Global dancefloor: Saigon

0:12give me

0:28We can the very beginning of the club culture where it's the local. It's the one who viewed the scene. Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Frank McQueenie and I'm in Vietnam's biggest city, Ho Chi Minh. Everyone here calls it Saigon, its official name until the end of the Vietnam War in 1976. To say Saigon is a vibrant place feels like an understatement. It's busy, chaotic and loud. It's wild and intense in so many ways. But if you let yourself be taken by it, you'll realise that it's alive. It's exciting and it's become a place where Vietnam's alternative culture is thriving.

1:09With a booming economy over the last decade and 70 % of the country's population under 35, young people have become the driving force behind a new and different image of Vietnam, far away from poverty and war. They're asserting their identity through music, fashion and their own take on traditional values, changing perceptions of what it means to be Vietnamese today. This is Global Dancefloor, Saigon. It's a hot and humid Friday in summer 2025 and I'm here to explore the city's underground music scene. I'm on a small street in District 2, east of the city. dozens of motorbikes parked behind me and I'm in front of a two-storey venue big metal doors on the ground floor a cocktail bar called Bardo and on the first floor is Oumbala where the music collective Dismal are hosting a party tomorrow walking up the metal staircase opening a couple of thick wooden doors and entering a medium-sized soundproof room with a concrete floor and black walls at full capacity it would fit around 200 people slightly elevated stage on the back right corner and bar on the left huge speakers on the floor along the front of the stage and more hanging from the ceiling a lot of sound for a place this size i was actually just told the owner didn't soundproof the room enough for this level of sound but he did manage to convince the neighbors to soundproofed their house.

2:45Good move. Burr and co-founders Fat and Zach are here sound checking and setting up. Hi Frank. Welcome to Saigon. We're going to have a very exciting party. Bar has been active in Saigon's underground scene for the last six years. I was setting up all the lighting and checking with the sounds. We have to make it like the club vibe because it's just a bar. stroke and light ray. For me, it's making it much more immersive. It's a different space every time. You can create different feelings. What are you looking for in a place when you want to do a party there? There's not necessarily need a standard.

3:29The sound system can be bad. We can set it up. The lighting can be bad. We can set it up. But the most important thing is that the one who run that place have to understand what we're doing. They can connect and work with us. That's the most important and the most difficult part out of everything because we still have so many problems finding venues. What makes this city special? I was raised in Saigon. It's very different to the rest of Vietnam because it's developed enough to have nice things, convenient things. It's also free enough for you to be whatever. So easy to live in. Whatever you want, just go and get it.

4:06There's not a lot of structure. Once you know the way to get your stuff done, but it's not that easy at the point of working non-stop. Do you do this full-time, promoting? You cannot live by being a DJ or a promoter. You have to do multiple different things at the same time. I make a living by directing some short films and some music videos, and I also do graphic designer, and I can do, like, creating concepts. I paint. I'm a photographer. Fak, what made you want to come to Saigon? I'm born in Binh Phu province near Cambodia I just alone, have no idea what I will do in hometown in the future and I just want to come to Saigon and see new things I didn't know about the music scene I remember the first time I went to a party I'm very shy, I was just kind of like standing in the corner and I was like, dang, this is so cool I go with my girlfriend and I tell her let's go dance It was so energetic and the energy taking my soul away.

5:19Make new people. I'm gay so in club like I'm free. You get to be whatever you want to be. There's so many gay people in Saigon. Very gay friendly actually. The LGBT community here is so massive in Hanoi or in other places in Vietnam. People are not as open, so I guess we are kind of like still traditional, but people are very welcome and accepting here. We're actively progressive. Zach sounds American and doesn't look Vietnamese, but he's far from an expat. A lot of people call me vô đức man. Đức means virtuous and wise and man means power. A virtuous wise man with lots of power. One who wields power virtuously.

6:10How come you have a Vietnamese name? I've lived here since I was very young and I have a Vietnamese citizenship. Is it an exciting time to be part of the alternative and underground scene in Saigon? Yeah, it really feels like it's supporting the local artists from within the local scene. Nothing keeps us tied down. I feel like the club culture has developed in its own way. The sound is very up-to-date. We're not, like, behind anymore. Also bring the Vietnamese element in modern way. I think the main benefits that we're seeing from a rapidly expanding Vietnamese economy is that people are starting to have a bit more national pride.

