Pen Ran

Pen Ran was born in 1944 in Battambang Province, Cambodia. It had been established that she had attended the same school as the younger Ros Serey Sothea, another popular singer of the same era. In the 1960s, Cambodian Head of State Norodom Sihanouk, a musician himself, encouraged the development of popular music in Cambodia. Initially, pop records from France and Latin America were imported into the country and became popular, inspiring a flourishing pop music scene based in Phnom Penh and led by singers like Sinn Sisamouth. Pen Ran was an early entrant in this music scene, with the hit song "Pka Kabas" in 1963, but she became a national star when she began recording with Sinn Sisamouth in 1966. Starting in the late 1960s, She recorded many collaborations with Sisamouth and other notable Cambodian singers of the period, while continuing her solo career. The debut of the popular Ros Serey Sothea in 1967 had little effect on Pen Ran's career and perhaps even broadened her popularity as the second leading lady of Cambodian popular music. Her younger sister "Pen Ram" said that she survived until the Vietnamese invasion of late 1978/early 1979 when the Khmer Rouge launched their final series of mass executions. Given the goal of the Khmer Rouge to remove foreign influences from Cambodian society, Pen Ran's individuality probably ensured her death. It had been known that she was tricked by the Khmer Rouge into performing one of her songs, after which she was led away and executed in January 1979. In a 2015 BBC documentary on the band Cambodian Space Project, who have covered many of Pen Ran's songs, it was alleged by an interview subject that she was tricked by the Khmer Rouge into performing one of her songs, after which she was led away and executed. Starting in the late 1990s, interest in Pan Ron's music was revived by the album Cambodian Rocks and similar CD compilations, while the documentary film "Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll (2014)" described her as one of the most influential artists of her era, as well as one of the most popular artists among younger Cambodians.