Ros Sereysothea

She was a Cambodian singer. She was active during the final years of the Sangkum Reastr Niyum period and into the Khmer Republic period. She sang in a variety of genres; romantic ballads emerged as her most popular works. Despite a relatively brief career she is credited with singing hundreds of songs. She also ventured into acting, starring in a few films. Details of her life are relatively scarce. She disappeared during the Khmer Rouge regime of the late 1970s but the circumstances of her fate remain a mystery. Norodom Sihanoukgranted Sothea the honorary title "Queen with the Golden Voice."

Ros Sothea was born in circa 1948 to Ros Bun and Nath Samien in Battambang Province. Growing up relatively poor on a farm, Ros Sothea was the second youngest of five children; her older sister was activist Ros Saboeut. She displayed vocal talent as a toddler and grew up listening to early Cambodian pop singers like Mao Sareth and Chhoun Malay. Sothea's talent would remain relatively hidden until friends persuaded her to join a regional singing contest in 1963. After winning the contest she became widely known in her home province and was invited to join a musical troupe that regularly performed at Stung Khiev restaurant in Battambang; she also performed in a family band with her brother Serey. It is believed that Im Song Seurm, a singer from the National Radio service, heard of Sothea's talents and invited her to Phnom Penh in 1967.

Ros Serey Sothea disappeared during the Khmer Rouge genocide and her exact fate has never been confirmed, with multiple sources making contradictory claims. For example, her sisters have allegedly claimed that Sothea is likely to have died immediately after the Khmer Rouge seized control of Cambodia in April 1975; as a famous entertainer with "western" influences, qualities widely known to be disdained by the Khmer Rouge, she would have been targeted for imprisonment or execution immediately. Her whereabouts at the time are also uncertain, with some sources claiming that she had traveled to Pailin Province for the 1975 Buddhist New Year, as the lyrics of her final recordings are on that topic, though others are skeptical of this claim because of the dangers of traveling in Cambodia during that period. She may have also been in Phnom Penh at the time and was forced to evacuate like all other residents, and some sources also claim that the outgoing government made efforts to get her out of the country.