Story / Jennalynn Fung
Photographs / Michelle Sy
Quite a bit has modified for Thuy since her first interview with LADYGUNN. In April 2024, she grew to become the primary Vietnamese-American artist to carry out at Coachella. In Could 2024, she carried out on the 88rising Head within the Clouds (HITC) NY music competition. And on October 30th, she launched into her second world tour for her third venture, wings.
Thuy, too, has modified. She’s change into extra comfy within the limelight, even asking for consideration at occasions. For one, she’s dyed her hair a vivid, sherbert pink; she explains, “Anytime you enter a brand new period, whenever you’re engaged on a brand new venture [wings], you want to vary it up – to form of go together with the theme of the following period in your life.”
Within the daylight, her hair appears prefer it’s on hearth. She’s shed her shyness like a butterfly emerges from their chrysalis, spreading their wings. She’s right here to take up the heat, notably from her followers, who’ve extra simply acknowledged her by way of her hair coloration alone. “I used to be on Sundown in Los Angeles and I had pink hair. Any individual yelled by way of the window: ‘Thuy, I really like your music!’ I used to be identical to, ‘what? That’s so loopy.’ So now, I’m gonna preserve the hair for a bit bit since you might spot me out. There’s like a stage of confidence that I really feel like I’m unlocking, simply from altering my hair coloration.”
The final time she had sat down with LADYGUNN, she had revealed she was simply starting to get extra in contact together with her female aspect – she was determining the right way to truly really feel attractive. A yr later, she’s on her approach to turning into an aphroditic principal pop-girlie. saying, “It is a totally different Thuy that I really feel like has all the time been inside me.” Her music video for “don’t miss me an excessive amount of” was her alternative to carry it out of herself.
The music video begins with a darkish, puddle-filled bunker the place Thuy dons a hood earlier than strolling by a pair making out. The dance itself is sensual and sexual – everyone seems to be carrying both leather-based or sheer material on high of sweaty pores and skin. Lights flash, our bodies transfer with the music, and the digital camera’s body price hastens after which lags. A mermaid in a tank mirrors Thuy’s actions, however supplies a refuge from Thuy’s intense seductive stares, asking viewers to find out who the true siren is. It’s in contrast to any of the movies Thuy has put out earlier than, that are usually vivid coloured and enjoyable, typically with a cameo from her canine, Oliver.
“I really feel like I’m all the time making an attempt to push myself additional, particularly visually. I’m all the time making an attempt to get out of one thing that feels comfy. Snug for me is like eager to be in sweats and do nothing, ? However I really like having the ability to be in love with my physique, as a result of I feel that was all the time one thing that I struggled with,” she says. When speaking about her “Hair Down” music video, which was the primary single to be launched from the brand new album, Thuy giggles at how she had opted to put on a fuzzy thong.
Thuy mentions that she usually felt like she wasn’t skinny sufficient or the “good” physique sort. The songstress is of brief, however curvy stature; but her hyper female type was one thing she didn’t see represented within the media as lovely. Rising up, although, she started to comprehend there was no such factor as good. Extra lately, she’s felt constructive about her personal physique, and she or he’s channeled that love in wings.
Her most streamed track on this work stays “hair down,” an anthem of self love and empowerment.
The lyrics in her album additionally showcase her increasing perspective on love and want. Nonetheless, it’s bolder than ever, with the dialogue of sexual availability being way more express. Combining understanding what she desires with additionally understanding what she deserves, Thuy’s second work is clearly dedicated to the divine female.
In “whatchu gotta say,” she writes “You’ve been staring in my course all evening / Know simply what you want, would possibly get it from me // I’m the life, I’m the lifetime of the occasion.”
Thuy’s eagerness comes by way of in observe 6, titled “shy boy,” the place she sings coaxing-ly to her lover “Keep in mind the nights we stayed up speaking? / We each wished we have been lip-locking / Had me dripping moist, want a brand new faucet.” There’s “roleplay,” which doesn’t mince any phrases, and is at occasions painfully apparent the lengths she’ll go to please her companion, and most significantly herself. “D8” takes the literal to a complete new notch— at one level she is simply naming totally different sorts of dates somebody can take her on. The lyrics go on and on, even in unsuspecting songs like “fairy godmother” and “cloud 11.”
The depth and soulfulness of her music stay, although. In “crash and burn,” which sonically harks again to her older and hottest work, she sings “It’s deeper than you up on my physique / I’m tryna really feel what my coronary heart needs / I’m up for days, I misplaced my thoughts / Ten million methods we crossed the road.” Thuy’s phrases of knowledge on understanding when to cease additionally demonstrates her prioritization of psychological well being.
On her Instagram story the day earlier than her efficiency at HITC, she posted “everybody has lows, it’s going to be okay as a result of I’ve been by way of them.” Thuy describes these moments as temp checks to grasp the place all of her followers are at the moment. “I like bonding over that form of factor. Regardless that I could also be feeling good proper now, different individuals are coping with their very own shit and that’s legitimate. Our emotions are legitimate. Issues are going to be okay. If you need to gap up in your room and decay away and never discuss to anybody for nevertheless lengthy, that’s tremendous. I’ve finished that so many occasions. I nonetheless try this infrequently as a result of it’s vital to only be alone and course of your individual emotions.”
With Coachella and her rising follower base, she divulges that individuals usually suppose her life is ideal. However she states blatantly that’s not true in any respect:. “I do nothing outdoors of this [performance.] I’m so grateful to be right here, like ‘what the hell? That is your job. You get to carry out,’ and that’s a lot enjoyable for me. I really like doing that, I really like connecting with folks. However on the finish of the day, I’m only a woman at house carrying sweats, hanging together with her canine, happening hikes, doing scorching yoga, doing all this stuff to assist my psychological area.” Sports activities are like remedy for her and have made her really feel extra comfy in her personal pores and skin.
