2018 Havel Prize Celebrates a Vietnamese Musician

Vietnamese dissident singer Mai Khoi

Human Rights Foundation, May 27, 2018

OSLO (May 27, 2018) — The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce the third of three recipients of the 2018 Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent, Vietnamese pop star and democracy advocate Mai Khoi. HRF delayed this announcement for fear that the Vietnamese government would ban Mai from traveling as a result of her pro-democracy activism. Mai will be recognized in a ceremony during the 2018 Oslo Freedom Forum on Wednesday, May 30, at Latter Theater, alongside the two other 2018 Laureates, underground group Belarus Free Theatre and South Sudanese musician and former child soldier Emmanuel Jal.

Mai Khoi is a brave, independent artist who is shaping public discourse in Vietnam. She reached stardom in 2010, when she won the highest award for songwriting in Vietnam. As a celebrity, Mai advocated for women’s rights, LGBT rights, and to end violence against women. More recently, she became the focal point of public discourse after nominating herself to run in the 2016 parliamentary elections. Her pro-democracy campaign sparked a nationwide debate about political participation and ultimately led to a meeting with then-U.S. President Barack Obama. Since running for parliament, Mai has had her concerts raided, has been evicted from her house twice, and is effectively banned from singing in Vietnam. In March 2018, she was detained at Hanoi airport on suspicion of “terrorism” after returning from a European tour.

Despite this harassment, Mai continues to find creative ways to spark conversation on art, human rights, and democracy. In February 2018, she released a new album, “Mai Khoi Chem Gio – Dissent.” In a review of the album, The Economist commented, “If music alone could break chains, this would be the music to do it.” Mai’s work aims to counter the authoritarian ways of thinking that justify social control. She is currently the subject of a feature-length documentary that is scheduled to air on Netflix in 2019. Upcoming projects include plans for a graphic novel and an arthouse play about her experiences.

“Mai Khoi is outstanding in her commitment to human rights,” said Havel Prize Committee Chairman Thor Halvorssen. “Through her music and her campaigns, she has put civil liberties and democracy on the forefront of public conversation in Vietnam.”

The Havel Prize ceremony will be broadcast live at oslofreedomforum.com at 3:00 p.m. Oslo time (GMT+2) on Wednesday, May 30. If you would like to attend the ceremony in Oslo, please email info@oslofreedomforum.com. Follow @HRFand @OsloFF for updates, and for media inquiries, please contact media@hrf.org.

The three Havel Prize laureates will receive an artist’s representation of the “Goddess of Democracy,” the iconic statue erected by Chinese students during the Tiananmen Square protests of June 1989. Each sculpture embodies the spirit and literal reality of creative dissent at its finest, representing the struggle of truth and beauty against brute power. The laureates will also share a prize of 350,000 Norwegian kroner.

HRF founded the Havel Prize in 2012 together with the endorsement of Dagmar Havlová, widow of the late poet, playwright, and statesman Václav Havel. Havel served as the chairman of HRF until his death in December 2011. The prize pays tribute to those who celebrate freedom and democracy with creativity in the face of authoritarian rule. Past laureates include Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot, North Korean information activist Park Sang Hak, and Saudi women’s rights advocate Manal al-Sharif.