Mao Sareth

In this Cambodian name, the surname is Mao. In accordance with Cambodian custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Sareth.
Mao Sareth
ម៉ៅ សារ៉េត
Mao Sareth
Mao Sareth, from a 1960s record cover
Background information
Bornc. 1944
Battambang, Cambodia, French Indochina
Diedmid-1970s
Cambodia
Genrestraditional Khmer, romvong, saravan, film
OccupationSinger
Years active1950s–1970
LabelsWat Phnom Production

Mao Sareth (Khmer: ម៉ៅ សារ៉េត [maɯ saːˈrɛet]) was a Cambodian singer active from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s.[1][2] Sareth was born in 1944 in Battambang, with the birth name Pol Sarann.[citation needed] She was one of the earliest popular singers in the Cambodian rock scene of the early 1960s, in which musicians combined traditional Khmer music styles with popular forms from the United States, Europe, and Latin America.[3] Mao was cited as an influence by later singers Pen Ran and Ros Serey Sothea.[4] She is known to have performed live as late as 1973.[5]

During an interview with Huoy Meas, Mao Sareth stated that she had three sisters and that she came from a family of musicians. In her free time she liked to read romantic novels.[6] Along with many musicians and members of other suspect professions, she was murdered by the Khmer Rouge sometime during the later years of the Cambodian Civil War or early in the Cambodian Genocide.[7]

  1. ^ Leng, Mali (April 2008). "កម្មវិធីវប្បធម៌ នៅក្នុងរបប កម្ពុជាប្រជាធិបតេយ្យ (៧៣គ)". Radio Free America. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  2. ^ Mamula, Stephen (2008). "Starting from Nowhere? Popular Music in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge". Asian Music. 39 (1). University of Texas Press: 26–41. doi:10.1353/amu.2007.0044. JSTOR 25501573. S2CID 144694428.
  3. ^ Chambers-Letson, Joshua (2011). ""No, I Can't Forget": Performance and Memory in Dengue Fever's Cambodian America". Journal of Popular Music Studies. 23 (3): 259–287. doi:10.1111/j.1533-1598.2011.01293.x.
  4. ^ Saphan, LinDa (September 2016). "Gendered Modernity in Cambodia: The Rise of Women in the Music Industry". Khmer Scholar Journal.
  5. ^ MD, Seang M. Seng (2019-06-12). Starving Season: One Person's Story. Lulu Press, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4834-7369-7.[permanent dead link‍]
  6. ^ Panhavuth, POK (February 3, 2015). "Mao Sareth". Dynamic Khmer. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
  7. ^ Streed, Sarah (2002). Leaving the House of Ghosts: Cambodian Refugees in the American Midwest. McFarland. p. 16. ISBN 9780786481934. Retrieved 17 February 2015.