{"id":380266,"date":"2025-12-31T18:47:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T18:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/380266\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T18:47:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T18:47:07","slug":"the-abba-song-thats-huge-in-vietnam-at-years-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/380266\/","title":{"rendered":"The ABBA song that’s huge in Vietnam at year’s end"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d never given much thought to ABBA<\/a>, but as a Vietnamese American who grew up in the \u201980s, I\u2019ve become increasingly curious about how the Swedish pop group intersects with the Viet experience.<\/p>\n

My introduction to ABBA came through Erasure, a British synth-pop duo <\/a>who had won me over by embracing visual dad jokes. During the chorus of their 1988 music video for \u201cA Little Respect,\u201d<\/a> composer Vince Clarke hands vocalist Andy Bell a tiny printout of the word \u201cRESPECT.\u201d (What? I was a kid and highly susceptible to punning.) By 1992, I was listening to their songs \u201cTake a Chance on Me,\u201d \u201cVoulez-Vous\u201d and \u201cLay All Your Love on Me,\u201d completely unaware at the time that these were ABBA covers.<\/p>\n

Today, Sabrina Carpenter <\/a>is responsible for introducing a new generation to the catchy, uptempo stylings of ABBA. Not only has she performed the group\u2019s songs at her concerts, but Carpenter has acknowledged their influence on her own music, which can be heard in tracks like \u201cGoodbye.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In Vietnam, the appreciation for ABBA has been going strong since the late 1970s. Much like the Beatles <\/a>in America, the ABBA discography has become part of the soundtrack of Vietnam, with older generations inculcating new ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew about ABBA already from childhood,\u201d content creator Chris Tran<\/a>, 40, told Salon. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Tran currently lives in Vietnam. \u201cFor us in Southern California . . . who grew up around Little Saigon, you go to the Little Saigon mall, and then they were selling bootleg CDs with all the oldies. And I being an older Millennial have a lot of cousins who brought over their musical tastes from Vietnam. So they brought over The Carpenters, The Eagles<\/a> and ABBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalist Uy\u00ean \u0110\u1ed7, who\u2019s in her late 20s, was born in Vietnam and had an opposite trajectory. Her parents exposed her to older Western artists like ABBA and the Bee Gees via YouTube playlists before she went to study abroad in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cI developed a liking of musicals, which is not very popular in Vietnam,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Mamma Mia!\u2019<\/a> was on Broadway first, and then it was adapted to screenplay. So that musical and movie consists of all the hits by ABBA. And then it just occurred to me that, \u2018Oh, wait, no one [here] listens to \u2018Happy New Year\u2019 and that\u2019s the No. 1 ABBA song in Vietnam by miles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy New Year\u201d in Vietnam<\/p>\n

I never even knew that ABBA had a song called \u201cHappy New Year,\u201d let alone that it figures into Vietnamese new year traditions. An informal survey of my Vietnamese friends and family in the United States yielded a similar lack of recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we as a country love this ABBA song a lot more than the others?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just doesn\u2019t get played in America,\u201d confirmed Tran. \u201cI don\u2019t think I knew about that song until I came to Vietnam. But when I heard it, I recognized ABBA and thought, \u2018Oh cool, they have a new year\u2019s song.\u2019 And then I find out that it\u2019s the tradition in Vietnam. It\u2019s iconic. It\u2019s everywhere, it\u2019s literally in the supermarket, it\u2019s in convenience stores, it\u2019s on TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

This culture shock played out a different way with the students Tran taught English to in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to actually ask the kids every year, \u2018What\u2019s the new year song?\u2019 And they\u2019re like, \u2018ABBA.\u2019 I would play \u2018Auld Lang Syne\u2019 and say, \u2018This is a traditional new year song in the West.\u2019 They\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, that doesn\u2019t sound fun or good.\u2019 They don\u2019t even believe me. They reject my expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m already hearing \u2018Happy New Year\u2019 now,\u201d said \u0110\u1ed7, who spoke to me in mid-December. \u201cNew Year\u2019s music in Vietnam is its own genre, kind of like Christmas music. You start hearing it way before the actual event \u2013 the Western New Year, Jan. 1<\/a> \u2013 and then we have [the Lunar New Year] T\u1ebft<\/a>, which is a month later. So you probably hear it for a month and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the song\u2019s ubiquity in Vietnam \u2013 playing in retail establishments, on news broadcasts and as the only English-language song on T\u1ebft playlists<\/a> \u2013 is what prompted \u0110\u1ed7 to delve deeper into the song\u2019s unusual popularity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, Vietnamese people love ABBA, and America loves ABBA \u2013 everyone loves ABBA,\u201d she said. \u201cBut why do we as a country love this ABBA song a lot more than the others? I mean, ABBA has a stellar discography, and \u2018Happy New Year\u2019 is not even in the Top 10, not even the Top 30 of their songs. But it\u2019s just such a staple in Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the love of Sweden
\n\"A<\/p>\n

