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Trần Quyết Lập (12 December 1974 –17 March 2016), known professionally as Trần Lập, is a Vietnamese singer and songwriter. He was known for lead vocalist, chief songwriter and co-founder of rock band Bức Tường until his death in 2016. "Đường đến ngày vinh quang" (The Road to the Glorious Day) became their signature song and help them to establish the biggest rock fanbase in Vietnam.

In the early days of rock music scene in Vietnam, Trần Lập and his band was among the pioneers of Vietnamese rock acts. His lifetime and songwriting are considered as "higly consistent". He died on 17 March 2016 at his home after a period of cancer treatment.

Early life
Trần Lập's full name is Trần Quyết Lập. He was born on 12 December 1974 in Vụ Bản district, Nam Định province, Democratic Republic of Vietnam. He is the youngest brother of a largely poor family. Since early days, he had natural talent for music. As a teenager, Trần Lập's father suffered from half-body paralysis, and his mother suffered from severe arthritis. When his elder brother and sister work far from home, he had to take care of his parent by himself.

Career
Trần Lập began his musical career by enrolling a class of live perfomance and vocal techniques, which is under Department of Theatre, Hanoi College of Art from 1993 to 1997. He also studied and graduated from Hanoi National University's Department of Economics in 2001 and Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities's Department of Literature in 2004. In May 2006, during Bức Tường's long hiatus, Trần Lập was offered to host Hanoi Radio Television's gameshow named "Vượt qua thử thách".

In summer 2007, Trần Lập performed his own song named "Dế mèn" (Gryllidae) in the opening ceremony of Kim Đồng's Children Book Fair that was held in Hanoi Children Palace. In the same year, he served as Asian Football Confederation's Football Goodwill Ambassador. In the following year, he has served as Rock Storm's programming director for three consecutive years and for variety of other events. In the ending perfomance of "Rockstorm 2009", Trần Lập performed his three notable songs, including "Ngày hôm qua" (Yesterday), "Cơn mưa hoang dã" (Wild Rain) và "Đường đến ngày vinh quang".

After 4-year hiatus, on the Millennial Anniversary of Hanoi, Trần Lập and his band reformed and their upcoming album Ngày khác (Other Days) saw a significant change in their musical style from hard rock/metal to modern rock (or alternative rock). The album's CD cover art included the tatoo on the right hand of Trần Lập.

In 2012, Trần Lập was one of the judges of gameshow The Voice of Vietnam (season 1). He was said to create a nickname for his 14-member team. In 2013, he released an autobiography titled "Bên kia Bức Tường" that is about his rock music career and his tenure with Bức Tường. In 2015, he appeared on the cover of Men's Culture and Sport magazine.

with Bức Tường
On 26 March 1995, Trần Lập co-founded rock band Bức Tường and served as frontman. He was also the chief songwriter with over 30 songs; especially, the song "Đường đến ngày vinh quang" (The Road to the Glorious Day) became their signature song, help them to establish the biggest rock fanbase in Vietnam. Trần Lập wrote the song "Đường đến ngày vinh quang" in 1998 when his band struggled to overcome their financial problems. Then Bức Tường spent all their money on recording the song. After completing the song, they sent it to editor Long Vũ, then he played "Đường đến ngày vinh quang" on a sport news. The song immediately received many acclaims, giving the band more chances to access live performances. In 2001, Trần Lập said that Bức Tường would released their rock debut album, titled Tâm hồn của đá (The Soul of Rock) on late September. In the following year, the band embarked the liveshow Tâm hồn của đá to support their debut album (which was also their first live performance); it was estimated that about 10,000 people attended the first rock liveshow in Vietnam. Although this liveshow was prepared carefully, quickly, and well received, but Trần Lập was regretful for many reasons that made the show not successful as he had expected. Tâm hồn của đá liveshow was named as one of 10 Vietnamese cultural events of that year. In the same liveshow, Bức Tường presented some new songs featured in their second CD that would be released on late 2001.

In 2003, Bức Tường had a live performance in Visages Francophones Music Festival, France. In 2004, in an interview with VTV3 channel, Trần Lập said that he added the band's best songs from two albums (Tâm hồn của đá and Vô hình) to a setlist of a liveshow named Bông hồng thủy tinh (Crystal Rose) that was held in Phan Đình Phùng Arena. A year later, Bức Tường became the first Vietnamese band (and the only Vietnamese band at that time) embarked a national tour. 4 liveshows named 9+ were held in Hanoi, Haiphong, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, respectively. In late 2005, Trần Lập was said to cut his hair before a liveshow named Những hòn đá lăn. After the success of Những hòn đá lăn on November, he said that he and Bức Tường were ready to release their upcoming fourth album with many new songs.

