Why Mai Khoi, Vietnam’s Lady Gaga, performs in secret in her country
She is often dubbed a Vietnamese version of “Pussy Riot” or Lady Gaga because of her activism and provocative style
The audience sits in the tiny theatre. A spotlight opens slowly, exposing the outline of four men on stage tapping bamboo to mimic the sound of rain. A young woman dressed in white emerges from the background and begins to sing.
She is Do Nguyen Mai Khoi, pop star, blackballed political candidate, democracy advocate – and the recipient this year of the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent, which recognises artists who use innovative means to push back against authoritarianism.
In Vietnam, where the Communist Party rules with an iron fist, Mai Khoi has used lyrics to combine themes of resistance and protest.
That is enough to make her an enemy of the state in the eyes of the country’s leadership, which keeps a tight lid on dissent at home even as it reaches out to the West and others as a key economic partner in the region.
“I began to write about the feelings of artists and people who have to work under the censorship system,” she said.
“People don’t feel free when their work is censored.”