(Keystone-France\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images) On the ground, a young woman during the student demonstration against the Vietnam War in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 1, 1968<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was doing all the research, I started questioning my own upbringing,\u201d She said. \u201cWhy ABBA? Why do my parents love ABBA? Why do all the adults listen to ABBA? I mean, apart from these specific Western bands, they just listen to all the other regular Vietnamese artists. So I did some digging.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with many of the stories involving the Western influence on contemporary Vietnamese culture, the origins lay in the Vietnam War<\/a> \u2013 better known as the American War or Resistance War Against America (Kh\u00e1ng chi\u1ebfn ch\u1ed1ng M\u1ef9) in Vietnam. During the war, Sweden was the first Western nation to recognize North Vietnam in 1969 and became a vocal ally, with a significant portion of Swedish citizens demonstrating for what they saw as Vietnamese liberation. Following the end of the war on April 30, 1975, embargoes and sanctions stymied Vietnam\u2019s economy and access to global culture \u2013\u00a0except for Sweden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a very limited amount of information regarding the topic; such is the reality of doing journalism in Vietnam,\u201d said \u0110\u1ed7. \u201cAll the sources were actually quite informal. I just had to try to string things together. I found out that people back in those days didn\u2019t really have a lot of options in terms of entertainment. Therefore ABBA is one of the few [bands accepted] because we as a country didn\u2019t have a lot of hostility against the Swedes because they were advocates against the Vietnam War.\u201d<\/p>\n

On April 30, for the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, the Embassy of Sweden of Hanoi posted the documentary \u201cVictory Vietnam\u201d on YouTube<\/a>. Directed by Bo \u00d6hl\u00e9n, the 30-minute film includes Swedish footage of \u201cthe lively and emotional atmosphere in Stockholm on April 30, 1975 \u2014 the day Saigon was liberated, marking the end of the Vietnam War.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A struggling, post-war Vietnam therefore embraced the Eurovision winners out of Sweden<\/a>, with their bright and flashy visuals and froth-light harmonies. In December 1980, the group released their \u201cSuper Trouper\u201d album, which included the track \u201cHappy New Year.\u201d How much of the lyrics were understood by the Vietnamese at the time is up for debate, although the title and upbeat sound may have contributed to its popularity as a new year\u2019s anthem.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Happy New Year\u2019 by ABBA is indeed a very popular song in Vietnam,\u201d intern Moa Malmstr\u00f6m at the Embassy of Sweden in Hanoi wrote in an email reply to Salon. \u201cIt is frequently played around the New Year period and has become something of a seasonal staple. For example, it is often performed on national television during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year (T\u1ebft) celebrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tale of two Vietnamese peoples
\n\"An<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of Hanh Nguyen) Airmail sent to my mother when she was at university<\/p>\n

\u0110\u1ed7 resides in Saigon, the country\u2019s former Southern capital that was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the war. Her understanding of how Western culture affected Vietnam after the war, however, had to be framed through the North and its capital, Hanoi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I wrote this article, I had to focus on the perspective more of the Northerners, because they were more affected by the cultural and economic and political embargo that was placed on Vietnam at the time,\u201d she said. \u201cI would say that Southerners were a lot more exposed to Western culture, obviously, but for the purpose of the article. I had to focus on the Hanoian perspective, because after the war, Vietnam\u2019s entertainment was more heavily controlled centrally from the North. So it had this ripple effect of Hanoian culture affecting Southern culture as the years went by.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Northern Vietnamese influence fostering a love of ABBA because of their Swedish allies, the Southern Vietnamese \u2013 many of whom comprise the Vietnamese diaspora \u2013 can be forgiven for not necessarily following suit. My mother certainly still carries strong feelings from the war, including a hatred for Jane Fonda, aka \u201cHanoi Jane\u201d<\/a> after she posed for a photo on a North Vietnamese anti-artillery gun.<\/p>\n

