Phạm Ngọc Hân’s Melbourne Roots: From Martial Arts to Aemina Dance Covers
Phạm Ngọc Hân, known around the globe by her stage name Hanni, was born on October 6, 2004, in the vibrant city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Growing up as a third-generation Vietnamese-Australian within a loving, culturally rich household, Hanni was immersed in a heritage that bridged Southeast Asian traditions with Western multiculturalism. Her father hails from Hanoi and her mother from Ho Chi Minh City, creating an environment where English was her native tongue, but Vietnamese was regularly spoken alongside a deep appreciation for Asian arts and customs. She grew up alongside a younger sister named Jasmine, developing a close sibling bond that remains one of her primary sources of emotional grounding.
From an extraordinarily young age, Hanni displayed an innate affinity for performance, music, and physical expression. Encouraged by her family, her early childhood was marked by diverse athletic and artistic pursuits. Her grandfather ran a local Taekwondo academy in Australia, leading Hanni to practice the Korean martial art throughout her elementary school years—an early, poetic connection to the country where she would later achieve worldwide superstardom. Alongside her martial arts training, Hanni pursued musical theater, self-taught ukulele playing, and vocal exercises. Her initial taste of the public stage came in 2014 when, as a primary school student, she competed on the Australian television talent show The Voice Kids Australia, performing a song by her childhood favorite band, One Direction.
As a teenager attending Our Lady of Mercy College in Melbourne, Hanni became heavily engrossed in the global K-pop movement. In 2019, she co-founded and actively performed with the Melbourne-based cover dance group Aemina. Alongside her close friends, Hanni spent countless hours meticulously learning complex choreographies, refining her rhythmic precision, dynamic facial expressions, and stage presence. Her natural talent and magnetism within the local cover scene signaled a promising future, setting the stage for a life-altering opportunity when global talent scouts arrived in Australia.
