Tóc Tiên is a Vietnamese pop star from Ho Chi Minh City, famous since 2015 for the viral dance hit “Ngày mai (Vũ điệu cồng chiêng)”, and she represents Vietnam at Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026 with “EM TIÊN”, opening the Grand Final in slot 1 of 11 on Saturday 14 November. Born Nguyễn Khoa Tóc Tiên on 13 May 1989, she has been on stage since she was four, has made records since 2007 and won a Mnet Asian Music Award in 2017. Below: her career, the song and what its title means, how Vietnam chose it, her odds, and how to watch and vote.
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Photo: Tóc Tiên. Official image, Eurovision Song Contest Asia (eurovisionasia.com).
Key takeaways
- Who she is: Nguyễn Khoa Tóc Tiên, 37 on final night, a V-pop singer and TV judge whose 2015 breakthrough on The Remix became her signature hit.
- The song: “EM TIÊN”, a Vietnamese title that plays on her own name, credited by the organisers to producer DUONGK and songwriter HAROSE. It won The Sound of Vietnam on 3 October on a 40/40/20 vote, with no scoreboard published.
- Reworked for Bangkok: on 15 October she said it would aim for “a more global appeal”, with a bigger techno drop.
- Slot 1: she opens the Grand Final at 20:30 ICT on 14 November. Her first rehearsal is today, and no report on it exists yet.
- The odds: on Polymarket at 03:14 UTC on 9 November, Vietnam is 8.4% to win (third of eleven) and 41% for the top three (fourth). Kalshi’s 79c last trade sits above its own 40c offer, with no bid.
- Our call has moved: on 6 October we named “Em Tiên” the best song in the field. Malaysia is now the 54.5% favourite, and our predictions have Tóc Tiên third.
What’s on this page
Who is Tóc Tiên? · Biography and career · The song and its meaning · How she won the ticket · Rehearsal in Bangkok · Tóc Tiên odds · Can she win? · Watch and vote · By the numbers · FAQ
Who is Tóc Tiên?
Tóc Tiên is the stage name of Nguyễn Khoa Tóc Tiên, a singer born in Ho Chi Minh City on 13 May 1989, whose career now runs past two decades across records, television and film. The organisers call her a “superstar”, and her English Wikipedia entry calls her one of the most sought-after artists in Vietnam. Vietnam Television announced her selection on its English-language service on 4 September. She is the first artist to represent Vietnam at Eurovision Asia, and this is Vietnam’s first entry in any Eurovision contest.
| Fact | Tóc Tiên |
|---|---|
| Full name | Nguyễn Khoa Tóc Tiên |
| Born | 13 May 1989, Ho Chi Minh City (37 on 14 November) |
| Work | Singer, TV judge and coach, host, actress |
| First album | Nụ cười nắng mai, February 2007 |
| Signature hit | “Ngày mai (Vũ điệu cồng chiêng)”, 2015 |
| Major award | Mnet Asian Music Award, Best Asian Artist in Vietnam, 2017 |
| Eurovision Asia song | “EM TIÊN” |
| Broadcaster | VTV (VTV3), with DAO Music Entertainment |
| Grand Final | Slot 1 of 11, Saturday 14 November, One Bangkok Forum |
| Social accounts | Instagram and YouTube @toctien1305, TikTok @toctien_official |
Wikipedia also lists three Làn Sóng Xanh Awards, two Yan Vpop 20 Awards and a Zing Music Award. Her YouTube channel had about 511,000 subscribers when we checked on 29 September. Our Vietnam country page has her full discography.
Tóc Tiên’s biography and career
A child performer. Tóc Tiên was four when she joined the performing group of the Children’s House of Ho Chi Minh City, and was soon booking singing and modelling jobs, managed by her mother. At 13 she entered her first singing competition, Đi tìm Ngôi sao Close-Up, saying she was 18 to meet the rules, and reached the final twelve. In 2003 she won Yo! Cùng ước mơ xanh and joined the short-lived Yo! Band.
Teen idol and student. Her debut album, Nụ cười nắng mai, came out in February 2007, before the national university entrance exam. She said several times that she wanted to be a doctor, and enrolled in the Faculty of Traditional Medicine at Ho Chi Minh City Medicine and Pharmacy University. A second album, Tóc Tiên thiếu nữ, followed in 2008, the year she co-hosted Bài hát Việt.
The American years. She debuted on Paris by Night, Thúy Nga Productions’ overseas Vietnamese variety series, in June 2009, and appeared on more than forty episodes. In March 2011 she moved with her family to Los Angeles, signed with Thúy Nga and studied biology at Pasadena City College. Her third solo album, My Turn, came out that August. She later switched to communication studies at California State University, Long Beach, and dropped out.
