Nam Ky Khoi Nghia - Asialife HCMC

WITH Tata Young
Pop sensation Tata Young burst onto the Thai music scene in 1995 at the tender age of 15 with
her massively popular debut album Amita Tata Young. Since then, the international performer’s
life has been a whirlwind of record deals, concerts, acting and modeling gigs. Ginny Becker
caught up with Young last month at The Hi-Fi, where she was promoting her latest Englishlanguage
album, Ready for Love. Photo By Fred Wissink
What brings you to Vietnam?
Actually, I was invited for the
show tonight at The Hi-Fi, but
I had never visited this country
before and I always wanted to.
It’s the weirdest thing, because
my mother told me that this is
a country I would love to visit
because it’s so beautiful. She
was right. She passed away a
couple of years ago, but she said
this is one country where you
come and you’re gonna feel like,
“That building is European,”
and then you walk past two
more buildings and say, “That
building is Chinese.” It’s a lot of
countries oriented into one.
This being your first time in
Vietnam, you’ve already got
quite a few fans here.
I’m very surprised, actually. I’m
really surprised with how much
attention I have here and I really
appreciate it. I mean, I’ve heard
a lot from my friends who go to
Vietnam and then tell me, “You
know a lot of Vietnamese people
talk about you when we tell
them we come from Thailand.”
There is a lot of attention on me
and I like it!
You’ve said you learned your
big voice techniques from
people like Aretha Franklin
and Jennifer Hudson for your
single, “Ready for Love.” What
made you move in that direction?
I’ve always liked soul artists but
it’s not that I wanted to move
into that genre particularly. It’s
quite a good technique singingwise.
When you learn how to
sing R&B or when you sing
more soulfully, it’s much easier
on your voice professionally. So
that’s one thing I found about
this album. A lot of people actually
said I completely changed
from pop to a big band kind of
thing with “Ready for Love” but
it’s the only song on the album
that sounds like that. The rest is
still very much European dance
music with pop influences.
Last year you acted in the
movie, Bitter/Sweet. What was
that like?
I got to act with James Brolin—
Barbara Streisand’s husband! I
did, as you say in Hollywood,
“a couple of lines” as myself
with James Brolin. And he looks
awesome; he’s a great person.
Sometimes it’s not about how
much exposure you get but
the person you meet. For me,
I said yes to the movie for one
reason, which was James. We
sat and talked for hours and it
was great. He taught me a lot of
things. He was like, “Try saying
that line in this way.” So just the
experience of being with James
for a couple of hours made the
whole thing for me.
Has it opened doors for other
opportunities?
I really don’t know because I
haven’t been focused on the
movie-making part of my career.
I think that would be a better
question to ask my manager.
I would love to be in a Hollywood
movie but at the moment
Ready for Love has taken over my
life and I want to promote it. It’s
a really good album and I don’t
want to let it off the hook.
American gossip blogger Perez
Hilton has been writing about
how much he likes your music.
Do you have your sights set on
the U.S.?
I love him too! I have an international
website and I’m trying
to get hold of him personally
to send him CDs and all my
stuff because he’s been writing
so many good things about
me. So yeah, I’m very excited
about Perez. Actually I found
out about it through Facebook.
My friends were like, “You’re
on Perez Hilton,” and I said,
“Impossible, he wouldn’t wanna
write about me.”
I’ve read that you’re quite the
watch collector? Any truth to
that?
Yeah, I am. But I’m not wearing
one today. How sad! [laughs] I
had one on but it didn’t really
suit this outfit so I had to take
it off.
You know a lot about me.
We do our homework.
How did you know I’m a watch
collector?
The Internet tells all!
Everything! Freaky! It’s actually
how a guy would know
about you. He’d say, “Hey I
heard you like watches. I got
you a watch.” [laughing]
I know. It is creepy, but this
is strictly professional, I
promise! Back to your career,
though. You were thrust into
the limelight at 15 years old.
Do you feel the need to reinvent
yourself as time goes on?
That’s the toughest thing.
Yeah, you have to reinvent
yourself a lot because people
get bored of you. They always
want to see something
fresh and new. I mean, you
wouldn’t want to see an artist
who still looks the same 15
years later. People see me
with the same hair for three
weeks, so then I’ll change it. I
just cut it and my hair person
said, “Are you going to leave
us any hair to work on?” And
sometimes my friends say,
“I can’t even remember you
now.”
Do you find differences in
each country in how the
crowd responds to your performance?
Absolutely. Once you get the
Japanese people standing,
they don’t sit down anymore,
which is great. Once you get
the Thai people dancing, it’s
hard not to get them to dance
anymore. Or to listen to you
[laughs] because then they’re
having so much fun. But in
some countries people are
very shy. Recently I performed
in Indonesia and they were
telling me how difficult it was
gonna be to get the crowd
dancing, and it really was. But
once they were up and going
they were just having fun.
Have you ever had a crowd
that stayed in their seats for
the entire concert?
I have, actually, and I’m OK
with that. I’m very adjustable.
I’m like a chameleon. I
go on stage and I adapt to the
people. I’m there to perform
for them, not for them to perform
for me.
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