6:51We're no longer looking at ourselves as like a poor, blockaded, stigmatized Southeast Asian country, but we're more proud of our Vietnamese identity and how we present ourselves on the world stage. And part of that is translating into the culture and how Western media and Western art movements are not as concrete here. We are starting to see people who don't just view things from the West as advanced because it's marketed to us like that. It's different. We do it good. It's so fast-paced, energetic. We have a lot of people. It's kind of intense. What should I expect this more party going to look like, feel like, sound like?

7:35Crazy. You should expect to have fun. How do I prepare? I mean, you have to dress sexy. I can do that.

7:48It really feels like there are more bikes than people here. Traffic is crazy by most people's standards, but among all the madness, the flow is somehow very steady. There's always a way through, a way to keep moving forward. I'm on my way to meet Tao, a.k.a. Mess, DJ, producer and co-founder of the electronic music collective, Nyak Gai, meaning broken music. a nod to their messy and DIY approach. She's invited me to her home studio in a quiet suburb on the eastern edge of the city.

8:27Moon because the body is in the shape of a moon. Looks a little bit like a mandolin and a very thin arm with two strings. You've got a couple of screens, two big speakers, a keyboard behind us, a bass guitar on my right. flutes in a big vase. My root is in northern. I'm from Sơn La, which is a modernist area. It's a valley. I think I want to bring the valley to Saigon. And in Saigon, everything moving so fast. I have to move and the city push me. I can be more growing. Because if this one moves, the island has to move to make everything move smoothly. Nothing can pause. You need the flow to carry on.

9:13If someone stops, then there's no progress. It's really an unexpected city. You can experience everything at once, the high building and the really small house next to it. And the sound is non-stop moving. The wind's still flowing and the people are still trying to move. Walking, driving, riding, cycling. Even the raining is so... And the wind is... You come from north of Viena. Vietnam, how does that affect your musical identity? I live with ethnic minorities, community, with a lot of different music, and it all comes to my ear every day. Even the way they speak is different. I was influenced a lot by that diversity.

9:58This one is from the Hmong community. So you've just taken a flute out, which is about as long as my arm.

10:17It's a sound from the earth, from where I was born. Organic instrument, there's something about this I can use. And when I play it, it feels really good.

10:29All the vocals you use in your music are Vietnamese. Because in Vietnamese language, we have the natural melody in the way we're speaking.

10:47Sài Gòn is a promising city Open to the new thing Maybe 10 years ago The Vietnamese mindset is to really Protect the Vietnamese traditional music But now the scene is really DIY A lot of ideas of new creative things Like Dizmo I really like Dizmo The party we're going to tomorrow night Yeah They're crazy But crazy is good But in Vietnam, we don't used to get that crazy before because culture really protects our traditional. There are always rules about communicating, about eating. We cannot say this, we cannot say that. But right now, young people, they understand about that, but they want to break that rule, and it's good.

11:29Because like before, I was really scared to break the rules. The older people want to see, look at me, why you do this? It's not normal. like, nah, I did not did it right. Because it was in a weird way. I put it in like an R &B song, a trap song, a hip-hop rap song, in the close-minded. It's hard to change. But somehow if we can blend it, we can make it more lively in the future. More stable in the future. It seems like Vietnam is a place that's grown incredibly fast. We got a lot of investment in 20 years, we now find a good policy to open the borders for all countries to come and invest in Vietnam.

12:10And then it works. Because, you know, in the geographic position of Vietnam on the map, we cross all the world. Mainland of China, sea border to the US, we can go to even India and go to Australia. So we try to connect with people. I think the position is something very important. So we cannot just keep the old thing before we just focus on the Vietnam War. The culture has to keep growing. We can create a new culture, keep moving forward, enjoy life, the world's all behind and keep growing. That's a new image of Vietnam, I think.