The breakthrough. Back in Vietnam, she joined the first season of The Remix with the producers Touliver and Long Halo. Her performance of “Ngày mai” on the fourth live show, in April 2015, went viral; the new mix and its dance were both called “Vũ điệu cồng chiêng”. Its chorus mixes house music with drums and percussion into a gong-like sound. It won a 2015 Pops Award for Most Covered Music Video and a 2016 Zing Music Award, and Wikipedia and Eurovoix’s profile both call it her signature song. She has worked mostly in electronic dance music since.
Television and awards. In 2016 she won Best Female Artist at the Yan Vpop 20 Awards, released the EP T, voiced Mei Mei in the Vietnamese Kung Fu Panda 3 and judged Vietnam Idol Kids. In 2017 she judged Mặt nạ ngôi sao and coached on The Voice of Vietnam, where her contestant Hiền Hồ finished second. That November she won the Mnet Asian Music Award for Best Asian Artist in Vietnam.
Recent years. In 2024 she led the group “Hoa đạp gió”, which reached the finals of Chị đẹp đạp gió rẽ sóng, a show for established female artists. In January 2025 Riot Games chose her to cover “Bite Marks” for the League of Legends 2025 season, and that year she co-produced Show It All Vietnam and held her first fan concert. She married Touliver in February 2020 and confirmed their divorce in January 2026.
“EM TIÊN”: the song and what Em Tiên means
What the title means. Eurovoix translates “EM TIÊN” as “Fairy maiden”. Tiên means a fairy or celestial being, and em is the intimate pronoun used between close equals. The title also plays on the singer’s name, which translates roughly as “fairy hair”, so it is both a phrase and a signature: useful in a contest where most voters will not understand the lyrics.
Who wrote it. The organisers credit the creative team S•HUBE: producer DUONGK and songwriter HAROSE, on 17 September and again with the result on 3 October. Eurovoix’s 6 November profile instead names Trần Thị Thu Hà as writer and composer. We have not found a source linking the two names, so this page uses the organisers’ credit.
How it sounds. It is sung in Vietnamese. Our reading on 6 October was that it is percussion-first, with folk colouring in the rhythm and electronic production underneath. Before the vote, Aussievision’s reviewers called it “less generic and more personality-led than conventional Eurovision pop”, and That Eurovision Site’s reviewer said the folk-electronic mix “gives the song a unique identity”. On 2 November the official account asked fans about “the gear switch at the end”.
Release. It came out on 20 September with the four other candidates on the EP Thanh Âm Việt Nam. The Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel now carries its own video of “EM TIÊN”, and the official Eurovision Asia album reached streaming on 8 November.
The Bangkok version. On 15 October, speaking to DAO Music Entertainment, Tóc Tiên confirmed a revamp. Eurovoix reported that it aims for “a more global appeal” and lifts elements including the climactic techno drop in the final minute. Our report on that day’s revamps called it the higher-variance change: a rework can sharpen a distinctive song or sand off what made it distinctive. The official account trailed it on 28 October: “What if ‘EM TIÊN’ but upgraded?”. Our sources do not say whether the new recording is out.
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How Tóc Tiên won the ticket to Bangkok
Vietnam split the decision in two. VTV3 picked the singer internally: VTV confirmed Tóc Tiên on 4 September, Huy Tuấn was named music director on 6 September, and she was presented at a VTV and DAO Music Entertainment press conference on 16 September. Five creative teams each wrote a song for her, and she recorded all five.
| Song | Team | Credits as published |
|---|---|---|
| “Em Tiên” (winner) | S•HUBE | Producer DUONGK, songwriter HAROSE |
| “a to A” | VIZA | Producer DUY VU, topliner BA VUONG |
| “Follow Me” | M1 Music | Producer GUSTAV (Sweden) |
| “Khó Gì?” | HIGHLUA | Producer THO BEAT, topliner ROSS NETTY |
| “Love Always Wins” | TINLE | Producer TINLE, songwriter JIN |
The Sound of Vietnam aired on VTV3 from Ho Chi Minh City on 3 October, hosted by Đức Bảo, with the singer performing all five songs. The jury was chaired by Lưu Thiên Hương, with Huy Tuấn, Dương Khắc Linh, John Hùng Trần and Gavin Nguyễn. The organisers stated the weighting: 40% jury, 40% viewers in Vietnam, 20% rest of world.
“Em Tiên” won, and that is all anyone outside VTV knows. No scoreboard was published, not even a second place. VTV’s ratings, reported by Eurovoix, showed 2,171,451 people watched at least a minute, with an average audience of 867,985. Before the vote, Aussievision’s panel had put the song first with 54 points, ten clear of “a to A”, and That Eurovision Site’s panel also ranked it first. Our report on the result has the full night.