In 2006, Trần Lập's Bức Tường announced they would play a farewell show named Last Saturday. The band's fans who were not in Hanoi could be enjoy the show on Voice of Vietnam. Last Saturday took place at Giảng Võ Exhibition Center, Hanoi and had an appearance of 20.000 fans, becoming the most crowded in a Bức Tường's show. About the reason of the band's break-up, he said the reason was from conflicting issues that were present in Vietnam's rock music scene, specifically in both local music scene and event organizer.

In 2010, Bức Tường reformed with their fourth album named Ngày khác (Other Days) and liveshow named Người (People). In 2011, the band was among acts performing at Asean Rock Music Festival that was held in Indonesia. In 2013, they were the acts performing in fifth live performance of a television show named "Dấu ấn" that took place in Nguyen Du Arena, Ho Chi Minh City. According to Trần Lập, although the show's running time was not enough for the band to perform all their songs but they would show fan their "featured characteristics" on this show. A few days later, Trần Lập and his bandmates continued to perform at a liveshow (which was under Rock Storm music tour) in Da Nang on the evening of 14 December; this show was well-received from Vietnamese rock fans.

Cancer disease
On 4 November 2015, Trần Lập revealed on his fanpage that he "began to fight with cancer disease", drawing many ecouragements from his fellows such as Tuấn Hưng, Chí Trung, Phạm Anh Khoa.... Trần Lập was diagnosed with colorectal cancer and metastasized. After nearly 4-hour surgery of removing colorectal tumor on the evening of November 6; by the noon of the next day, Trần Lập awaked and said that he was fine. While the public was shocked by the news of Trần Lập's cancer disease, he was the one who reassured and show an optimistic outlook, even felt "it was just like a dream".

Learning the news of Trần Lập's severe condition, Bức Tường's current and former bandmates was among many acts who perfomed to support for Trần Lập's cancer treatment. His final liveshow, Bức Tường và những người bạn: Đôi bàn tay thắp lửa (Bức Tường and Their Friends: The Hands of Lighting a Fire), was held on 16 January 2016. At that show, he wrote a song dedicated to his wife. In spite of his severe conditions that made he perform on a wheelchair, he was described as his "healthy and charming appearance with a great vocal". The show has held for nearly 12 hours, which made a strong impression and emotion on the public. About two months befor his death, in the cold weather of Hanoi, Trần Lập visited and gave presents to sick children.

Death
Trần Lập died at the noon of 17 March 2016 in his home in Hanoi, shortly after his 41st birthday. According to his family, on 23 March 2016, his funeral was held at 7:30 am in Ministry of Defence's Funeral House, located on Lê Thánh Tông Street, Hanoi. Initially, it was said that Trần Lập would be buried in his hometown cemetery, located in Vụ Bản district, Nam Định province. However, according to Trần Lập's last wishes and his family's will, he was buried in Thiên Đức Cemetery, Phù Ninh district, Phú Thọ province.

Personal life
Trần Lập got married in 2003; he has a son and a daughter. His wife, named Ngô Thị Mai Hoa is a physician working in Central Maternity Hospital. As of 2020, it was said that their son was in tenth grade and their daughter was in seventh grade.

Trần Lập revealed about his first tattoo - an angel tattoo that he got when he was 18 years old. He said that the tattoos were "unforgettable moments" during his 10-year rock music career. In an online interview with Zing, he revealed about his Sagittarius tattoo due to his zodiac sign. He also tattooed each member of his family's name on his chest.

In his personal life, Trần Lập was not keen on travelling around Vietnam on Tết or other holidays. He said that on those days, he usually sleeps at his home, watches movies or plays tennis. His hobby is backpacking with his cruiser motorcyles collection. He is the owner of many cruisers, from heavy vehicles to variety lines of Magma, Steed, Shadow... In 2006, he bought an Intruder 800 motorcyle, valued about 3,000 USD at that time. Then he changed some parts of this vehicle according to his hobby and demand.

Legacy
In the early days of rock music scene in Vietnam, Trần Lập and his band were among the pioneers of Vietnamese rock acts. According to VnExpress, his lifetime and musis is "highly consistent" that "when people listen their music, they will find a fire of passion, an intense love of life." Among Trần Lập's songs, "Đường đến ngày vinh quang" is considered as a notable song that highlights his (and Bức Tường's) features. In many cultural/social/sport/ events, when Vietnamese flag appears, "Đường đến ngày vinh quang" is frequently played at the same time.

