My favorite Vietnamese music artist is Den Vau. He started out with family’s financial hardship, had to drop highschool, then worked as a waste collector. I don’t know what else the media doesn’t know about him, but I am pretty sure such a difficult childhood taught him to be extremely humble and empathetic with underprivileged people. Now, he is one of the most well-known, thus well-paid, artist in the country. However, his music lyrics and real-life actions are always authentically kind. I can always feel he does charity simply because he loves the people and deeply understands their difficulty, instead of wanting more attention.

Den Vau riding a bike to the northern highlands of Vietnam

Den Vau riding a bike to the northern highlands of Vietnam. Image from Nau An Cho Em MV on Youtube.

Recently, he released Nau an cho em, a beautiful rap/musical MV about the kids in the remote northen part of Vietnam. Especially, the whole revenue of the MV on all streaming platforms will be donated to those kids. I’m speechless… As busy and famous as him, he chose to go to such a far and inconvenient place. He donates time, money, and heart to the underprivileged kids. What a soul…

It would be nice for me to meet him in person and tell him I much I learned from him. Den Vau’s music and Lex Fridman’s podcast are the two primary sources of knowlege that raised me through my college life and beyond. He teaches me to be a good person. See beauty in the hidden corners of the world. He reminds me of the absurdity of the rat races. I want to be someone like him in the future and help Vietnam within my expertise – Artificial Intelligence.

Some other songs from Den: Di Trong Mua He, Loi Nho, Tron Tim.