Tóc Tiên at the One Bangkok Forum
Tóc Tiên has her first rehearsal on the Eurovision Asia stage today, 9 November, with Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea, Mongolia and Nepal. No report or clip has been published yet, so we cannot say how it went. Laos, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Cambodia rehearsed on 8 November.
What is known comes from before. On 15 October she said the staging was still under discussion and that she wanted to “pull out all the stops”. On 7 November Eurovoix reported she will bring new choreography, worked up with her team to lift the “EM TIÊN” performance from the national selection. The rules allow at most six people on stage and three minutes of song.
Vietnamese fans look set to travel. Agoda data, reported by Eurovision Fun in October, showed searches from Vietnam for Bangkok stays over contest week up 105% on a year earlier, the biggest rise among the Asian markets it measured. Those are searches, not bookings.
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Tóc Tiên Eurovision Asia odds
No fixed-odds bookmaker prices Eurovision Asia. Two prediction markets do, and their prices are not bookmaker odds. Polymarket runs six books, from the winner market to the third-place market, with about $79.7K traded. The figures below are Polymarket, 03:14 UTC on 9 November; the mid is halfway between best bid and best offer.
| Polymarket book | Vietnam mid | Bid / offer | Last trade | Traded on Vietnam | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 8.4% | 1.7c / 15.1c | 7.6c | $1,777 | 3rd of 11 |
| Top 3 | 41.0% | 40c / 42c | 38c | $2,372 | 4th of 11 |
| Second place | 24.5% | 8c / 41c | 19c | $322 | 3rd of 11 |
| Third place | 11.5% | 8c / 15c | none | $363 | 5th of 11 |
| Jury winner | 4.8% | 0.5c / 9c | 1c | $485 | 7th of 11 |
| Public-vote winner | 6.5% | 4c / 9c | 15c | $1,605 | 5th of 11 |
The winner price is soft. Vietnam’s 8.4% is the midpoint of a 1.7c bid and a 15.1c offer, so the real level could be almost anywhere in that range. There is money behind it, though: $1,777 traded on the Vietnam line, the third most in the book after Malaysia ($18,593) and the Philippines ($3,103).
The podium price is the firm one. In the Top 3 book Vietnam is quoted 40c against 42c, the tightest spread in that market, and $2,372 is the most traded on any Top 3 line. That says roughly two-in-five to make the podium, just behind the host, Thailand, at 43.5%.
Kalshi is stranger. On the CFTC-regulated US exchange, read at 01:48 UTC on 9 November, Vietnam’s last trade is 79c, but the cheapest offer is 40c and there is no bid. The last trade sits above the contract’s own offer. Vietnam was lifted from 10c to 84c on about eleven contracts between 4 and 5 October and fell to 79c on 17–19 October; only 145 Vietnam contracts have ever traded. The board’s eleven last trades sum to 200% of a one-winner field. How we would read it: 79c is an old print, not a price, and even the 40c offer is well above Polymarket’s 15.1c.
Can Tóc Tiên win Eurovision Asia?
On 6 October this site called it for Vietnam. In why “Em Tiên” can win, we argued it was the best song in the field, with seven of eleven entries known, and priced it at about 30%. That piece also set out the case against: a song chosen by a home public for a home star, no scoreboard, and no staging yet seen.
Since then four more entries have arrived. Malaysia released Aina Abdul’s “Bluest Sky” on 9 October and is now 54.5% to win, and Vietnam announced a rework nobody has yet heard in full. Our predictions for all eleven acts, published today, have Malaysia winning and Tóc Tiên third. We still rate her song above the host’s, so we have her on the podium ahead of Thailand, but no longer winning.
The market agrees on the shape. Vietnam is third to win at 8.4%, just ahead of Nepal on 8.1%, and fourth for the podium at 41%, 2.5 points behind Thailand. The split books show why she is not higher.
The Grand Final is 50% professional juries and 50% public vote, combined for each competing country (clause 8.2 of the voting terms). Vietnam is a long shot in both halves: 4.8% to top the juries, 6.5% to top the public vote. Malaysia leads the jury book at 60.5%, and the public vote is a two-way race between Malaysia (38%) and the Philippines (34%). One rule bites: nobody may vote for their own country, so the Vietnamese audience behind her selection cannot vote for her. Her public score must come from the other ten countries and the Rest of World.
Then there is the slot. Ten songs follow Tóc Tiên, and the organisers have not said when the voting window opens. Vienna in May suggests the slot matters less than the song: Bulgaria’s DARA won from 12th of 25, and the closing act finished 24th. Our reading is that two things can still move her: today’s rehearsal, and how the reworked “EM TIÊN” sounds in the hall.
