Sinn Sisamouth
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Sinn Sisamouth (Alternate spellings: Sinn Sisamout/h, Sisamut/h or 'Si' with spacing e.g. Si Sisamouth) (Pronounced: Sinn Sis-sa-mott with a silent 'h') was a very famous and a highly prolific Cambodian singer-songwriter of the 1960s and 70s.
Even nowadays, he is still considered a 'household' name and popular music choice. This was because his presence and influence on Cambodian music was so great. His main female singing partners for duo songs were Ros Sereysothear and Pan Ron of which the previous is ideal to be Sisamouth's singing partner because her high crisp voice balanced the deeper toned but also crisp voice of Sisamouth. He had also sang the songs for the soundtracks to many famous movies at the time like On srey On and Thavory meas bong.
However this was all shortened by his death, as it is believed that Sinn Sisamouth and other Khmer musicians and actors of his time died during the Khmer Rouge regime during the 1970s. This led to a shorter than expected career of what many people can consider as the 'King of Khmer music', his works however still are pretty much alive in terms of how his work are in existence and the popularity despite the growing younger generation of Khmer singers and their more perhaps 'westernized' approach to pop music and other genres like rap music.
Sinn Sisamouth both composed and sang literally hundreds of songs, of which most of them he composed and sang himself or with partners. For the exception for a few translations of some of what can be called his 'favourite' songs, in which he translated from languages such as English and French and sang in Khmer (Cambodia's main language) therefore introducing international songs into Cambodia that people may at that time might not have heard of ever before.
A great number of Sisamouth's works were mainly focused on love as the genre, however there were some which could be classified under the rock category and can be distinguished from his love songs by the more intense background music and the lyrics which are sung at usually a faster pace and somewhat a least gentle tone. Some people in the music industry in Cambodia at that time may specialise only in singing or composing songs. But what sets Sisamouth apart from them is he did both - wrote his own songs and sung them himself or with a partner. Not only just composed a song or only sang one, this makes Sisamouth as a highly prolific singer. Also worth mentioning, are the skills of those who played the instruments for the tunes to the song contributing to the overall success of Sinn Sisamouth and adding to their contribution to the Khmer music.
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Discography
Some of the songs (from the hundreds and possibly thousands) that he actually composed and sang himself or with Ros Sereysothear or Pan Ron include:Solo performances
A
- Annie...
- Anuksavary Phnom Sompov (Thoughts of the Sompov mountain)
B
- Ba Oun Ban Bong Oun (If baby you had me...)
- Battambang Bomdourl Jet
- Bopha Chiang Mai (Girl from Chiang Mai)
- Bopha dee krong (Girl from the city)
- Bopha Koah Kong (Girl from Koah Kong Island)
- Bopha tae mouy (Only one girl)
C
- Chmous Oun Diuc Doung Dara
D
- Dourng stoeng Poursat
- Dourng stoeng Songgai
- Doung netra
G
- Gondal doung jet
K
- Keung Pruos Srolueng (I am angry because I love...)
- Kolap Pailin (Pailin rose)
L
- Lamorm huey na srey
M
- Maloub doung stoeng por bak kaing
- Mer Tderk Samouth (Looking at the water of the Ocean)
- Msel Meng (Yesterday)
N
- Neary chnam 72 (Girl in the year 1972)
- Nek oun jeernich (I dream about you...)
O
- Oh oh yeah yeah A song by Sinn Sisamouth containing a chorus in English
- On srey On (On, the woman, On)*
- Oun mou pee nah? (Girl, where have you been?)
P
- Pailin Souben Snae
- Pkai Pruk (Morning star)
- Porp Samnang
R
- Ream Keng Sror Maiy
- Roomdourl dourng stoeng Songgai (Flower of the Songgai river)
- Roomdourl Poursat (Flower of Pursat)
S
- Samouth ream
- Snae ney yoerng (Our love)
- Soriya reap lich
- Stoeng Songgai prey jet tmey (River Songgai, new changer of mood)
T
- Tep Thida Knong Soben
- Thavory meas Bong (Thavory, my love)*
- Tour yarn nar
Y
- Youp 12 kuert (Thinking of the 12th Night)
Duet with Rose Sereysothear
- Chom Chait Pesaey
- Jong ban pka avey? (What flower do you want?)
- Konarb snaeha (Love poem)
- Konoch veyo
- Oh! snaeha euy! (Oh! Love...)
Duet with Pan Ron
- Ah run reas
Notes
Song titles were in Khmer but have been translated to English pronounciations. Translations of song prounounciations to English may not be accurate, may have been modified to be understandable in English and under other circumstances should not be considered error-free. Song titles with an asterisk * means the song is known to be a soundtrack to a Khmer film at the time.
- Keung Pruos Srolueng is also known as Bonaich jet snae
- 'On' is a Khmer female name
- Chmous Oun Diuc Doung Dara is also known as Chom Chait Pesey
External links
- GoKhmer: Sinn Sisamouth Biography (http://gokhmer.net/Miscellaneous/Biography/Samouth/index.php) Comprehensive biography of Sinn Sisamouth
- KhmerRocks: Sinn Sisamouth Biography (http://ez9.ez-web-hosting.com/~cambodia/read.php?osCsid=7189a3692740c9f5efc521f0a623dc65&article=articles/musicians.htm) A biography of Sinn Sisamouth with pictures
- Camweb: Sinn Sisamouth Songs (http://camweb.org/songpage1.phtml) Some songs of Sisamouth in Real Audio format