VietNamNet Bridge – The Performing Arts Agency has stated that the victory of “Chiec Khan Pieu” (Pieu Scarf) at the 2012 Favorite Song competition is completely fair and clear.

Tung Duong wins $50,000 award for a song

From the left: Songwriter Luu Thien Huong, singer Uyen Linh and singer Tung Duong.

According to Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nhan, Head of the agency’s Arts Management Department, on January 14, the agency received a written explanation with detailed documents and statistics about the number of messages voted for “Chiec Khan Pieu” and “Nguoi Hat Tinh Ca” (Love-song Singer) from the organizers of the 2012 Favorite Song program.

The Performing Arts Agency said that the win of “Chiec Khan Pieu” is transparent.

Nhan said the agency had sent a report on the case to the Minister of Culture Sports and Tourism.

However, according to the official, the agency asked the organizers of the Favorite Song competition to strictly control the voting system in order to avoid technical errors in 2013.

In addition, the agency said that if there is misunderstanding between the organizers and artists, the two parties should get together to settle the issues before making public them, which can harmful affect the program.

In a written explanation to the Performing Arts Agency, the organizers of the 2012 Favorite Song said that in the 2013 season, they would consider canceling the voting form by text messages or reducing the percentage of results based on text votes.

The organizers also confirmed that this program is not a competition but a poll for favorite songs through three voting forms: group interviews with a council of 120 members (60% of the voting results), text messages (20%) and the number of views on the program's website (20%).

New favorite song of the season to comment more closely in the way voted song.

According to the 2012 Favorite Song organizers, besides making public the voting statistics on the program’s website, the voting result is also checked by Deloitte, an international independent auditing firm.

"Chiec Khan Pieu," a song compiled by Doan Nho over 50 years ago, re-mixed by Nguyen Le and performed by Tung Duong, recently won the 2012 Song of the Year award, held by the national Vietnam Television (VTV,) with the huge bonus of $50,000 for the singer and $15,000 for the composer. This is the first time a singer received such a grand bonus for a song.

However, singer Uyen Linh and songwriter Luu Thien Huong sent a petition to the organizers and the Performing Arts Agency, complaining the organizers of unfair treatment resulting in the winning of “Chiec Khan Pieu.”

Uyen Linh and Thien Huong’s “Nguoi Hat Tinh Ca” (Love song singer) was the major rival of Tung Duong and Doan Nho for the “Song of the Year” award.

According to the petition, the organizers did not recognize a large number of the voting texts for “Nguoi Hat Tinh Ca,” resulting in the failure of this song in the competition with “Chiec Khan Pieu.”

They also complained that the organizers did not clearly explain about this to them.

Compiled by T. Van