Son Tung MTP - Discographic

[nickjonson]

1994–2012: Early life and career

Nguyễn Thanh Tùng was born on July 5, 1994, in Thái Bình, Thái Bình Province to Nguyễn Đức Thiện and Phạm Thị Thanh Bình. Bình was a traditional dancer in the city's official performing group and a performer in Thái Bình's chèo theatre. She met Thiện when he was working as a transport driver. After becoming pregnant with Tùng, Bình opened a barbershop at home which later became a clothing store. She also used to work as a bridal make-up artist. The singer described his early life as "peaceful." He has a younger brother, Nguyễn Việt Hoàng (b. 2000).

Tùng was two years old when the family discovered his singing ability. At age eight, he joined Thái Bình's Children's Arts and Culture Palace and learned to play the electronic keyboard. Tùng's mother plays guitar, and her husband plays seven instruments. However, they disapproved of their son's pursuit of a singing career and wanted him to focus on education; his father wanted him to study business in college. Despite this, Tùng frequently participated in singing shows and competitions at school. He attended Kỳ Bá Junior High School, Tây Sơn Junior High School and Lê Quý Đôn High School.

He and his classmates formed a group, Over Band, in 2009 and began writing and uploading songs on the independent-music website LadyKillah. Rap artist Hoàng Kê, one of the site's participants, invited the singer to join his Young Pilots hip hop group in 2010. Young Pilots recorded and performed across Thái Bình, successful in their hometown and online. At this time, Tùng adopted the stage name M-TP, which stands for "music," "talent" and "stylish". The name was bestowed by fellow LadyKillah member Mr. J.

Tùng originally wrote "Cơn mưa ngang qua" for Over Band and Young Pilots before deciding to record the song himself. He published it on the music website Zing MP3 in August 2011, and within two months of release, it had 1.7 million streams. "Cơn mưa ngang qua"'s success exceeded Tùng's expectations. It received the Song of the Month award from the music-chart TV program Favorite Song in October 2012, and a Zing Music Award for R&B Song of the Year. Two revised versions of the song were released in February 2012.

That year, the singer was admitted to the Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City with one of its highest entrance scores; he left the conservatory in June 2014, while filming Dandelion, due to scheduling conflicts and a desire to focus on his future career. In July 2012, he auditioned for Vietnam Idol's fourth season and was eliminated in the first round. He signed a five-year contract with Văn Production in November 2012 and changed his stage name from M-TP to Sơn Tùng M-TP after a suggestion came from the company's music director, Huy Tuan, and musician Ha Quang Minh.

2013–2015: Breakthrough, copyright controversies and Dandelion

Tùng released three singles between August and December 2013: "Nắng ấm xa dần", "Đừng về trễ" and "Em của ngày hôm qua". The latter launched Tùng's mainstream career and successfully gained over 100 million streams in three months on Zing MP3. Favorite Song made it its Song of the Month in February 2014. However, "Em của ngày hôm qua", "Cơn mưa ngang qua" and his other tracks were believed to be plagiarized. Asked about the allegations in 2012, the singer said that the claims were "completely false." In 2014, he admitted taking instrumentals online to compose lyrics and being "inspired" by these instrumentals to create his own, but denied being influenced by their vocalic melodies. In June 2014, Tuấn and Favorite Song's producers agreed to remove the singer's songs from the program; and later, the Green Wave Awards also removed "Em của ngày hôm qua" from that year's nominations list.

Before the controversy, Tùng wrote "Gió cuốn em đi", which was performed and released by Quốc Thiên in April 2014. The following month, Tùng contributed vocals to a charity cover of Tạ Quang Thắng's "Sống như những đóa hoa" and canceled a number of performances for surgery to remove a tumor from his leg. In that June, it was announced that the singer would star in Dandelion, a semi-biographical film based on the life of singer Wanbi Tuấn Anh. Quang Huy, founder and chief executive officer of WePro Entertainment, directed the film. Its soundtrack produced two successful singles by Tùng: "Chắc ai đó sẽ về" and "Không phải dạng vừa đâu".

"Chắc ai đó sẽ về" was compared to the instrumental portion of Jung Yong-hwa's song, "Because I Miss You". Jung's record label, FNC Entertainment, considered the similarities between the songs and found no copyright infringement. Despite this, Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism concluded that Tùng's song was "influenced" by Jung's production and banned the track (and film) until a new version was produced. Dandelion was subsequently released on December 31, 2014. The music video for "Không phải dạng vừa đâu" was also criticized. It featured look-alikes of musicians Phó Đức Phương and Dương Khắc Linh, both whom had lambasted Tùng's copyright controversies. Many publications considered Tùng's video "disrespectful" of the older musicians, which led WePro to issue an apology, stating that the idea originated with the video's director and was intended to represent the generation gap in music. Although the company withdrew the video and planned to film another one, the video was re-uploaded shortly afterwards.

Dandelion grossed ₫60 billion (US$2.8 million) at the box office and became one of the most profitable Vietnamese films of all time. Tùng's performance earned him a Golden Kite Prize (the Vietnamese equivalent of an Academy Award) for Young Prominent Actor, and "Chắc ai đó sẽ về" received a WeChoice Award for Song of the Year. In November 2014, the singer was suspended for six months by Văn Production for contract violations, including him not following the schedules and cancelling shows without permission. Tùng later terminated the contract, accusing the company of exploitation and not fulfilling its obligations (including vocal and choreography training). In January 2015, Văn Production sued the singer for wrongful termination and defamation. A legal adviser told VnExpress that the contract was a service-level agreement which did not address termination, and the singer might had the right to terminate. It was reported in early 2015 that Tùng had signed with WePro while still being managed by his former company.

2015–2017: The Remix and concerts

In January 2015, Tùng joined a team with disc jockey Trang Moon and music producer SlimV on the first season of the television competition series The Remix. His team competed against other notable acts, such as Đông Nhi and Tóc Tiên, to create the best remixes on the program. Tùng's performance each week received considerable media coverage but he quit after six episodes, citing health issues. Two songs he introduced on the show, "Thái Bình mồ hôi rơi" and "Khuôn mặt đáng thương", were released as singles the following February and March.