This is the first festival of its kind held in Vietnam. It will attract famous singers from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam and four guest teams from the Guangxi Television and Broadcast Station and Beijing (China), South Korea and Bulgaria.

Each country will send 1-4 singers to the festival, who will have to sing a pop song in English and a folk song in their language.

On October 16, singers will perform folk songs. On the second night, October 18, they will sing pop songs. October 19 will be the awards ceremony, during which the best items will be performed again. On October 20, regional singers will meet with contestants of the Television Star and School Voice singing contests of Vietnam.

All shows will be held at the HCM City Television Theatre and the awards ceremony will take place at the Hoa Binh Theatre.

Vietnam’s representatives at this festival include Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Honoured Artist Hong Ngat, Dam Vinh Hung and Minh Quan.

Notable, the festival will see many young singers, such as Pimnara Varahajirakul, 14, from Thailand, and Putri Norizah Binti Ibnor Riza, 17, from Brunei.

The festival will have two juries, an honourable and a professional jury. The juries will present gold, silver and bronze medals to the best singers in each of the two genres (pop and folk music).

The ASEAN Golden Voice 2008 is initiated by the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) and co-organised by the HCM City Television Station, the Radio Voice of Vietnam and Cat Tien Sa Company.

http://vietnambefriend.blogspot.com/2008/10/vietnam-to-host-asean-golden-voice-2008.html