Hoàng Bách, Doãn Nho and the Vietnamese spirit in Proud Melodies

The national flag linked every story in the special September 2 episode of Proud Melodies, from memories of independence and the sacrifices of earlier generations to the determination to push beyond limits. The program closed with Tùng Dương singing, “If there is another life, I will still be Vietnamese.”

Composer Doãn Nho brought the deepest historical memory to the stage. Now 94, he recalled standing at Ba Đình Square on September 2, 1945, among the crowd gathered for independence. He was 12 at the time and saw Hồ Chí Minh for the first time from the right side of the flag platform.

“When I was standing there, looking up, I saw Uncle Hồ for the first time. When he asked, ‘Can my compatriots hear me clearly?’, there was no distance between the leader and the people,” Doãn Nho recalled. He said he had recently completed Không thể quên, a song about Nguyễn Thị Lệ’s 58-year wait for her faithful love, soldier Huỳnh Văn Quên. He described the work as a tribute to comrades who died for independence and freedom.

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When he asked, ‘Can my compatriots hear me clearly?’, there was no distance between the leader and the people.

Singer Hoàng Bách said performing at Ba Đình Square during the country’s 2025 celebrations had encouraged him to continue writing songs about Vietnam. The program also followed 76-year-old veteran Trần Văn Thanh, who rode his motorbike more than 300 kilometers from Nghệ An to Hanoi for National Day after traveling from his hometown to Ho Chi Minh City for the 50th anniversary of the liberation of southern Vietnam. He carried the national flag throughout the journeys and plans to take both Vietnamese and Lao flags on a future trip to Laos as a symbol of friendship.

Doctor and mountaineer Ngô Hải Sơn represented a Vietnam looking forward. He said the Vietnamese flag flies beside him whenever he reaches a summit. The broadcast presented these stories as different expressions of the same national spirit, rooted in memory but directed toward new achievements.

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If there is another life, I will still be Vietnamese.