Besides, my mother had already established distinctly different cultural tastes due to exposure to other nations long before the war ended. In the late 1960s, she had attended a Texas university on scholarship, and during the war, she and my father had worked in Japan. After Saigon fell, they made Texas their new home.<\/p>\n

When I texted my mother to ask if she knew about \u201cHappy New Year\u201d being popular in Vietnam after the war, she responded, \u201cAfter 1975 we left Japan [and] went straight to the U.S. By then we were in a mourning state of mind and worried about [a] dark future, so had no connection with Vietnam for quite a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like twins separated at birth, the Vietnamese nationals\u2019 and the Vietnamese Americans\u2019 parallel yet separate developments can be encapsulated in various cultural artifacts. The red flag with central yellow star stayed official in the home country, while the Southern yellow flag with three red stripes<\/a> became a refugee reminder in the United States. Language in Vietnam continued to evolve, while the Vietnamese my mother speaks is a time capsule from the mid-1970s. While Vietnam embraced Western artists like ABBA, Modern Talking and Boney M after the war, my mother was listening to The Beatles, a band whose concert she had attended in her university days. And when \u201cHappy New Year\u201d took hold in Vietnam, my family had learned \u201cAuld Lang Syne\u201d in the West.<\/p>\n

A bittersweet New Year\u2019s message<\/p>\n

\u0110\u1ed7 further theorizes that the Vietnamese adopted \u201cHappy New Year\u201d because at the time, they were unaware of the song\u2019s true meaning, not understanding the English lyrics. A close reading reveals that the song is, in fact, a major bummer.<\/p>\n

Happy New Year, Happy New Year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbor is a friend
Happy New Year, Happy New Year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don\u2019t, we might as well lay down and die
You and I . . .<\/p>\n

Reportedly, the working title for the song was \u201cDaddy Don\u2019t Get Drunk on Christmas Day,\u201d and in recent years, some have suggested that Vietnam abandon this song because of its depressing nihilism.<\/p>\n

Seems to me now
That the dreams we had before
Are all dead, nothing more
Than confetti on the floor<\/p>\n

In its defense, today the lyrics may accurately reflect how many of us feel defeated or at least exhausted by a relentlessly challenging year. With the Vietnam War 50th anniversary this year, I\u2019ve been reflecting on my life as a Vietnamese American<\/a> in Southern California, especially following the wildfires in January <\/a>and the ongoing ICE raids<\/a> in which numerous immigrants, including Asians, have been detained and deported.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I listen to ABBA\u2019s \u2018Happy New Year\u2019 I feel this sense of nostalgia and calm and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other side of the world, Tran has seen the results of ICE\u2019s actions firsthand. In September he greeted his uncle who had been deported <\/a>without any possessions to provide him with a backpack of essentials, courtesy of a grassroots mutual aid project, the Ba L\u00f4 Project<\/a>. And more recently, Vietnam has been experiencing devastating floods, which mobilized Tran, who spoke to me from Haiphong during a break from his advocacy work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did two months of typhoon disaster relief for five provinces here,\u201d he said. \u201cWe raised $140,000 and just wrapped up. So I\u2019m not home yet, and I\u2019m exhausted, but it was good work. It was a really challenging year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, \u0110\u1ed7 doesn\u2019t want to abandon \u201cHappy New Year\u201d either. To her, it feels more poignant than ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are suggesting we move away ABBA\u2019s \u2018Happy New Year\u2019 and move toward more local T\u1ebft music,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t really relate to any of these songs because T\u1ebft as a holiday in Vietnam is meant to represent prosperity and happiness. You\u2019re expected to welcome the new year with open arms; I don\u2019t feel that. I feel a lot of anxiety about the future, especially with how things are going climate-wise and politically.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so when I listen to ABBA\u2019s \u2018Happy New Year\u2019 I feel this sense of nostalgia and calm and understanding. It\u2019s a very sad song, obviously, but it feels comforting to know that people 45 years ago felt the same anxiety as I do now. It\u2019s just kind of human nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s the idea that misery loves company or that everyone endures and overcomes some sort of hardship, a glimmer of hope exists in a future that is unwritten. This is even hinted at in \u201cHappy New Year\u201d:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the end of a decade
In another 10 years time
Who can say what we\u2019ll find
What lies waiting down the line
In the end of \u201989<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to 2026,\u201d said Tran. \u201cHere, everyone\u2019s talking about how it\u2019s the Year of the Snake. We\u2019re shedding our skin, and then the next year is the year of renewal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n

about the straddling of Western and Asian culture<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n