Ros Serey Sothea,1948–1977, was a famous singer during the final years of Cambodia's Sangkum Reastr Niyum and the Khmer Republic. She sang from a variety of genres but romantic ballads emerged as her most popular works.
Despite a rather short career she is credited with producing hundreds of songs and even starring in a few movies and films.
The late King Norodom Sihanouk called Ros Serey Sothea "the golden voice of the royal capital.
She displayed vocal talent as a toddler and grew up listening to early Cambodian singers such as Mao Sareth and Chunn Malai which doubtlessly had a profound influence.
By the 1970s, American influence from neighboring South Vietnam had reached Cambodia and Sothea, along with her contemporaries, began experimenting in Western genres. Her high, clear voice, coupled with the rock backing bands featuring prominent, distortion-laden lead guitars, pumping organ and loud, driving drums, made for an intense, sometimes haunting sound that is best described today as psychedelic or garage rock. Like the leader of the music scene, Sinn Sisamouth, Sothea would often take popular Western rock tunes, such as John Fogerty's "Proud Mary" and refashion them with Khmer lyrics.
Sinn Sisamouth was born in 23 August 1932, in Stung Treng Province. – died in 18 June 1976. He was a famous and highly prolific Cambodian singer-songwriter from the 1950s to the 1970s.