Another brick: Singer Thanh Lam together with rock band The Wall were selected to perform at the World Peace Music Awards. ?VNS Photo.

Vietnamese contemporary rock icon, Tran Lap, was thrilled when the voice on the other end of the phone told him his band will be invited to perform at the World Peace Music Awards.

The rocker and his hard-core band, the Wall, is the second Vietnamese act after pop diva Thanh Lam to be selected by the WPMA organisers.

Also set to join the show are a string of American acts, including Stewart Copeland, The Doors, REM, Black Eyed Peas and Gloria Gaynor. Jamaican reggae artist Ziggy Marley and the Australian rock band INXS will fill out the bill.

"It is hard to believe that we will perform in the same gig with the greatest names in world music," said Tran Lap, "It is gonna be a milestone for the Vietnamese music scene as well as our band’s career."

The WPMA was born to honour those who fight for peace through music.

The award programme, now in its second year, was first held last year in Bali, Indonesia before an audience of 30,000. Gloria Gaynor, whose song, I Will Survive, remains a disco classic, was the awards?first honouree.

This year’s five-hour show, slated to take place at newly-built My Dinh Stadium on June 19, will be televised to 40 countries to an audience of more than two billion people, a figure that would set a new Guinness World Record.

The theme of this year’s event, Life of Peace, is dedicated to great musicians who contributed to peace during their lifetime.

This year’s program will honour such well-known artists as Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Country Joe McDonald, Peter, Paul & Mary and Joan Baez.

In addition, a special honour will be given to Trinh Cong Son, Viet Nam’s late, anti-war musician.

Programme producer Matt Taylor, who has been visiting Viet Nam for the past months to prepare for the event, said the events planned to commemorate the third anniversary of Son’s death, which includes a film documentary, are deeply moving.

"Trinh Cong Son’s songs linked the hearts of music lovers," he said. "I am very moved with his love for his mother. On her tomb, he engraved his loving emotions for her. Once he passed away he was laid next to her grave."

Part of the documentary about Son was filmed at his grave, which is still visited by thousands of fans.

Taylor believes the history of rock n?roll traces back to the anti-war songs during the American war in Viet Nam. These songs helped people realise the nonsense of war and fuelled anti-war movements throughout the world. Thirty years after the war, the songs still echo worldwide.

Further information about the show is available on the WPMA’s official website, http://www.wpma.tv. ?VNS

Reprinted with permission from Vietnam News Agency