1994–2010: Early life and career Nguyễn Thanh Tùng was born on 5 July 1994 in
Thái Bình, then part of
Thái Bình province (which was merged into Hưng Yên province in 2025), to parents Nguyễn Đức Thiện and Phạm Thị Thanh Bình. Bình was a
traditional dancer in the city's official performing group and a performer in Thái Bình's
chèo theatre. The singer described his early life as "peaceful." He has a younger brother, Nguyễn Việt Hoàng ( 2000), who later started his own music career in 2022 under the stage name Mono. He was two years old when the family discovered his singing abilities. his father wanted him to
study business in college. In 2009, he and his classmates formed a group, Over Band, and began writing and uploading songs on the independent-music website LadyKillah. According to the singer, it now stands for "music," "tài năng" ("talent"), and "phong cách" ("style").
2011–2015: Breakthrough and Dandelion Tùng first wrote "Cơn mưa ngang qua" for his groups but ultimately decided to record it himself. "Cơn mưa ngang quas success exceeded Tùng's expectations. Two revised versions of the song were released in February 2012. That year, he was admitted to the
Conservatory of Ho Chi Minh City with one of its highest entrance scores. In July 2012, he auditioned for
Vietnam Idol fourth season and was eliminated in the first round. He signed a five-year contract with Văn Production in November 2012 and changed his stage name from M-TP to Sơn Tùng M-TP after a suggestion came from the company's music director, Huy Tuấn, and musician Hà Quang Minh. Tùng released three singles between August and December 2013: "Nắng ấm xa dần", "Đừng về trễ" and "Em của ngày hôm qua". The latter launched Tùng's mainstream career and successfully gained over 100 million streams in three months on Zing MP3.
Favorite Song made it its Song of the Month in February 2014. The following month, Tùng contributed vocals to a
charity cover of Tạ Quang Thắng's "Sống như những đóa hoa" and canceled a number of performances for surgery to remove a
tumor from his leg. In June of that year, it was announced that the singer would star in
Dandelion, a semi-biographical film loosely based on the life of the late singer
WanBi Tuấn Anh. The film was directed by Quang Huy, founder of WePro Entertainment. Tùng's performance in the film earned him the prestigious
Golden Kite Prize for Young Prominent Actor. He contributed two hit singles to the soundtrack: "Chắc ai đó sẽ về" and "Không phải dạng vừa đâu". The former won a
WeChoice Award for Song of the Year. It was reported in early 2015 that Tùng had signed with WePro while still being managed by his former company.
2015–2017: The Remix and independent label In January 2015, Tùng teamed up with disc jockey Trang Moon and
music producer SlimV for the first season of the television competition series
The Remix. His team competed against other notable acts, such as
Đông Nhi and
Tóc Tiên, to create the best
remixes on the program. Tùng debuted two songs on the show, "Thái Bình mồ hôi rơi" and "Khuôn mặt đáng thương", both of which were subsequently released as singles. In June, he recorded "Tiến lên Việt Nam ơi!" in support of
Vietnam's team at the
Southeast Asian Games. In that same year, he also unveiled three additional singles: "Ấn nút nhớ... Thả giấc mơ", "Âm thầm bên em" and "Buông đôi tay nhau ra". While these songs saw modest commercial success compared to his earlier hits, "Âm thầm bên em" earned a Green Wave Award for Single of the Year. In July, Tùng headlined his sold-out debut concert, M-TP & Friends, in
Ho Chi Minh City, with his
Dandelion castmates, including
Hari Won and
Phạm Quỳnh Anh, as
opening acts. At the
2015 MTV Europe Music Awards, Tùng received the Best Southeast Asian Act award and was nominated for
Best Asian Act. In December 2015 and January 2016, Tùng's M-TP Ambition
concert tour was held in Ho Chi Minh City and
Hanoi. In his autobiography,
Chạm tới giấc mơ, he described the tour as an unforgettable failure. While some critics praised Tùng's stage presence, others felt the show was lacking. In January 2016, he
guest judged an episode of
The Remix second season and endorsed
Oppo's
Tết campaign with the song "Một năm mới bình an". At the 11th
Dedication Music Award in April, Tùng became the youngest recipient of the Singer of the Year award. Tùng released his single "Chúng ta không thuộc về nhau" in August 2016. It was
Google Vietnam's most-searched song of 2016, YouTube's 11th-most-
disliked video of the year and WebTVAsia Awards' Most Popular Video in Vietnam. Due to his creative conflicts with WePro since the M-TP Ambition tour, Tùng announced that he had parted ways with the company in December 2016. "Nơi này có anh" and "Bình yên những phút giây". The music video for "Lạc trôi" was described as a "play on
Asian stereotypes," such as gold thrones and statues of dragons. It and "Nơi này có anh" were two of the fastest Asian music videos to receive 100 million views on YouTube, and were two of the year's top streaming tracks in Vietnam.