Where to watch and how to vote for Tóc Tiên
- When: Saturday 14 November, 20:30 ICT (14:30 CET, 13:30 UTC), from the One Bangkok Forum. Tóc Tiên is the first competing act, in slot 1.
- Where: free worldwide on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. In Vietnam, VTV3 shows it at 20:30 local time.
- The show: hosts Woody Milintachinda and Cindy Bishop; guests DARA and Jeff Satur. A Preview Show runs on Friday 13 November at 20:30 ICT for ticket holders.
- How to vote: web only, at eurovisionasia.com/vote, aged 18 or over. Eight free votes, up to ten paid, at most 16 for any one entry, spread across at least three countries.
- Who can vote for her: anyone except residents of Vietnam. Viewers outside the eleven countries vote as one Rest of World bloc.
Start times for every country are in our guide to watching the Grand Final, and every act is profiled on the Eurovision Asia hub.
What people search for: Tóc Tiên by the numbers
Tóc Tiên is a far bigger name at home than the contest. Google search data from DataForSEO, monthly averages checked on 9 November, puts “tóc tiên” in Vietnam at about 40,500 searches a month, nearly seventy times the 590 for “eurovision asia” there. “em tiên” gets about 50, and “tóc tiên eurovision” returned no figure.
Abroad, where her Bangkok votes must come from, the numbers are small. “toc tien” gets about 720 searches a month in the United States, more than “carmelle” (480) or “aina abdul” (70); of the competing acts we checked, only “junhee” (about 8,100) gets more. The UK figure is about 30. Name searches include interest unrelated to the contest, so treat these as a hint.
Google’s US results for “toc tien”, checked the same day, are led by her TikTok account, listed with more than 919,600 followers, then VnExpress, an Instagram post and the fan site Eurovision and Friends. The English Wikipedia article was not in that list. The official Eurovision Asia Instagram posts about her drew about 2,900 likes for the “upgraded” trailer, 2,600 for the sit-down and 5,500 for the 2 November introduction.
FAQ
Who is Tóc Tiên?
Tóc Tiên, born Nguyễn Khoa Tóc Tiên, is a Vietnamese pop singer and TV judge from Ho Chi Minh City, best known for her 2015 hit “Ngày mai (Vũ điệu cồng chiêng)”. She represents Vietnam at Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026 with “EM TIÊN”.
How old is Tóc Tiên?
She was born on 13 May 1989, so she is 37 on the night of the Grand Final.
Where is Tóc Tiên from?
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She lived in Los Angeles from 2011, studying and performing on Paris by Night, before rebuilding her career at home.
What does “Em Tiên” mean?
Eurovoix translates it as “Fairy maiden”. Tiên means a fairy or celestial being and em is an intimate pronoun. The title also plays on her own name.
Who wrote “EM TIÊN”?
The organisers credit the S•HUBE team: producer DUONGK and songwriter HAROSE. Eurovoix names Trần Thị Thu Hà as writer and composer; we have not found a source reconciling the two.
When does Tóc Tiên perform at Eurovision Asia?
She opens the Grand Final in slot 1 on Saturday 14 November 2026, from 20:30 ICT (14:30 CET), free on YouTube and on VTV3 in Vietnam.
Can Tóc Tiên win Eurovision Asia?
She can, but the market makes her an outsider: 8.4% to win and 41% for the top three on Polymarket at 03:14 UTC on 9 November, behind Malaysia (54.5%) and the Philippines (25%). Our prediction is third.
Can people in Vietnam vote for Tóc Tiên?
No. Nobody may vote for the country they live in. Everyone outside Vietnam, including the Rest of World, can vote for her.
Sources
- Biography: Tóc Tiên, English Wikipedia (revision of 5 November 2026); Eurovoix, “Vietnam: Who is Tóc Tiên?”, 6 November 2026; this site’s Vietnam country profile.
- Selection and song: VTV Vietnam Today, 4 September; eurovisionasia.com, 17 September and 3 October; the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel; Eurovoix, 3, 4 and 15 October and 7 November 2026 (VTV ratings on 4 October); Aussievision and That Eurovision Site panels, via this site’s 6 October analysis.
- Schedule and voting: eurovisionasia.com running order, how-to-watch page and voting terms (3.3, 6.1, 8.1, 8.2); official @eurovisionasia Instagram, likes read 9 November.
- Markets: Polymarket, 03:14 UTC on 9 November 2026; Kalshi public API, 01:48 UTC on 9 November, with this site’s October reads.
- Search: Google search data from DataForSEO, checked 9 November 2026. Agoda data via Eurovision Fun, October 2026.
18+. Prediction-market prices are not bookmaker odds, and thin books can move without trades. Check the live board before acting on anything here. Markets carry risk.