thủy originally wanted to be a doctor. “Then I went to UC Santa Barbara and I was like, ‘I don’t think I have the grades,’” she says. She pivoted to becoming a physician’s assistant, but as it turns out, that wasn’t right either. In 2015, the Vietnamese-American singer released her first song, “Hands on Me.” When it began to gain traction, she quit her job and moved to Los Angeles — though her parents didn’t realize she’d made a career change until they read about it in the local paper.
TikTok fame came for thủy when her 2017 song “All Night Long” had a resurgence on the app in 2020. Her sultry music has since led to a headlining tour in North America and Europe, but she considers her “big break” to be bookingthis year. “When I saw my name on the lineup, I was like, ‘Did I kind of do something?’” She’s already feeling the nerves. “I think I’ll maybe throw up before I get onstage.” (Spoiler alert: She didn’t —Her forever pop idol? “Britney Spears,” she says with no hesitation.
My parents, probably. They're immigrants from Vietnam. They don't know anything about the music industry or even media, entertainment, anything like that. They immigrated here and all they've known is, "My kids have to go to school to get a degree so they can take care of us and our family back in Vietnam." So I always felt a lot of pressure to do that for them. But I've always wanted to sing, and it was something I hid for a really long time.
It’s up. I literally faked it so much that I've now gotten to a point where I'm confident. If you start thinking that you're like, "Maybe I'm not good enough," or when you stay in that mindset, then you kind of start believing it too. Then you start not maybe taking opportunities or taking risks because you're like, "It's not worth it.