Music helps me forget the hustle and bustle of life

Leave the past behind to live more peacefully

Singer Siu Black: Music helps me forget the hustle and bustle of life 1

After the storms of life, Siu Black chose to return to her hometown, to her ex.

Why did Siu Black decide to remarry her ex-husband at the age of 56?

We realized that we still had a lot of feelings for each other. In middle age, husband and wife treat each other more out of "duty" than "love".

Actually, we had registered our marriage before but had not yet held a ceremony at the church. We had no specific plans because there was a mourning in the family. My sister had passed away, and my nephew, who was only 27 years old - the son of my younger brother had also just passed away.

We planned to have an intimate ceremony, inviting parishioners and friends, but not a big one. I planned to wear the traditional wedding dress of the Ba Na people, and vow my love to my husband in front of the superiors.

My children support this and are happy to see their parents together. We got married hoping to set an example for them to follow.

When you get back together, what sacrifices are you willing to make?

We have lived together for 3 years now. After the storm, we both understood each other better and looked at things more calmly. Each of us tried to understand the other a little bit so everything went smoothly.

Now I don't like noise, arguing, nagging each other back and forth, so I'd rather let go of the unhappy things from family to previous work to live more peacefully. I'd rather save the energy to nag each other for singing.

When I came back, I didn't have to sacrifice anything, he probably sacrificed more. Now my health is weaker than before so I can't do heavy work, he also doesn't let me do as much as before.

Every day he stays up late, wakes up early, cooks porridge, takes care of pigs, raises chickens and fish, and plays with his grandchildren in his free time. I have three grandchildren, I love them very much, just watching them play makes me happy! (laughs).

What color did your ex-husband bring to your life after the storms of life?

It is happiness and togetherness! He thinks about his wife, cares for her and looks after her more than before. He also doesn't ask about singing anymore, so I feel more comfortable doing my job.

On days when I came home tired from performing and fell asleep, he always woke me up to remind me to take my high blood pressure medication on time… Those small actions were enough to make me feel touched and happy.

My life is very peaceful now. My needs are also simple and ordinary. Food and life at home are very ordinary like many workers around me. The children always stand at the door waiting for their grandmother to return from long singing trips.

When I'm not singing, I spend time playing with my grandchildren, livestreaming to sell wild tea to make ends meet, and don't think about anything else. Now, all I need is money, and the love of my family is complete!

Pressure when not paying off debt

Singer Siu Black: Music helps me forget the hustle and bustle of life 2

Siu Black appeared on a recent TV show.

And your debt, have you paid it all off yet?

I still have a lot of pressure because I have not paid off all my debt to the bank because I borrowed money to build a house as well as invest in farming, raising pigs, chickens and fish.

After the business failure in 2013, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, causing me to fall into the abyss once again. Many times I cried silently and asked myself: "Why is my life so deadlocked?!".

During the epidemic, the pigs had nothing to eat because the whole village was locked down, and her husband and two children had to be quarantined because there was an F0 case at the vaccination site.

Quarantine still has to pay several hundred thousand every day. In my village, it's hard to earn 50,000 VND a day, let alone several hundred thousand every day.

I was alone at home, and had no money to thresh rice. I had to thresh it myself by hand. Everyone in the village had food and drink, so we shared what we had. When the pigs were big enough, they couldn’t be sold for a good price. I lost tens of millions of dong for some of them.

However, after the pandemic, everything became easier when I could sing and save every penny to pay off my debts.

Although my singing frequency is not much, about one or two shows a week, sometimes I don't have any invitations for a whole month. I don't mind going far away, as long as I sing wherever requested.

Music helps me forget the troubles in life as well as find joy and optimism when connecting with many people, I also worry less.

How is your health now?

I have many illnesses. But I am trying not to let my illness affect my work and life. Even though my health is weaker than before, when I go on stage, I am still passionate, I still sing well, and I can reach high notes (laughs).

I am now over 50kg, down 20kg from before. Because I have diabetes, I pay attention to my diet.

My stomach problem has also improved a lot since I switched to wild tea. I also jog and do yoga to maintain my voice and health.

I don’t wish for much other than good health, to live happily with my children and grandchildren and to sing for the audience. After going through storms and failures, I only regret my health. If I don’t have enough strength, I can’t do anything.

Siu will be back

Do you remember the old Siu Black?

I miss it too, but what can I do, life goes on and on. I feel okay, it's good, after all I've become stronger.

Before, I saw life in rosy colors, when I encountered an incident everything was black, but now it's just neutral (laughs).

I mean black in the truest sense! The day of the incident, I slammed the door shut, was alone, and changed all the curtains to black. I realized I hated noise even though before, I liked noisy places.

I even wanted to “go away”, disappear from this earth so that no one would know me. I was in crisis, stressed to that extent. Now I am different, I love life and fear death! (laughs loudly).

After all, will Siu return with her own music project? It's been 10 years since she released a new product, and is her audience still there?

Yes, it's been 10 years! I'm really touched that after all my ups and downs, the audience is still there, still loves and encourages me. That's the biggest motivation for me to try harder every day.

I am gradually coming back, although I rarely appear on TV, I still sing, participate in charity and interact with the audience. I always try to bring my singing to serve the audience who loves me.

As for the project, it's not that I've just thought about it now, but without money what can I do?

Now, I am being supported by two younger brothers to record a new song with a different singing style than before. I will definitely come back but as a Siu Black "in love again".

Thanks!

Siu Black was born in 1967, in a Ba Na ethnic family in Kon Tum. She is remembered for performing songs by musician Nguyen Cuong such as: "Em muon song ben anh tron doi", "Em hat thuong ai", "Ly ca phe Ban Me", "Doi mat Pleiku"...

The singer met Mr. Nguyen Duc Hung - a former volleyball player of Dak Lak province in 1987. After 3 years of dating, they got married and had 2 children together.

The two had conflicts and separated four times because Mr. Hung had an affair. In 2009, they officially went their separate ways. In 2013, she was involved in a scandal of billions of dong in debt. After the incident, Siu Black returned to live in her hometown. In 2019, the couple reunited and together took care of their family and children.

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