What if the happiest moments of your life could only be revisited in your dreams? That's the question behind "phan thiet", the lead single from Kiey's third album METROMIRAGE, and by his own account one of his favourite songs he's ever made.
Who Is Kiey?
Kiey is an independent artist from Vietnam, born in 1994, who grew up listening to and loving US and UK pop. His artist name comes from his first name, Kiet. He specialises in euphoric, ethereal mid-tempo electro-pop and controls every aspect of his music, from lyrics to production. He started producing around 2015 while studying Business Management at King's College London, teaching himself production and mixing along the way.
His debut album Night To Myself, produced in his bedroom in early 2018, opens with the funky "Drunk Black Cat", and with it he hoped to paint the listening experience a solitary black. His second album, Sunday Sanctuary, followed, and across his work he mainly explores love, desire and loneliness.
The pop singers Kiey admires include Lana Del Rey, Britney Spears, Utada Hikaru, Björk, Madonna and Michael Jackson. Together, they helped shape his own soundscape: a marriage between melancholic melodies and the heavy beats of the dancefloor.
The Story Behind phan thiet
Phan Thiết is a city in Vietnam, and Kiey sums up the song's idea in a few powerful lines: "Money and wealth means nothing if cherished love is forever gone. You can only revisit the happiest moments in your dreams. Will you try to replicate it, and to what ends?"
That's a big theme, and it fits his style perfectly. Love, longing and memory have always been at the centre of his songwriting, and naming a song after a real place gives that longing something concrete to hold on to. The track also comes with an official music video, so it's worth checking out on YouTube if you want the full picture.
At almost five minutes, "phan thiet" takes its time. It's tagged as alt pop, bedroom and lo-fi pop and commercial pop, which says a lot about Kiey's approach: polished enough for a wide audience, but still personal and homemade at its core.
Welcome to METROMIRAGE
"phan thiet" first came out as a single in July 2026 and is now track three on METROMIRAGE, which is out now. The album looks at modern city life: "Beneath the alluring temptations and dazzling glamour of modern urban life, people are gradually losing their connection with one another." Across the record, Kiey explores the many different aspects of love in an increasingly dystopian and advanced world.
Other songs on the album include "moon over metropolis", "white boy i sat next to on the plane", "space elevator", "sad erotica" and "only advance", plus collaborations with Hà Lê on "closer" and CeCe Trương on "fun fiction".
A Tip for Independent Artists
Kiey writes, produces and releases his own music, which is a lot to juggle. If you're an artist doing it all yourself too, DistroKid makes it simple to distribute your tracks to Spotify, Apple Music and the other major platforms, and this link gets you 7% off your membership.
What Do You Think?
Is there a place you can only go back to in your dreams? Which happy moment would you want to relive? Let me know in the comments!
