Ros Sereysothea, Khmer Rocks Options

[SreyNYC]

I have fallen in love with Ros Sereysothea, she has the most enchanting voice and she can groove like no other. I love the old khmer rock, have been listening all day. I have been trying to find some bio info, on Ros Sereysothea but with no luck. Wondering if anyone out there shares my admiration, or has any more information about this awesome lady. Thanks

[g0ldenchild]

When it comes to Cambodian greatest female vocalists, who could have done it better than Ros Sereysothea? I don’t know of anyone better, not then and not now. She was purely a free spirited woman who presented her work full of truth and realism. Not only she spoke and showed the value of Cambodian women through her songs, she made sure you feel it too. Sothea was purely an exceptionally rare diva in the Cambodian music history.












Sothea is the greatest Cambodian female singer ever lived. Sothea had this electrifying voice that made every word she sung more exuberant. She had a laugh that can just cheer you up and give you goose bumps simultaneously. Sothea was a tiny woman around five feet but, boy, she had a voice of an amplifier. She didn’t need a microphone and her voice can already be heard distances away. Unfortunately, not much of her life story was ever told but through the songs she sung. So little information was left behind that I don’t even know where to start to tell this very limited life story of Sothea with no unspecific dates or years. Let’s start by…



Ros Sereysothea’s birth name was Ros Sothea. She was born in a small village in Battambong to a country family a couple years after Sinn Sisamouth’s birth. Sothea wasn’t born lucky, hardship defined her childhood. Since her family couldn’t afford school, Sothea grew up not knowing how to write or read Khmer. But, it didn’t put her spirit down, only made her stronger.

Stronger and more enduring she was. In her a teens, she and her family made a living by having their own peasant traditional band. Sothea sang with her brother, Serey who was the male vocalist, while the rest of her family played the music. They performed daily throughout the small villages of Battambong, making more or less money from village to another. It wasn’t big living and occasionally struggled but it brought food for the family.

Their reputation grew very gradually but promising it seemed. Sothea’s talent in singing was creditable and it brought audiences for her family band. The band was said to have a name, but the people knew them only as the “Serey-Sothea” since they were the attraction of the group.

When the music industry in Cambodia started growing, so did the popularity of musicians. When words got to the villagers that musicians and singers were making real good money, Serey and Sothea were encouraged to go to the big city, Phnom Penh, to seek opportunity. They had nothing to lose, and so Sothea and her brother traveled to Phnom Penh.

Serey and Sothea had no connection in Phnom Penh. They had so choice but to request clubs for a spot on the spotlight. Charming and vibrant as she was, Sothea and together with her brother were hired instantly by a club as their regular singers. Sothea was a success. She captivated men and women who laid their ears on her voice. The popular female artists at that time were decent, but Sothea was something beyond their anticipation. She was breathtaking the moment she sang her heart out to the audience.



.
Sothea was already a diva even before she started recording songs. Her popularity flourished swiftly and left her brother in the dark. When her popularity reached music producers, she was known as “Sereysothea”. Soon, opportunity came knocking on her door and offered her a big future in the music career. She took the name as Ros Sereysothea and entered the world where she really belonged…music.

Then, there were blanks…gaps…and more gaps on how Sothea’s career progressed. However, in the haze of her career, the King gave her a title as the, “Preah Rheich Teany Somlang Meas (Golden Voice of the Royal Capital),” in the mid 1960’s. And then, there were gaps.












Although Sothea’s career appeared very successful and prosperous, she wasn’t at all happy with her life and, especially, her love life. During a Cambodian media interview with her living son in the late 1990’s, he mentioned that when his mother was alive, she constantly remained him not to be a singer like her because she been through so much bitterness. There are evidences just through her songs along that she understand the misery and sourness. When she cried in her songs, you could actually feel the pain she was holding inside. Sometimes she cried so well from her heart in the song that it seemed as if she used the chance to cover her true pain.

Sothea surely was not content with her love life which was not as luxuriant and successful as her career were. She had many love relationships during her career. One of the most publicized relationships was her relationship with the son of the Preah Jun Penh Vong Theater of Phnom Penh.

Being a female singer as Sothea didn’t get her much respect from her lovers. “Selling her voice” was not a quality of value in her relationship. When she married a singer, Suos Mat, Sothea was only happy for a while until he divorced her only after a few years. Then in the mist of the early 1970’s Sothea remarried to a soldier of the Khmer Republic. She lived with him for only a short moment and lost him to the war.



Sothea continued her career until the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh in April 1975. Along with everyone else, she was forced into the campsite of the Khmer Rouge. Based on an interview with Teav Heng (an imprisoned survivor of Pol Pot) by Tusanavadei Brorcheaprei, she claimed to live with Sothea under the same camp and filled in the life story of Sothea during the Pol Pot regime.