12:59We'll catch Messe again tomorrow when she performs at a runway fashion show in the center of the city. For now, we're moving away from soulful music into more intense scenes and sounds. Catching up with Bart and Zach at the famous Bouvien Street. The first place most foreigners visiting the city will find themselves in. We're at the very beginning of the street and music banging from one side to another side, non-stop. People will grab you and try to get you into the place. Pretty intense. It's full of Vina House Club. What's Vina House? Vina is like Vietnam and house music. It has a twist. It usually remixes Vietnamese pop songs and then it will also have a very distinct bass sound.

13:54How does this street represent the wider city of Saigon, in your opinion? On a positive way to see it, is that when you see the most chaotic street of Saigon, but it's just full of foreigners. The most foreigners per square meter that I've seen. It means that Vietnamese people are very friendly and always welcome for foreigners, but in a negative way, reflect something deeper. You went to a place that represents Saigon, but is full of foreigners. It's a performance. It's what the backpackers want to see. Even the expats hang out here. They view Southeast Asia through this lens of exoticism, and it's not representative of Vietnam at all.

14:40It's branded as Vietnamese, but if you go 20 meters down the street to a place where Vietnamese people actually live and work it's not like this at all. It has nothing to do with the culture or the tastes of the city or what's actually going on here. This is like just a charade for the foreigners. It's like real but it's not real. Yeah, but it's real. You wish people would dive a little bit deeper. That's what I always wish for but most of the time people don't die before. They could try to throw themselves in an environment that makes them feel isolated. Put yourself in a situation where you feel like you're a minority.

15:23Because if you feel different, you want to be understood and then you want to be a part of something and then you will have the energy, the effort and the passion to go understand about things.

15:44You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

15:52It's Saturday and I'm walking up a peaceful narrow alley with lush greenery and low buildings leading up to the Saigon River in the northern Taodian district, considered to be one of the coolest neighbourhoods in Saigon. It's a far cry from the busy city centre. We're just reaching Objof. Inside a trendy clothes store focused on local brands and outside a beautiful terrace under low-hanging trees along the river, a hub for the city's creative community to drink coffee and hang out. Wander around this area for a few hours and you'll notice how fashionable young people are. Not quite the same styles I'm used to seeing in London, New York or Berlin.

16:37It's different here. Objof is a great place to get a good idea of what younger people are really wanting to wear. I'm with Objof's co-founder Ryan and creative director Selena. For the general Vietnamese person, I think it is quite expensive. So it is kind of like higher end, but still cool. Shall we go in? Yes. The young people in Saigon, depending on how much money they have, they might consider their fashion differently. There's so much good thrifting here. at the market, at the brief shop. If you don't have money, there is a garage sale that happens every month where we get friends to resell their clothes or we have brands selling dead stock or like samples.

17:20We have shoes in a fridge, Ryan. Just an idea how to showcase the product. I feel like OffJobs brand is all about fun, having fun with fashion, experimenting and expressing yourself, not being afraid to like be weird or be a little bit out of the box. So it's a concrete floor, concrete pillars, and then around the room, which is about the size of half a tennis court, we have a mix of clothes, jewellery, hats and bags. And as we came up the stairs, a big metal rack holding a bunch of clothes. It feels very industrial. Is there a Saigon style? I think it's very grungy. It's very early 2000s. On one end, it's very DIY, almost like punk but there's also kids who wear all black and who are super minimal as well or want to look very clean like just wear linen or silk.

18:15I feel like Saigon is also a lot about accessories like bangles, bracelets, necklaces. Also a little bit tribal I feel like because it's Vietnam I think people like to express Vietnamese identity. Ryan is wearing trendy shorts, a white t-shirt, a pair of sneakers and his hair is dyed blonde, self-styled normcore and I can see his tooth gem when he smiles. He's born and raised in Saigon. Selena is wearing black trousers, a black crop top, bracelets and rings. She grew up abroad and moved to Saigon several years ago. I'm a VQ. Basically a VQ is a Vietnamese person who wasn't born in Vietnam. My parents were refugees in Paris.

18:57Then they moved to America. Where I grew up in Orange County is the biggest Vietnamese population of America. So I was always surrounded by Vietnamese people, Vietnamese culture. I felt like my upbringing was very, very Vietnamese to begin with. I moved to Saigon in December of 2023. My heart was always in Saigon. I feel like there was a massive reverse migration happening right now with Vietnamese who were born abroad. It's like an energy. What is happening in the creative scene and fashion and music I don't think is happening anywhere else right now. So many new things that you can do that haven't been done yet.

