Unfortunately, we know little of her life story except through the beautiful music that she left behind. The little that we know tells us that her life was filled with heartache and that it ended in tragedy. She was a victim, like so many others during those years, but her golden voice lives on.
Ros Sereysothea’s birth name was Ros Sothea. She was born in 1948 to a country family in a small village in Battambong. Like many poor Cambodians, Sothea had a childhood defined by hardship. While accounts vary, it is generally agreed upon that Sothea's family could not afford to send her to school, and that she grew up not knowing how to read or write Khmer._____
In her teens, she and her family began to make a living by performing as a traditional peasant band. Sothea and her brother Serey sang while the rest of her family played the music. They performed daily throughout the small villages of Battambong, and while they didn't earn a lot of money, and they occasionally struggled, t
he music did provide food for the family.
