Historical figure
Huoy Meas
Huoy Meas was a Cambodian singer and a presenter on Cambodia's National Radio in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive calls her one of the most famous singers of her time and "the most popular DJ for the National Radio".[1] From 1969 she was heard on air as Meas Mathrey.[2] She disappeared under the Khmer Rouge, and her fate has never been confirmed.[2]
Early life
She was born in 1946 in Svay Pao commune, Sangkae district, in Battambang province.[2][1] At school in Battambang her classmate was Pen Ran.[2]
In early 1962, on her teacher's entry, she competed in the Sakmach Cheat song contest. Singing "Night in Somuor" (រាត្រីនៅសូមួរ), a song by Mao Sareth, she won first prize among the women.[2] The singer Im Song Soeum then asked her to sing with Pen Ran in a troupe at Battambang's Steung Khiev restaurant, which Ros Sereysothea joined later. The troupe went on to Phnom Penh.[2]
National Radio
In Phnom Penh she joined National Radio as a presenter. Each weekend she ran a program of lakhon niyeay, Khmer radio theatre, with the narrators Yuok Kem, Khun Pol and Meas Kok, and she sang on air as well.[2] Cambodge Mag writes that she interviewed Mao Sareth, Sos Math and most of the other performers of the day, and that until April 1975 no woman on Cambodian radio had a larger audience.[2]
She sat on the jury of the national Samdech Cheat song contest, founded by Norodom Sihanouk, with Sinn Sisamouth, Liev Tuk, Touch Teng, Mao Sareth and Chhoun Malai.[2]
Songs and marriages
She began recording in 1962.[2] That year she met the drummer Oum Sophanoureak. They married in 1965, and she filed for divorce in 1968.[2] In 1969 she married Vanly Kesaro, a senior officer.[2]
Cambodge Mag writes that her songs drew on her own life and break-ups, and that Sihanouk compared her lyrics and singing to Édith Piaf. Her known songs include "The Beauty of Tioulongville" (សម្ផស្សបុរីជូឡុង) and "My Child, Don't Ask" (កូនអើយកុំសួរ).[2]
Khmer Rouge years
When the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975, National Radio was the first place they seized. She was evacuated from the city with everyone else and went to Battambang province.[2]
Cambodge Mag draws on testimony gathered many years later. In it she was put to work on dam construction and, under the false name Lom, made her home by a pagoda at Ream Kon in Moung Ruessei district. Two of the accounts it gives end the same way: she fell ill, was recognized and disappeared.[2] Sources give the year of her death as 1975 or 1977.[2] The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive presumes that she died in 1977.[1]
Recordings
The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive has gathered most of her surviving recordings.[2] Her work as a broadcaster and as a singer is featured in the 2015 documentary Don't Think I've Forgotten.[2]