Many prominent social critics have tied the rise of the scantily clad diva to the rise of MTV. Once music fans in the west began associating notes and tunes with images on the screen, the two became inseparable, and listeners, particularly young ones, weren’t satisfied listening to ugly singers. Since then, the competition has become not about voice and talent, but about who can push the sexiness envelope the furthest.

Ultra-sexiness has played a role in the popularity of Madonna, the Spice Girls, the PussyCat Dolls, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Korea’s Lee Hyori, and over the years, the videos and promotional posters for these artists just keep getting sexier.

With expanding Internet access and satellite TV, this competition for ultimate sexiness has hit Vietnam, with most singers choosing to spend far more time on alluring photo shoots and buying revealing clothes than actually singing or recording.

Unfortunately for the puritans, sex sells, at least in the short-term. But the trend didn’t happen overnight. Most of the country’s sensual singers first won respect as non-controversial pop singers before shedding their skin, and their clothes, to become the country’s “sexiest” singers.

‘Sexy is my trade name’

Vietnam’s earliest “Madonna-like” singer was Thu Minh, a trailblazer who’s gone as far as to say “Sexy is my trade name,” shocking traditional parents, community leaders and her fans alike.

Since winning the Television Singing Contest of Ho Chi Minh City Television in 1993, Minh had been a wholesome, family-approved signer of innocent love songs. But five years ago all that changed, and the lonely ballads transformed into sexy dance tunes.

She received a wave of opposition at first, but now she’s one of the country’s hottest singers, and as her concert stills and photos in the media reveal, she flaunts very openly what she says is one of the country’s hottest bodies.

Minh herself is not shaken by bloggers who call her a floozy.

She told Dan Tri (People’s Wisdom) online newspaper that she thought there was nothing wrong with an alluring body and sexy feature accompanying a beautiful voice.

“My huge fan base proves that I’m doing something right,” she said. “I believe in my features, my voice and even my dancing skills.”

Lolita

Singer-songwriter Mai Khoi is different than Minh.

For one, she writes her own music and two, she doesn’t deny leading a sensual personal life.

Dubbed the “Vietnamese Lolita” for her innocent face and sultry personality, 26-year-old, Khoi makes no secret of the more controversial aspects of her personality.

After causing a media storm by admitting she didn’t wear bras – as evinced by several photos on the Internet – Khoi was calm and cool.

“I have shapely-enough breasts to show off,” she told the media. “I think not wearing bra is far more comfortable.”

Later, she made headlines when she told a reporter that she didn’t want to marry because she didn’t want to have kids and that she would “die at 50.”

She then told Gia Dinh (Family) magazine that her honest and natural straight-talk made it easy for headlines to misrepresent her.

“Things like not wanting to have a baby now or thinking I might die young are not big problems,” she said. “This is not pessimism. It makes me live better each day.”

On top of all that, media hounds have circulated several unconfirmed rumors of Khoi having affairs with several different men, despite her young age. But in the face of harsh gossip, Khoi still tops the charts with her mild melodies and profound lyrics.

Performance-enhancement

One of the newest singers to be pinned as “overly-sexy” by perhaps overly-sensitive critics is Yen Trang, a former member of the hit teen group May Trang (White Cloud), which disbanded in 2007.

From the lovely and playfully image of an innocent young woman, Trang has now switched to sexy-mode with suggestive dances, low-cut tops and concerts full of gyrating hips. Her surprisingly big bust is rumored to have been the fruit of cosmetic surgery and Trang, 25, was bold enough not to deny the claim when asked about it by The gioi Van Hoa (World of Culture) magazine. She did, however, say that her appeal was due to “attraction and charm” not just to her scant clothing.

Naked ability

Though sexy photos and dances draw the curiosity of record buyers and first, the female singing field in Vietnam is so saturated with similar-looking sensual photo collections and imitated dance moves that many fans are now unimpressed. Most say that a sexy image will help sales in the short-term, but that the phenomenon is a fad that quickly fades away when the next singer hits the big-time.

Diem Tu, a young Vietnamese pop fan, says singer Le Kieu Nhu was the perfect example of this.

Nhu, 26, made headlines when she shed her previous nice girl image to do photo shoots that went from mildly provocative to downright erotic.

“Le Kieu Nhu is not famous for singing talent but for her ability to get naked,” says Tu, commenting about a series of half nude photos Nhu did for local magazine Phong Cach Song (Lifestyle) in 2007.

While the shoot drew unprecedented attention to Nhu from people who hadn’t heard of her before, “the move made her worse, not better in fans’ eyes,” says Tu.

Compiled by Kim