Before her return to Laos after a two-month tour on the U.S. West Coast, Aluna talked to VOA about her love of music…”I was very fortunate to have been born to a family that loves music. My father was also a singer and he had his own band. Music is in my blood; I grew up learning how to play the guitar and piano and then I started singing.”
Aluna went for her undergraduate studies in Australia and received her bachelor degree in Marketing and
E-Commerce. Besides singing, she also helps running her family’s business, Vang Vieng Resort.
After her studies in Australia, Aluna took sometimes off and went for a three-month vacation in Europe. That trip helped clarify her thoughts and reconnected her soul, her love for music once a gain, and led to her debut album in 2004, "Aluna." She wrote the lyrics and rhythms for all the ten songs on the album herself.
Aluna also said: "Getting to see the music festival in Europe was an inspiration for me to reconnect with my inner soul and start to write once again. My music is all about what is around me, my personal thoughts, ideas, my friends’ experience, my family and what I’ve learned and witnessed throughout the years. I love to share these wonderful life experiences to the world through my music. I’m not really very good at it yet, but I’m working on it and willing to take another step to make better Lao music. "
“Currently, I’m working on my next project. I love to incorporate Lao instruments into my music and make them stand out so that once people listen to my music they can tell …It’s Lao music, It’s my style, an Aluna’s music.”
On Laos’ entertainment industry, Aluna thinks “the Lao government has opened up and given the younger generation a chance to bring out their talents. If I get a chance to help out in any way I could, I would love to help make Laotian people around the globe appreciate and listen and support Lao music. And perhaps, help build or provide some funding to create a real music program in school so that the younger generation can really learn and appreciate Lao music.”
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