Cambodian Women of Song is a tribute to Cambodia’s legendary siren singers and includes a repertoire of Khmer songs from the 1960’s through until the present day. The project is a ‘musical revue’ that brings together a wide cross-section of singers and musicians and features The Cambodian Space Project as house band backing a special selection of Cambodian female singers who are diverse in age, experience, and backgrounds and come together to perform an extraordinary 60-year history of song. This project was first conceived as a one-off tribute to Kak Channthy celebrating her life and musical legacy in concert at the French Institut, Phnom Penh. The success of this premier event has led to plans to stage further concerts across Cambodia and to tour in the USA.

Project Description:

Cambodian Women of Song is an essential story that needs to be told. This the story of the extraordinary siren singers of Cambodia - a HERstory of great beauty, and stunning voices, it's also the story of unbelievable tragedy and adversity but one that ultimately triumphs and shows how shattered lives and memories of entire communities reconnect through the power of music. The Cambodian Women of Song is a story told through music and verse showing how the beautiful and unique spirit and culture of the Cambodian people are so essential to the sounds of Cambodia - the Kingdom of Wonder. 

Cambodian Women of Song takes the echoes of the ancient Angkorian musicians through to present-day sounds to tell a remarkable story through music & song - with your help we can make this happen. 

Cambodian Women of Song was first conceived by Julien Poulson as a tribute to the life and legacy Kak Channthy - legendary frontwoman of The Cambodian Space Project. CWoS was launched at Institut Francais on the occasion of Fete de Musique as a live concert produced by Sam Dara and Julien Poulson in collaboration with musicians and the team behind The Cambodian Space Project - Cambodia's most famous international music export, Institut Francais, and the staff and students at Royal University of Fine Arts. Following a very memorable and successful launch, the CWoS team has determined to work towards further concerts as well as a touring revue, talks and art exhibitions, a book, a compilation album, and documentary film.

What is it?

Cambodian Women of Song is a project that will bring together more than a dozen new Cambodian songstresses to workshop music and song and to work with experienced musicians to develop a live-onstage touring revue in homage to the history of the siren singers of Cambodia. This is a multi-faceted project and includes the development and production of:

1. A specially designed and printed book of photos and historical text and Khmer & English
2. A full-length album featuring up to 12 individual singers, each from diverse backgrounds and ages, who will be specially selected to feature as the new Cambodian voices of CWoS
3. short video documentaries profiling the life and music of each new singer
4. a full-length video documentary for Youtube release

" I just wanted to bring together a diverse mix of Cambodian women to sing at Kak Channthy's memorial concert and to perhaps stage this idea every year in Cambodia where not just the tragedy of Thy's death can be remember but all the great work she did in music and life can be celebrated and her legacy used to do some good and inspire others. I reached out for others to join me to make this concert happen and soon had the pleasure of meeting Sam Dara (who only learned of Channthy by overhearing a memorial concert a year earlier) and who has been invaluable in bringing together a wide range of singers - from young students studying at RUFA to women in their later years who were there during the Golden Era of the 1960's. Dara and I soon found ourselves working on writing new music and doing this as a singer/songwriter workshop, writing and producing songs for other up-and-comers to try out. The results more than surprised me and I'm committing myself to the bigger task of producing CWoS over the longer term... hopefully we'll end up with something as amazing as the Buena Vista Social Club and take both the repertoire of classic singers such as Pan Ron, Ros Sereysothea, Houy Meas, along with new songs and new voices, out of Cambodia and onto the world's stage... perhaps even all the way to Carnegie Hall! who knows!... this is the kind of dream that might just come true so there's no harm in thinking big but really, the purpose of Cambodian Women of Song is simply to shine a light on an astonishing and little known group of amazing women singers - siren singers from past to present - and celebrate the untold stories and the women of Cambodia in music.
– Julien Poulson (project producer)

"It’s impossible to get a sense of contemporary Cambodia without an introduction to Julien Poulson, founder of the Cambodian Space Project, Kampot Arts & Music Association (KAMA) and Kampot Readers & Writers Festival (KRWF)." - Jinx Davis, magicalcambodia.com

Further Reading: Tribute to siren singers Peter Olszewski / Khmer Times

Cambodian Women of Song project objectives: 

• Live touring across Cambodia: Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampot
• A live simulcast with CWoS event at Mark Twain Library, Long Beach, California
• Songwriting workshops to develop skills and new music
• Recording of a full-length album as a compilation of a dozen female singer/songwriters
• Developing CWoS a touring show for international export
• Telling the story of Cambodia’s history through music
• Shining a light of the creative arts industry of Cambodia
• Paying tribute to the lives, music, and legacy of Cambodia’s great artists

The impact of Cambodian Women of Song is focused upon making important inter-community connections between Cambodian artists and the international audience – particularly Cambodian diaspora communities in the USA and abroad. CWoS is an invaluable way to create self-esteem and national pride in showing Cambodia’s cultural heritage, as well as building cultural bridges, through an extraordinary history of song. This project could be described as a “Cambodian Buena Vista Social Club” as its impact will be similarly far-reaching. As a professionally produced, ongoing and developing arts project, it has the potential to go all the way from the stages of Phnom Penh to Carnegie Hall.