19:36Doing it with a different flavor, obviously, because Vietnamese people, whatever they do, they're going to put their own Vietnamese-ness injected into it. What makes Saigon a special place to come to if you're into fashion? Recently, a lot of designers from here got recognized by a lot of big celebrities around the world. The world is watching because they can see potential and strong production value, yeah. It's like a mix of logistics and the freedom of expression that young people have. It's also the hustle mentality. There's not a lot of fear of failure. People are just down to try things and experiment without the expectation.

20:19And we're on our way to check out just how this looks. Back to the centre of the city to meet Tao, who's invited me to a very special event. I'm walking into Union Square, a three-storey retail centre in an ornate building. Excuse me, I'm looking for Rumi. Rumi, follow the phone. Thank you.

20:46today is the opening of Rue Miche a new concept fashion store they're putting on a special show called Orbit to celebrate with a runway showcasing their latest clothes and accessories music curated by Tao and a live performance under her artist alias Mess Tao, good to see you again a little bit nervous right now is this the first time you do something like this? the first time I really do visit director for runway show because we collect all local brands in Vietnam. And people are looking very well dressed. I have to say when I arrived I felt a little bit underdressed. You've got a long grey dress with long sleeves and half of your hands are covered.

21:29Futuristic outer space. Futuristic outer space. Are you going to be DJing during the runway show? And also going to do a live performance here. Well, I'm really looking forward to it. Thank you for inviting me. Thank you too. Enjoy the show.

21:57Music perfectly in sync with what I'm seeing. 30 models walking up and down a packed room with style, aura and determination. The 20 clothing brands on show are what you could call high-end streetwear, some with a slight gothic vibe, on the cusp of high fashion but with a much cooler edge. Grungy white crop tops with grey oil spills, cream mesh turtlenecks, asymmetric gowns, oversized suit pants, black leather gilets with sherpa lining and metal fastenings. You could grab any of these pieces and wear them straight away. I'm seeing them in a fashion show, But truly, they belong to the street. Whether you're a designer, model, guest, or someone quietly crafting something built behind the scene, we always welcome you with us.

22:44Thank you for coming so much. As everyone mingles after the runway show, Tao introduces me to her best friend. My name is Ngong of Finland. My DJ name is Abi Wasabi. Tao earlier described you as the Saigon Queen. you've got blue lipstick, shiny eyes and you've got a black dress and your hair dyed white how linked is fashion and underground music? party attracts a lot of fashion people it's the same, in fashion and music there's nothing that is ugly or beautiful young energy, experimental it's a movement, we all move together you see the list of the brands these are the best right now they're all Vietnamese brands?

23:29Yeah, it's so cool seeing this happen. Vietnam is a new country. We get to be with the world. We don't have war anymore. It's fun now.

23:42It's just gone past midnight, and I'm on my way to Umbala for tonight's dismal party.

23:52Before I head in, I grab a much-needed coffee on the street with Jace, who many people call the OG. He's been throwing parties in the city since 2006. Back then, if you go out, there's 90 % expat. 2015, I started to notice, wow, my crowd become like 50 expats and 50 Vietnamese. Young kids start to show interest in how to DJ. But the local DJ 10 years ago would almost always play first, the least exciting slot, warming up the room as it slowly fills up for the headline act, an international artist on the Asia tour. So, say it costs$1 ,000 for the international act, and the locals do it for free or a very small amount.

24:34And COVID happens. Vietnam don't renew visa for any expats that don't have proper jobs. So a lot of them left, and nobody can tour. So we have to get all the locals to step up. Putting the local on the headline slot. Yeah. And now you go out, like a lot of events, it's just straight up all local lineups, you know. And so that$1 ,000 is redistributed through all the locals, kind of reinvesting into your own scene rather than giving the money abroad. And then local DJs have more time to shine, so now they don't compete with international anymore, but they compete with themselves and make it better.

25:09Four years now, it's 80-90 % of Vietnamese people that go out. Is the country interested in exporting the new sounds of Vietnam? It depends on what you're trying to do. if it's aligned with their vision, then yeah. But for now, it's traditional music. But if it's only new Vietnamese original electronic, then probably not.