Sothea was forced to live in the irrigation building in the Phnom Sruorch, Kompung Speu, work site. There she met Teav Heng and revealed that she was Ros Sereysothea to Heng and the people in the building, who did not believed he her at first. But when they realized that Ros Sereysothea was living with them, the news quickly reached the leader of the site. When he learnt that the famous female singer was in the site, he assigned her to sing the new regime songs which was written to remind the people to work harder. When she wasn’t singing, she was required to work like everyone else.

Sothea was later forced by Pol Pot to marry one of his assistants in 1977. Her life was slavish already and marrying to someone she never knew made her life all the more troublesome. The marriage brought her nothing but stresses and abuses. The leader frequently ordered to sing at various sites and her husband would get extremely jealous and physically abuse her.

Sothea’s husband made big commotions and disturbances every night that it made the leader of the site extremely irritated. Not long enough, Sothea had disappeared from the building. None of Sothea’s friends ever saw her again. By this point, they all suspected that she was killed because of her husband. There were also gossips that she died from drug overdose.

Teav Heng was still skeptical of Sothea death until she heard from the other site people that they saw Sothea and her family sent off on a cow wagon to a different site. Heng included that people who were sent off to another site, were actually sent to the death site. And that was the last time Heng heard of Sothea…

Sothea may be physically gone but her spirit and voice live with us. It’s really sad and injustice that she had to go through all those bitterness and torment and died unfulfilled.

[NitaKang]

Wow..this is my 2nd time reading a good biography of some past celebrity from Cambodia. Where do you guys get all the information? (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[RockHeart]

Wow! Its so amazing about the KhmerSingers Histories!!! You guys so great memorize to describe on that!!! I am so admired on you all...

[SreyNYC]

Thank you gOldenchild for the great information on Ros Sereysothea, an amazing story but definitely a tragic one. Do you have any links of pictures of her? Thanks again.

[PervertBurger]

I've been addicted to her music,,,

[transtic]

Thank you gOldenchild for the great information on Ros Sereysothea, an amazing story but definitely a tragic one. Do you have any links of pictures of her? Thanks again.

I found some pics, though i wish I had clearer ones.. They're all from CD covers.. >.<

(IMG:http://www.gocambodia.com/mp3_new/images/sothea_center.gif) (IMG:http://ez9.ez-web-hosting.com/~cambodia/images/ssrs01.gif) (IMG:http://ez9.ez-web-hosting.com/~cambodia/images/ssrs03.gif) (IMG:http://ez9.ez-web-hosting.com/~cambodia/images/sothea01.jpg) (IMG:http://ez9.ez-web-hosting.com/~cambodia/images/sothea02.gif) (IMG:http://ez9.ez-web-hosting.com/~cambodia/images/sothea07.jpg) (IMG:http://members.home.nl/hjr.smeets/assets/images/db_images/db_sothea081.jpg)

[Dara]

Very beautiful. She looks a lot like Nita in the second to the last pic.

[g0ldenchild]

http://home.comcast.net/~sidmann/sothear_and_samouth1.mpg 10Mb
http://home.comcast.net/~sidmann/sothear_and_samouth2.mpg 2.5Mb

Better yet, here's a video of her ^^

[NitaKang]

When I look at Pee Wee Herman to the side, I think of Sinsamouth's songs.

[g0ldenchild]

1

This post has been edited by g0ldenchild: Jan 14 2007, 04:31 AM

[menghuy]

When I look at Pee Wee Herman to the side, I think of Sinsamouth's songs
lol he does look like him

By the way this isnt Srey sothea sorry
I think it's Dy seang or something i forgot her name

lol,yes it is her. those pictures are in the difference tapes in the different year. i have all of them. by the way she can read and write khmer but she doesnt want to admitted to the khmer rouge.

This post has been edited by menghuy: Feb 9 2005, 11:32 PM

[Menikani]

http://home.comcast.net/~sidmann/sothear_and_samouth1.mpg 10Mb
http://home.comcast.net/~sidmann/sothear_and_samouth2.mpg 2.5Mb

Better yet, here's a video of her ^^

Dosen't work bro. Try uploading it here: yousendit.com

[prahok]

i really love this duet song by her and sin sisamouth
http://s5.ultrashare.net/hosting/fs/94f092416cee597c/

[hce23]

i really love this duet song by her and sin sisamouth
http://s5.ultrashare.net/hosting/fs/94f092416cee597c/

i like it (IMG:http://www.asiafinest.com/forum/style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)