We believe that the stories we are told and that we tell ourselves are important. Music is the poetry of life and it is something we turn to in times of grief, joy and of transformation. To the people of Cambodia, music is the soul of the nation, it shapes culture, self-worth and fills our hopes & dreams. 

Much of history and storytelling has traditionally been told from a male perspective, which has meant that the role of women has been ignored and undervalued. The Cambodian Women of Song is a project to shine a light upon the representation of women participating in storytelling through song by giving a female voice to contemporary Cambodian history so that these Women's stories form part of the storytelling record of Cambodia for this generation and those into the future.

Project Management

Cambodian Women of Song is co-managed and produced by Australian music producer Julien Poulson and Cambodian singer and events manager Sam Dara. Julien and Dara began working together early this year to create a one-off tribute concert to Cambodian singer Kak Channthy (The Cambodian Space Project). Following the success of this event produced in partnership with the French Institute, the pair has continued to develop plans for CWoS to present in Cambodia and internationally.

Julien Poulson has been based in Cambodia for more than ten years and is best known as guitarist and producer of The Cambodian Space Project. In addition, Julien is also founder and director of several annual arts festivals and events including The Kampot Readers & Writers Festival and the annual Folk Arts & Blues Festival. With the Cambodian Space Project, Julien has recorded and produced over 5 albums and toured more than 20 countries. Julien has previously produced Motown to the Mekong with support from US Embassy Phnom Penh (Public Diplomacy funding support 5k). In 2017 Julien took The Cambodian Space Project to the USA for the launch of Ken Burns’ Documentary “Vietnam” at the John F Kennedy Center for the Arts - supported by State Department and US Embassy staff in Phnom Penh.

Sam Dara is a fourth-year mature age student studying music at Royal University of Fine Arts. Dara is a singer who has recently been selected for a prestigious choral performance of Cambodia’s National Anthem in Korea. She also traveled to Inner Mongolia earlier this year to join a multi-national choir produced by International Federation for Music IFCM. Dara is a skilled singer and songwriter whose work ranges from Khmer traditional styles to pop and rock songs. She is presently working on an album project and presents music and art events including co-producing Cambodian Women of Song.

The Cambodian Space Project “Mothership”

Following the tragic loss of frontwomen Kak Channthy, The Cambodian Space Project has continued to work and perform as The CSP Mothership. Backing the Cambodian Women of Song project as ‘house band’ is an opportunity for the band's continuation, working together and live and studio musicians to bring the music and story of Cambodia’s incredible rock’n’roll to the world. Each of the Cambodian Women of Song singers will be able to write and record new music with The Cambodian Space Project band. 

The Cambodian Space Project team has presented more than 200 international artists alongside its own tour program and specially produced arts, music and cultural events in Cambodia including devising and implementing the annual Kampot Readers & Writers Festival, Folk Arts & Blues Festival.

The CSP Mothership
Since forming in 2009, The Cambodian Space Project quickly became Cambodia’s most renowned international music export - touring and taking the sounds of Cambodia to more than 20 countries around the world while recording and releasing 5 albums. Following the tragic loss of frontwoman Kak Channthy the band has continued to write and record in tribute and is currently completing the CSP's 6th album to be released as “The CSP Mothership”.

Why the project is needed! 
To achieve the success it deserves, Cambodian Women of Song needs to be a sustainable and ongoing project with the mission to develop as a professionally produced arts project, in Cambodia, of a quality that can attract the support and interest of major venues and project partners to support and present the project to an international audience through performance, recordings and live touring in USA and beyond.

To achieve this goal CWoS will seek sponsorship and partners in Cambodia to help nurture early stages of development and presentation at this year's Kampot Readers & Writers Festival as well as a special New Year's Eve concert in Phnom Penh.

Through the support of crowdfunding, CWoS will have the means to present concerts Cambodia while working on bringing together singer/songwriter to rehearse and record new material. In addition, the project will produce documentation material for the CWoS's exponential growth as a vital and important arts story - on a mission to strengthens ties between communities in Cambodia and USA and build important cultural connections through the unique heritage and little known music of sixty-year HERstory of the Cambodian Women of Song.

Check out some of our amazing perks on offer!

The paintings pictured are part of a set created by Julien Poulson and his art assistants at his home studio KAMA, in Kampot. 

LES FEMMES CAMBODGIENNES DE LA CHANSON is the title of this series of 10 unique portraits of Cambodian singers and is currently showing at One Eleven Gallery, Siem Reap. For supporters of our CWS Pozible campaign, each of these works are available at a special offer - click on the perk for more info and for more information visit click here.

Budget Narrative:

Budget shows the costs of presenting a total of 3 professionally produced concerts for Cambodian Women of Song: A touring music revue featuring The Cambodian Space Project musicians backing a specially curated program of Cambodian women singers. CWoS budget covers accommodation away from home expenses for a team of 12 as well as fees and costs for staging, audio and concert technicians.

The budget includes costs for writing and recording production for a total of 12 singer-songwriters and also includes video production for a creating a series of short films documenting each of the individual singers plus a documentary of the overall of the project

CWoS seeks a total budget of USD9980 (14,580AUS) to support the project commencing Nov 20 and completing Jan 31, 2020.