Historical figure
Ros Sereysothea
រស់ សេរីសុទ្ធា
Ros Sereysothea (រស់ សេរីសុទ្ធា), also written Ros Serey Sothea, was a Cambodian singer of the 1960s and 1970s. Norodom Sihanouk gave her the title "golden voice of the royal capital".[1][2] She recorded more than 500 songs and sang with Sinn Sisamouth. The two are regarded as icons of Cambodian popular music before the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975.[3][4]
Early life
She was born Ros Sothea in Battambang province.[5] Her birth year is given as 1947 in some accounts and 1948 in others.[6][1] She grew up in a farming family and worked in the rice fields.[7] Her eldest sister, Ros Saboeun, remembered her as the one singer in the family, who began to sing at about six or seven.[6] With her brother Serey, she earned a living singing traditional Khmer music at weddings.[5] In 1963 friends persuaded her to enter a regional singing contest.[8]
Career
She moved to Phnom Penh in the mid-1960s. Nik Cohn wrote in The Guardian that Sinn Sisamouth found her in 1965, when she was 19, and brought her to the capital.[5] She sang for the national radio station, first in duets and then alone, and took the stage name Ros Serey Sothea.[9] Her first hit was "Stung Khieu" ("Blue River"), released in 1967.[8][9]
She became Sinn Sisamouth's singing partner.[8] The two recorded hit songs together, some of them for Cambodian films, and at times set Khmer lyrics of their own to the tune of a Western song such as "Hey Jude".[4] Her songs also include loose Khmer versions of "Proud Mary" and "Wooly Bully".[9] Cohn called "I'm Sixteen" her greatest hit.[5] Her heavier rock songs, such as "I'm Sixteen" and "Wait Five More Months", carry the sound of surf and garage rock.[10]
Sihanouk honored her with a royal title, written Preah Rheich Teany Somlang Meas, which is translated both as the golden voice title above and as "Queen with the Golden Voice".[11][8][1] She was also one of Cambodia's first women paratroopers.[3] A photograph in the magazine Khmer Republic of September 1971 shows her completing her paratrooper training.[12]
Khmer Rouge period
After the Khmer Rouge took Phnom Penh in April 1975, she was sent to the countryside in Kampong Speu, as were many artists.[9] What happened to her there has never been confirmed, and the accounts differ.[3][5][13]
Legacy
Another elder sister, Ros Saboeut, helped bring Cambodia's surviving musicians back together after the Khmer Rouge period.[2] Her songs appeared on the 1996 compilation Cambodian Rocks.[10] The soundtrack of Matt Dillon's film City of Ghosts used three of her hits: "Wait Ten Months", "Have You Seen My Love?" and "I'm Sixteen".[8][7] The Cambodian Vintage Music Archive keeps original records of her songs.[7] John Pirozzi's documentary Don't Think I've Forgotten covers the years of Cambodian rock before the Khmer Rouge.[2]
The writer Gregory Cahill and the artist Kat Baumann told her life in the graphic novel The Golden Voice, published in Khmer in 2022 and in English in 2023.[12] The Khmer edition was launched at the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh.[6] Cahill drew on her sister's account and on others who knew her, and said that about 95 percent of the book comes from oral history.[13] Because her story survives mostly by word of mouth, the accounts of her life often disagree.[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Cambodianess, Ros Sereysothea: Remembering a Legendary Singer (April 28, 2020)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Phnom Penh Post, Will Jackson, Woman who reunited early rockers dies at 72 (March 10, 2014)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Phnom Penh Post, Raksmey Hong, Ros Serey Sothea graphic novel set for English release (June 25, 2023)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cambodge Mag, Christophe Gargiulo, History & Tribute: Sinn Sisamouth and Ros Serey Sothea (February 23, 2025)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 The Guardian, Nik Cohn, A voice from the killing fields (May 19, 2007)
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Cambodianess, Meng Seavmey, Graphic Novel Sublimates Life of Cambodian Pop Music 'Golden Voice' (December 6, 2022)
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Southeast Asia Globe, Anton L. Delgado, The legacy of Cambodia's 'Golden Voice' takes on a new form (December 22, 2021)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 The Phnom Penh Post, Sereysothea's life story to be graphic novel (May 4, 2020)
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Cambodge Mag, Ros Serey Sothea, the Golden Voice, Legacy of a Lost Star (November 9, 2025)
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Far Out Magazine, Tyler Golsen, Ros Serey Sothea: The golden-voiced Cambodian surf rocker slain by the Khmer Rouge (October 5, 2023)
- ↑ Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe, Ros Sereysothea (June 24, 2008)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 IIAS, The Newsletter 101, Stéphanie Benzaquen-Gautier, The Golden Voice, graphic novels and the Khmer Republic (2025)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Long Beach Post, Cheantay Jensen, New graphic novel illustrates the untold story of Cambodia's lost rock star (October 15, 2023)