Kak Channthy (1980 – 20 March 2018) was a Cambodian singer and vocalist of the band

Cambodian Space Project Kak Channthy (1980 – 20 March 2018) was a Music of Cambodia, Cambodian singer and vocalist of the band Cambodian Space Project. She has been described as "the barefoot diva of the Cambodian rice fields". She died due to an accident. Biography Ch ...

. She has been described as "the barefoot diva of the Cambodian rice fields". She died due to an accident.

Biography

Channthy was born into war and poverty as the only daughter of army tank driver Reach Lon and grew up poor in Prey Veng Province, a rural area in

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

, before moving to

Phnom Penh Phnom Penh is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Cambodia, most populous city of Cambodia. It has been the national capital since 1865 and has grown to become the nation's primate city and its political, economic, industr ...

. She formed the Cambodian psychedelic rock band "The Cambodian Space Project" with her Australian husband Julien Poulson and worked as the lead singer and songwriter releasing 5 albums and touring 24 countries around the world. Inspired by Cambodian singers of the 1960s and early 1970s, " Cambodia's golden age", Cambodian Space Project led an astonishing arts and cultural revival in Cambodia and are one of the few Cambodian rock bands to find success outside of their own country. Channthy collaborated with a range of artists including Dennis Coffey of Motown Funk Bros who she worked with to produce and record her seminal third LP "Whisky Cambodia". She twice recorded duets with iconic Australian poet laureate Paul Kelly on the songs "The Boat" - a song dealing with the issue of asylum seekers and included on 2013's Key of Sea compilation, in 2017 she recorded again with Kelly a re-working of

Lee Hazlewood Barton Lee Hazlewood (July 9, 1929 – August 4, 2007) was an American country and pop singer, songwriter, and record producer, most widely known for his work with guitarist Duane Eddy during the late 1950s and singer Nancy Sinatra in the 1960s ...

and

Nancy Sinatra Nancy Sandra Sinatra (born June 8, 1940) is an American singer, actress, film producer and author. She is the elder daughter of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Sinatra ( Barbato) and is known for her 1965 signature hit " These Boots Are Made for Walki ...

's classic "Summer Wine". Channthy was fond of French chanson and collaborated with Bad Seed

Mick Harvey Michael John Harvey (born 29 August 1958) is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his long-term collaborations with Nick Cave, with whom he formed The ...

on the

Serge Gainsbourg Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative rel ...

track "Contact", as well as, covering and regularly performing France Gall's classic "Laisse Tomber Les Filles" in her live set. Kak Channthy and her then husband Julien Poulson were the subject of a BBC Storyville documentary Rise of a Pop Diva, a program also released to cinema as the documentary The Cambodian Space Project. She also had several side-projects including Australian Khmer hip hop group Astronomy Class with whom she recorded and released the album "Mekong Delta Sunrise" and in 2016 she formed all Khmer band "Channthy Cha-Cha" in which she experimented with romantic Khmer ballads from artists such as

Sinn Sisamouth Sinn Sisamouth (c. 1932 – c. 1976) was a Cambodian singer-songwriter active from the 1950s to the 1970s. Widely considered the "King of Khmer Music", Sisamouth, along with Ros Serey Sothea, Pen Ran, Mao Sareth, and other Cambodian artists ...

and

Pen Ran Pen Ran (, ), (c. 1944 – c. 1979) also commonly known as Pan Ron in some Romanized sources intended for English-speaking audiences, was a Cambodian singer and songwriter who was at the height of her popularity in the 1960s and early 1970s. Kn ...

, adding a

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

twist. She died in March 2018 at the age of 38 when the

auto rickshaw An auto rickshaw is a motorized version of the pulled rickshaw or cycle rickshaw. Most have three wheels and do not tilt. They are known by many other terms in various countries, including three-wheeler, Adaidaita Sahu, Keke-napep, Maruwa, auto, ...

she was travelling in was hit by a car. The driver who caused the collision was charged with negligent driving causing unintentional injury and death.

Discography

Cambodian Space Project were signed to Australian independent music label

FOUR FOUR ABC Music is Australia's largest independent record label. It operates under the ABC Commercial division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It covers a wide range of music genres, including classical, children’s and adult contempo ...

. *''2011: A Space Odyssey'' (2011) *''Not Easy Rock & Roll'' (2012) *''Whisky Cambodia'' (2014) *''Radio Cambodia'' (2015) *''Electric Blue Boogaloo'' (2015) *''Spaced-Out in Wonderland'' (2017)

References

External links

CambodianSpaceProject.org
- Official site of Cambodian Space Project {{DEFAULTSORT:Kak, Channthy 1980s births 2018 deaths 21st-century Cambodian women singers Road incident deaths in Cambodia People from Prey Veng province Women rock singers Cambodian songwriters