Her full name is Lê Thị Ý Lan.
Her mother was the singer Thái Thanh,[1] and her father is actor Lê Quỳnh.
Ý Lan attended primary and secondary school in Saigon.
Despite her family's artistic tradition, she entered the professional music industry quite late: it was not until the late 1980s that she became a professional singer and released her first musical CD.
Ý Lan currently lives in California (United States).