Recently, Ros Saboeun – sister to Cambodian singer Ros Serey Sothea, dubbed “The Golden Voice” back in the 1960’s – celebrated what would have been the singer’s 74th birthday at the stupa dedicated to her and other victims of the Khmer Rouge located in Phnom Srouch district of Kampong Speu province.

By coincidence – just a day later – it was announced that a graphic novel about Ros Serey Sothea written by an American author is now almost ready for release.

Saboeun last saw her sister decades ago before the evacuation of Phnom Penh. When the city was emptied of its inhabitants Serey Sothea was sent to Kampong Speu by the Khmer Rouge and was executed there, according to witnesses.

On November 6, Saboeun finally got a chance to visit the stupa in Kampong Speu personally after learning about it on Facebook and how it was built in 2020 by senior officials from the Ministry of the Royal Palace and other generous donors who dedicated it in part to her sister.

“The moment I heard that there was a stupa dedicated to my sister and family I was really excited and I couldn’t wait to see it personally. When I arrived, I saw there were names carved on it and photos of my sister and my family,” Saboeun tells The Post.

“I had no idea – I wasn’t involved at all in building the stupa. In fact, I only found out about it maybe a half-month before visiting it. I asked permission from the senior officials of the Ministry of the Royal Palace to commemorate her death and celebrate her life and I chose that exact day because it was her 74th birthday,” she says.

The stupa is dedicated to Saboeun’s parents, four of her siblings and three of Serey Sothea’s children. The celebration for her birthday this year could only have about 20 attendees total since they still need to follow the Covid protocols.

The stupa built for the ‘Golden Voice’ Ros Serey Sothea with pictures from her family tree showing members who lost their lives to the Khmer Rouge regime. Photo supplied

Those present included the senior officials from the Ministry of the Royal Palace that sponsored the construction of the stupa, the local commune chief and the district governor as well as Serey Sothea and Saboeun’s remaining living family members and other friends.

Saboeun says there were also some artists, musicians and other admirers both locally and from abroad who donated to help with Serey Sothea’s memorial celebration.

“I would also like to express my deep gratitude to [the officials from the royal palace], village chief, commune chief and chief monk for helping the ceremony go smoothly. And thank you to all the nieces and nephews who attended the ceremony as well as relatives and friends who couldn’t attend but sent in donations for my sister’s birthday memorial celebration,” Saboeun adds.

Serey Sothea has always had many fans in Cambodia and increasingly she has an international following as well despite her career being cut short after recording just a single album of her own along with her famous collaborations with the legendary Sinn Sisamouth.

Among those international fans of Serey Sothea are author Gregory Cahill and illustrator Kat Baumann, who have penned a graphic novel about her life and music titled The Golden Voice. They’ve just announced the project’s completion this month, having started work on it back in 2019.

Cahill’s first visit to Cambodia was back in 2007 when he came to research the life of Serey Sothea. He was introduced to Saboeun in Battambang and learned a great deal from her about her famous sister including important details that helped him to bring Serey Sothea back to life on the page.

He also visited the village where Serey Sothea is said to have died in Kampong Speu province during Pol Pot’s reign of terror and he says the local people there did seem to know a lot of names and details about what took place.

“I’ve been back to Cambodia many times since then. I love to visit,” says Cahill, an Emmy Award-winning television producer based in Los Angeles who is currently producing the CBS show The Talk.

Cahill says he first had the idea for the graphic novel about Serey Sothea when he saw the Cambodian-set crime thriller City of Ghosts which was released back in 2003.

“Back in 2006, I directed a low budget short-film called The Golden Voice which was about Ros Serey Sothea. The short-film drew a lot of international enthusiasm and so I wanted to make a much bigger movie. So I wrote a script for the bigger movie in 2008, but over the next 10 years I just couldn’t convince anyone to finance the project.

“I think production companies were afraid that it wouldn’t be profitable, which I didn’t necessarily agree with. After ten years, I just got tired of people telling me no. So I had to figure out a new path for the story. And so instead of making a film, I decided to make a graphic novel. I hired artist Kat Baumann to start work on the graphic novel in October of 2019.

“So it has taken a little over two years for us to complete the book. We still have some editorial work to do but the heavy lifting is complete,” Cahill says.

He says the thing he loves about Serey Sothea and wants to share with the rest of the world is that she was pure talent with no ego. She came from a very humble agricultural background where she was raised by a single mother and her family was simply selling rice, fruits and boiled snails to get by.

Officials, relatives and local artists gathered on November 6at the stupa built for Ros Serey Sothea in Kampong Speu province. Photo supplied

Cahill points out that Serey Sothea didn’t have any social or political connections to start out with to help her career along and yet she still became the number one female singer in the country based on her talent alone.

He says some people were shocked when they heard her sing because of the unique qualities of her voice and that her love songs vividly describe lots of places in Cambodia and have captured audiences all over the world who then want to visit the Kingdom.

“Kat delivered the last pages the day after Serey Sothea’s birthday! With a length of 184 pages, readers can expect a very powerful story with a blend of drama, politics, war, family and lots of philosophy about the nature of music and musicians.

“The book will come with a soundtrack so you can hear the music in each scene as you read it. We were also lucky to have an introduction written by Sin Setsochhata, the granddaughter of Sin Sisamouth. As you can imagine, Sin Sisamouth plays a big role in the story,” says Cahill.

The initial publication will be in English but Cahill says he plans to push the publisher very hard to do a Khmer translation. He also wants to see the book translated into other languages, but Khmer will be the priority for obvious reasons.

“I know for a fact that Ros Serey Sothea has fans all over the world. On the internet I’ve met fans of her from Colombia to Sweden to Singapore. They’re out there everywhere. But that doesn’t surprise me because the Cambodian music scene in the 60’s and 70’s was just a magical era in the history of music, there’s nothing else like it,” he says.

No definite release date for the graphic novel has been set yet but he hopes it will be available some time in 2022, preferably in both print and digital editions.

“I also want to thank the many people who have helped me along the way on this project. I especially have to thank Serey Sothea’s sister Ros Saboeun. None of this would be possible without her guidance, knowledge, and support,” Cahill says.

For more information, check out their Facebook page: @thegoldenvoicemovie