During his lifetime, Trần Lập and Bức Tường not only established themshelves in Vietnamese rock scene, he was also active in other activities such as starring in film and television, serving as an ambassador, consultant, executive producer and chief director of music shows.

During his tenure with Bức Tường, however, they was criticized that "Bức Tường just played trivial rock music", and he replied, "there is no such an concept in the world's rock scene". In a Bức Tường's liveshow held in 2011, drawing over 7,000 rock fans, VnExpress wrote that "Trần Lập was occasionally lost his voice" due to "time that has had an significant impact on his voice".

Scandal with Bảo Anh
In 2012, in the first season of The Voice of Vietnam, despite of being criticized as "an disaster", singer Bảo Anh still received support and acclaims from Trần Lập, he even decided to let her pass the show's qualifying rounds, drawing a lot of critical comments from online community. A few days ago, he used to say in a conference: "[...] leave us alone, don't mess with us..." that made the public angry and protest against his statement. Due to Trần Lập's bias towards Bảo Anh, they received a lot of criticisms. There were mixed reviews about his decisions, some said that Trần Lập was destroying his own image and efforts after participating that show. When the first season of The Voice of Vietnam was doubted to have an arrangement, Trần Lập had to face many responses from public.

After learning a rumor about an affair with Trần Lập, Bảo Anh confirmed that they "have no such an affair". Even though, learning a rumour about a clip sex featuring them made her sick.

The lawsuit with Zing MP3
On December 3, 2014, The People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City conducted a court of first instance for a civil lawsuit between Trần Lập and VNG Corporation Company. According to his lawsuit claim, Trần Lập accused VNG of having uploaded a recording of his song - "Đường đến vinh quang" on their music website named Zing MP3 for a long time without his permission. He requested them a total compensation of 150 million Vietnamese đồng, including his songwriting fee (over 55 million Vietnamese đồng), a compensatory damages by the fact that he was not able to release a new album featuring that song (50 million Vietnamese đồng) and 50 million Vietnamese đồng for his attorney's fee.

VNG's representative did not agree to pay compensation to Trần Lập and claimed that although they were the owner of mp3.zing.vn website, but the Zing MP3's recorded audio content was uploaded by users instead of them. They claimed that this service is streaming platform and VNG did not managed its users's digital content. Then VNG asked Trần Lập to withdraw his accusation and sign an contract with them. After the lawsuit's argument, the judge determined on extending this case and would return a verdict on December 10. This is the first time an lawsuit about digital content copyright had been officially conducted in Vietnam.

On December 10, 2014, the judge terminated the case after Trần Lập agreed to withdrawn his lawsuit claim. He and VNG also had an settlement about using Bức Tường's recording audio on Zing MP3.

Honours
2 days after Trần Lập's death, the president of Vietnam Musician Association named Đỗ Hồng Quân said that his association would cooperate with Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to present him an honorary medal posthumously. In 2017, a liveshow named "Trần Lập – Hẹn gặp lại" (Trần Lập - See You Again) was held to tribute Trần Lập. Almost Bức Tường's thirty songs (all written by Trần Lập) were covered by numerous bands and artists such as Microwave, Ngũ Cung, Tùng Dương, Anh Khoa, Tạ Quang Thắng... This show was considered as an realization of Trần Lập's unfinished ideas during his lifetime.

2 years after Trần Lập's death, Bức Tường had an reunion show named "Ngày trở về". Then Bức Tường open a cover competition in order to add the winner to the band's line-up in their nation tour in 2019.

The current leader of Bức Tường, guitarist Trần Tuấn Hùng revealed that Trần Lập would be featured on the liveshow named "Trở về" held at Hanoi University of Civil Engineering in a special way. In a music show named "Music Home" was aired on FPT Channel on May 28, Trần Lập's early life stories, the beauties mentioned in his songs were revealed by his wife for the first time. In 2022, a documentary about Bức Tường titled Những bức tường (The Walls) was released. The film has a running time of 116 minuted that follows Bức Tường's struggles and return after their leader passed away.

In 2015, Trần Lập was nominated for "Musician of the year" at Dedication Music Award posthumously.

In 2016, Dedication Music Award's committee revealed that they would honor Trần Lập posthumously in 2017.

At the same year, Trần Lập won an VTV Award for Person of the year.

In 2021, 5 years after his death, Trần Lập still received an nomination at Dedication Music Award posthumously.