Thúy Nga - Bẽ Bàng / Cô Gái Quê

Biography

Thúy Nga Entertainment, also simply known as Thúy Nga or Paris By Night (PBN), is a Vietnamese-American entertainment company with roots in Vietnam starting in 1963 by Tô Văn Lai, then a secondary school teacher, when he bought over a record store, which he would rename after his wife – Thúy Nga. It wasn’t until later when he started having dreams of starting a record label.

Tô Văn Lai later moved with his family to Paris, France due to the war. After having to start over, he saved up and restarted the dream he began back in Vietnam. Thus, in 1984, he started the production shows the company is now famous for. The very first episode, which he nicknamed “Paris by Night”, initially starred other Vietnamese immigrants who also happened to be singers, and only held 11 songs, all of which were traditional Vietnamese folk music.

However, the company would later move its operations to Orange County, California – a county which boasts the largest Vietnamese community in the United States – in the late 1980s, due to popular demand of the Vietnamese community living there, as well as the fact a majority of it’s stars were and still are based there.

The company’s shows were solely filmed, produced, and sold via analog, then VHS, until the move to DVD, and later, with the rise of piracy, through online websites such as YouTube.

Although the original hosts of the show are widely unknown, the show has mainly been hosted by Nguyễn Cao Kỳ Duyên and Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn; Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn would later announce his retirement in 2022 after more than 30 years. Since the first show, the company has produced over 130 episodes as of 2022.

Aside from the shows, which were held largely in hotel showrooms worldwide, the company also continues to double as a recording company, helping to record music for all of the artists housed under them. The company has housed many household names such as Minh Tuyết, Nguyễn Hưng, Lynda Trang Đài, Tóc Tiên, Như Quỳnh, Phi Nhung, Manh Quynh, Thanh Bùi, Thanh Hà, Hoàng Oanh, Tuấn Ngọc and many more and were lamented as a powerhouse for modern V-pop as well as preserving traditional Vietnamese folk music.

Due to the company’s long history, they have cemented itself to be a household name among many Vietnamese, both abroad and in Vietnam, and is liked among young and old. As of today, PBN is still owned by the Tô family, as his daughter – Tô Ngọc Thủy (Marie Tô) – and son-in-law still run the company together as CEOs.