HK

The first prize of the Golden Bell awarded to contestant Thuy Duong (150 million VND) also surprised the audience. In the first round, Thuy Duong's singing was a bit behind the others, but in the following rounds, she broke through. Thuy Duong's advantage was being chosen for suitable characters, such as Thanh ( The Heart of the Sea ), Thuong Duong Queen (excerpt of the same name), both tragic and poisonous, with complex psychology, giving her room for multi-dimensional singing.

The second prize of the Silver Bell was awarded to Ha Nhu (80 million VND), 20 years old, a lovely face, a clear voice with a bit of rusticity, the prospect of becoming a cute leading actress. It's a pity, perhaps because she was too tired, her voice was weak in some places, and because she had no experience performing, she "left her role" too early in some places. But Ha Nhu still won 2 more prizes: Most favorite by the audience, and the prize for Contestant with activities spreading community responsibility because this year the Organizing Committee allowed contestants to participate in charity work.

The third prize of the Bronze Bell was awarded to Quan Tri (50 million VND), only 16 years old. He has a good appearance and a good voice, but he has not yet mastered his breath, often singing too high, losing all emotion. However, the character Tran Binh Trong in the final excerpt was praised because he overcame a surprising difficulty.

What people realized after the final night, according to People's Artist Phuong Loan: "Cai luong has many young talents, the problem is finding the right 'good teacher' to teach the profession so that they can go far. The teacher will recognize each student's strengths and weaknesses and make adjustments."

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/20-nam-chon-nhan-tai-cho-cai-luong-vong-co-185250930123556982.htm