Bio
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Mai Khôi is an award-winning singer, composer, and activist. She rose to stardom in 2010 after winning the Vietnam Television Song and Album of the Year awards. As a pop star, Khôi released seven albums and was featured regularly on national television and in magazines, tabloids, and news articles. In 2016, after years of frustration with government censorship, she nominated herself for the National Assembly on a pro-democracy platform. Her campaign sparked a nationwide debate about political participation and culminated in a meeting with then-President Barack Obama. But her activism came at a high price: she was banned from performing in public, evicted from multiple residences, detained by the police, and eventually forced to flee the country out of fear for her safety.
Since 2019, Mai Khôi has lived in exile in the USA. In 2019, she was a resident artist at SHIM:NYC, and in 2020, she was awarded an Artist Protection Fund Fellowship in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh, City of Asylum, and the International Free Expression Project. Mai Khôi was an Exiled Artist-in-Residence at City of Asylum in Pittsburgh from 2020-2022. She is currently an Artist Advisory Board Member for the Artistic Freedom Initiative and an International Advisory Board Member for the International Free Expression Project.
In recognition of her work at the intersection of art and activism, Mai Khôi was awarded the 2018 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent and the 2022 Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech. Her most recent album, Five Years in Exile, was released on Ropeadope in 2026 to critical acclaim.
Khôi is currently based in Philadelphia, PA. “Mai Khôi” is a mononym, and the short version is “Khôi,” not “Mai.”