Green Wave and WeChoice Awards later gave the former track the Single of the Year and Favorite Music Video awards, respectively.
2017–2020: Sky Tour commercial In April 2017, Tùng celebrated his fifth year in the music industry by releasing the
compilation album M-tp M-TP. The album, which featured revamped versions of his previous tracks, was distributed on a
USB flash drive and sold one thousand copies. In June, Tùng took the stage at the Viral Fest Asia event held in
Bangkok,
Thailand. The subsequent month, he organized a second M-TP & Friends concert in Hanoi. In August, he joined in on "Gia đình tôi chọn", a single celebrating WePro's fifteen years in the industry. In September 2017, the singer's memoir, titled
Chạm tới giấc mơ, was released. The biography covers Tùng's early life, as well as his experiences with Văn Production and WePro Entertainment, while deliberately omitting any mention of the controversies surrounding his career. Ten thousand copies were sold in the first two days. the Keeng Young Award for Favorite Male Artist, the V Live Award for Best V Star, and the WeChoice Award for Breakout Artist. The video ignited controversy primarily for depicting
William-Adolphe Bouguereau's 1876 painting,
Pietà—which portrays the
Virgin Mary holding the lifeless body of
Jesus after
his crucifixion—being engulfed in flames. "Run Now" was awarded two Zing Music Awards for Music Video of the Year and Most Favorite Dance/Electronic Song, and a WeChoice Award for Most Favorite Music Video. In July, the singer portrayed a fictionalized version of himself in
Chuyến đi của thanh xuân, a short film directed by Nguyễn Quang Dũng in partnership with the sneaker brand Biti's Hunter. Tùng's collaboration with rapper
Snoop Dogg, "Give It to Me", was released in July 2019. The accompanied video features an appearance by singer
Madison Beer and set a 24-hour record for Vietnamese music videos with 25.8 million YouTube views on the first day. This record was previously held by "Run Now" (17.6 million views). The singer embarked on his second nationwide concert tour, Sky Tour, from July to August 2019. The show was divided into two sets. The first half featured performances by guest acts such as Tiên Tiên, Rhymastic and Kimmese, while the other half was Tùng's solo set. Tickets to the Hồ Chí Minh and Hà Nội dates sold out. Tùng's showmanship and engagement with the audience earned widespread acclaim. The tour was chronicled in the documentary film,
Sơn Tùng M-TP: Sky Tour Movie, which debuted in June 2020. Dubbed as Vietnam's first musical documentary, it grossed
₫5.5 billion (US$238.700) after the first three days of release even with mixed reviews.
Netflix went on to distribute the film globally. An accompanying live album was also released.
2020–2022: Chúng ta and "There's No One at All" In 2020, Tùng released two singles, "Có chắc yêu là đây" and "Chúng ta của hiện tại". The latter was the lead single for his upcoming EP,
Chúng ta. Its music video starring Hải Tú, an actress recently signed to M-TP Entertainment's talent management division, won a WeChoice Award for Music Video of the Year. In 2022, the music video for "
There's No One at All" faced backlash for its violent nature and depiction of suicide, leading Tùng to issue an apology. In May, the
Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism fined M-TP Entertainment
₫70 million (US$2,737), ordered the video footage to be destroyed, and required the company to forfeit its earnings from the video.
2022–present: Sky Decade On April 12, 2022, Sơn Tùng M-TP officially posted a poster for the first English song of his career, titled "There's No One at All." Shortly after, he launched an exclusive sale for NOAA T-shirts featuring his own hand-drawn designs on the VinID app; this was the shirt the singer would wear in the upcoming "There's No One at All" music video. On April 28, Sơn Tùng M-TP officially released the music video for "There's No One at All" via YouTube Premiere, attracting nearly 216,000 concurrent viewers. This marked the first time Sơn Tùng M-TP experimented with composing in a hip-hop/rock fusion style, singing entirely in English. Additionally, he collaborated with international producers on this project: Chris Gehringer handled the audio mastering, and Jacob McKee performed the video color grading. On July 5, to celebrate his 28th birthday, Sơn Tùng M-TP released an alternative video version of "There's No One at All." On October 6, Sơn Tùng M-TP officially released the Sky Decade EP consisting of 4 songs—the first product in a series of art projects commemorating his 10th anniversary in the industry. Sơn Tùng M-TP also announced that Sky Tour would return to theaters starting October 14, marking the second project in this series. Sơn Tùng M-TP announced the release of his second English single titled "Making My Way" on April 25, 2023, and the song was released on May 5, 2023. On March 8, 2024, Sơn Tùng M-TP released "Chúng ta của tương lai" as the second single from the EP Chúng ta, four years after the release of the previous single, "Chúng ta của hiện tại." The song's music video became the longest-running video at the top of YouTube's trending list in Vietnam. He followed up with the single "Đừng làm trái tim anh đau" three months later, with production carried out entirely in Thailand. ==Plagiarism controversies==