In highschool, she used to wrestle (and she or he shared footage of those in her music video for “cloud 11”). At first of the yr, she had been extra into pickleball. “Now, my new factor is scorching yoga,” she smiles indulgently. “I simply find it irresistible, prefer it’s been so good for my psychological state.”
She began doing scorching yoga in preparation for her Coachella efficiency. “My choreographer was like, ‘I feel it’d be actually good so that you can begin scorching yoga.’ I used to be form of scared as a result of I feel going into any new territory is all the time scary. However I used to be like, ‘okay I feel I’m going to develop from this. And Coachella is actually scorching, so the warmth will assist me. I’m getting ready myself.’”
Thuy admits she’s been persevering with it even after Coachella, as a result of it was her time to sweat and be in tune together with her physique. She recommends everybody strive it as a result of it’s a “you factor. You do that by your self. You’re taking what you possibly can. It’s meditative for me. Like, when you get to a sure state of simply being so exhausted from the warmth, and then you definitely’re on this pose, you’re holding it, and the instructors are guiding you thru all of it. It’s such as you’re trusting in your self, like, ‘you are able to do it.’ It helps lots with psychological toughness and steadiness.”
She nonetheless struggles with every class she takes, however she feels that her steadiness has improved general. “For those who stay a life-style that’s fast-paced and also you want a while to decelerate, I might advocate scorching yoga. It is best to strive it, strive every thing.”
Thuy takes her personal recommendation. In her quest to change into a full-on performer, one thing she had made a objective a yr in the past, she’s added extra intense dance choreos into her stay reveals. Though she’s doubled the quantity of effort she places into her performances, she shares humbly that she didn’t anticipate there to be so many individuals coming to take heed to her. Particularly being that this was her second in a row Head within the Clouds efficiency. She says, “At each present that I’ve, [after] I end, I’m all the time like “okay, are folks gonna wish to come see me once more?’”
Thuy recollects being shocked by the turnout for her efficiency, describing the overwhelming assist she felt. “It’s all the time a shock to me once I see how many individuals confirmed up,” she says. “Individuals have been spilling out of the tent, and it was loopy. Proper up till I obtained on stage, I requested my staff member, ‘Hey, are there folks on the market?’ and he was like, ‘Persons are beginning to present up.’ And I used to be like, ‘Which means nobody’s there.’” She explains that she had saved her expectations low, so the sight of the packed crowd was a robust second. “Once I hopped on stage and I noticed how many individuals have been there, I used to be like, ‘Wow. My neighborhood actually confirmed up for me.’ I’m grateful.”
The singer even journeyed to Vietnam together with her dad for a present. “Doing worldwide stuff is all the time aggravating,” she prefaced. “Particularly touring. However I used to be actually appreciative as soon as he was already there. Like, ‘that is actually cool to share this second with my dad.’” Her gratitude solely deepened when her dad introduced her uncles she hasn’t seen since she was 15. “They stay within the village space of Vietnam, within the countryside. For them to come back into the town to look at me carry out, that was actually cool.”
With extra world excursions, collaborations, and releases beneath her belt, Thuy declares that she’s been feeling much less nervous nowadays. Though the nerves aren’t utterly gone, she says she’s realized to give attention to having enjoyable. “I’m not nervous to show who I’m to folks,” she explains. “I am going on stage like, ‘That’s me. I’m going to go up there and do my factor. And if it’s not for you, it’s not for you.’ I feel I finished caring.”
“Stay your life as if every thing is rigged in your favor” was a quote her teacher at her yoga class had shared, and phrases she had saved near her after listening to. Thuy believed she had all the time lived her life this fashion, even when she wasn’t explicitly conscious of it. However listening to these phrases had validated every thing she had been working in the direction of.
She even referenced it on the staff’s journey to New York from the west coast. They have been virtually late to catch their flight, however she informed herself: “it’s tremendous, every thing’s going to work out.” She admitted that though they have been chopping it shut, every thing all the time works out. “You roll with the punches, and I feel that’s the place you possibly can get pleasure from life a bit bit extra – since you’re not hung up on issues which might be out of your management,” she remarked.
What was in management, although, was the manufacturing of her songs on wings. She stays true to her R&B roots with songs like “whatchu gotta say” ft. Blxst, “crash & burn” and her title observe: “wings” – -as nicely as her in style singles “hair down” and “cloud 11.” But, Thuy intentionally modifications issues up with songs “fairy godmother” and “D8”. These really feel influenced by the hyper-pop sound pioneered by Charli xcx, and is equally harking back to fellow Bay Space artist, Lolo Zouai’s second album: PLAYGIRL, particularly the observe “VHS.”
Even songs like “shy boy” and “roleplay” are a hair lighter than what Thuy usually releases. They really feel blissfully harmonious and carefree, with elevated whispers which might be near falsetto.
The singer is aware of she will be able to sound angelic, however she is making an attempt to be extra dynamic than ghat. It’s as if she feels magnificence can solely get her to this point, and she or he desires to flesh out her id as a singer by crafting music that’s uncooked and actual, slightly than simply fairly. “I’m experimenting with my voice, studying to make use of it in ways in which I’ve by no means finished earlier than,” she shares. “However on the identical time I wish to mess around with my voice extra as a result of I feel that’s the cool half about being an artist.”
Thuy has curiosity in making an attempt totally different tones, comparable to a spoken phrase, rapping vibe— and totally different producers. She’s decided to push past what she’s already confirmed to the world. She’s greater than a singer of her personal priority, however a dynamic artist. She describes wings as: “Extra of an elevated Thuy.”
