Sinn Sisamouth

Sinn Sisamouth (ស៊ីន ស៊ីសាមុត) was a Cambodian singer and songwriter whose career ran from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. With singers such as Ros Sereysothea, he sang jazz, rock and roll and Khmer ballads, and helped shape the sound of Cambodian popular music. Some called him the golden voice or the Elvis of Cambodia. Estimates of the number of songs he recorded run from 1,000 to 4,000.

Sinn Sisamouth. Studio portrait from the sleeve of the single Champa Battambang, 1960s; photographer unknown.

Historical figure details
Khmer name	ស៊ីន ស៊ីសាមុត
Also known as	Sin Sisamouth; Sin Sisamuth
Roles	Singer; Songwriter
Born	Between 1932 and 1935, Stung Treng province
Country	Cambodia
Subjects	Music & Sound; History & Remembrance

Early life

His birthplace was Stung Treng province, and his parents had Lao and Chinese ancestry. The year of his birth is given as anything from 1932 to 1935. When he was about seven, his family moved to Battambang. There an uncle drew him to traditional Khmer music, played on strings such as the fiddle called tro khmer and the lute called chapei.

He came to Phnom Penh to study medicine, in 1949 by the film's timeline. He began playing at bars, restaurants and weddings, and left school to sing for a living, to his parents' disappointment.

Career

In 1951 he joined the Royal Palace orchestra, and by 1953 he sang regularly on the national radio. He performed with the royal ballet and traveled to India, Hong Kong and other countries with a traditional band formed by Norodom Sihanouk. He played in Sihanouk's royal band until the coup of 1970, then joined the army band of Lon Nol's government.

In 1960 he recorded with the female singers Chuon Malay, Mao Sareth, Chunn Vanna and Keo Setha. By the film's timeline, he signed with the Vatt Phnom label in 1963 and recorded "Champa Battambang" ("Flower of Battambang"). Dee Peyok dates his breakthrough with the song to 1962, and describes it as a cover of Ary Barroso's samba "Aquarela do Brasil". It was among the earliest songs aired on Cambodian television.

He met Ros Sereysothea at the national radio station when she was 17, and the two recorded together for more than a decade. From 1966 he also recorded duets with Pen Ran. With his bandmates he at times took the melody of a Western song, such as the Beatles' "Hey Jude", and wrote Khmer lyrics for it. His version of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" became "Away From Beloved Lover". He was among the first to mix Western rock and blues into Cambodian folk and traditional music, and he wrote both ballads and upbeat rock songs.

The lyricist Kong Bunchhoeun of Battambang wrote several songs for him, among them "The Shade of the Tenth Coconut Tree". He sang on the soundtrack of the 1967 film Peou Choouk Sar (White Lotus), and he directed the film Jomreang Et Preang Thok (The Unfinished Song), with Ros Sereysothea as an actress, in 1972 by the film's timeline. Cambodge Mag names a 1974 film that he wrote and directed, Unexpected Song, with a performance by Ros Sereysothea.

Khmer Rouge period

He disappeared after the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, and his fate has never been confirmed. Most of his master tapes were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge. No recording survives of "Violon Sneha", the hit that first made him a star. In 2022 experts told The Cambodia Daily that more than 65 percent of his published songs were lost under the Khmer Rouge.

Legacy

Many of his songs survive in copies made from cassettes and records, and Cambodian radio stations play them. In 2022 a Cambodian living in Australia found a vinyl record of "Bid Farewell to Bopha to Join the Army", a song believed lost.

In December 2014 the Ministry of Commerce granted his family the rights to 73 of his songs, handing them to his wife Khav Thorng Nhot and his son Sinn Chanchhaya. In November 2015 more than 2,000 people came to "It's Time to Give Back", a concert at Koh Pich Theater in Phnom Penh to promote copyright protection, where his grandson Sinn Sethakol performed. He and his wife, a cousin, had three sons and a daughter. His granddaughter Sinn Setsochhata is a singer.

Several documentaries cover his life and music. Pov Sok's Sinn Sisamouth (2001) tells of his childhood, studies and career. John Pirozzi's Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (2014) covers the musicians of his era, and Elvis of Cambodia, by Chris G. Parkhurst and Stephanie Vincenti, was shown at the Cambodia International Film Festival in June 2024. In 2025 a statue of him was planned along the Sekong River in the town of Stung Treng.

References