KI Media: Huoy Meas

Sunday, August 07, 2011

A tribute of Ms. Huoy Meas


Ms. Huoy Meas

Karaoke actress Meas Somavatey is allegedly Ms. Huoy Meas' daughter

Sunday, August 07, 2011
By P. from Long Beach

Every time I think about Huoy Meas, I couldn’t help but remembering watching her on a black and white TV set sometime in the 60s. I was not sure why, as a young child, I was so smitten with her, a woman who could easily be my mother. Come to think of it, maybe it was her voice with that sweet Battambang accent that always made swoon. You see, my father was also from Battambang, near the border with Thailand in what is now known as Banteay Meanchey province. In those days, when school was over, my father would send us to spend a few weeks with my Grandfather (in fact, my Great-Grand Uncle) there. Usually, in the morning, my grandfather would take me along with him to the pagoda. On the way, we sometime stoppped by the market to buy some boiled taro and then, we would rest by a shady tree nearby the road. There, he would pull out some granular sugar wrapped in a old sheet of newspaper that he brought with him from home and we would sit there to peel the taro skin, dipping it in the sugar and stuffing ourselves while gawking at the bustling hubbub in the market. It was most likely that idyllic image that I kept from my childhood in Battambang that made me so fond of Ms. Huoy Meas.

To those of you who are too young to know Ms. Huoy Meas, there’s a chance that you may have heard about Meas Somavatey, the karaoke actress in the 90s and early 2000s. I was told that Meas Somavatey is Ms. Huoy Meas daughter, although, I wouldn’t be able to tell that they are related to each other because it is seem to me that Somavatey does not look much like her mother at all.

Beside her singing career, Ms. Huoy Meas was also a very popular “soap” story (“Pheak Nitean”) actress broadcasted on radio in the late 60s and 70s. After 1970, she also worked as a DJ on Cambodia’s national radio.

I am not sure what happened to her after the KR took over Phnom Penh in 1975, until somebody posted the following snippet on the Camdisc bulletin board: “Bang Huoy Meas was with me in Khmer Rouge time in Battambang. She was taken away and never returned in the early 1977, the same year when the Yuon-trained Khmer Rouge tied my mother's arms and pulled her to the mass grave and beat her to death.” When asked where Ms. Huoy Meas was killed by the KR, the same author added: “Yes, I was in the Youth Mobile Team (Kang Yuveak-Jun Cha-latt) in Phum Chrey, Srok Maung Russey, Battambang after a long train-ride from the Eastern part of Cambodia. You're right, Bang Huoy Meas was taken to Wat Soriya. The last word she told me was that the Angkar Leu invited her to sing for the Radio. We didn't know the Khmer Rouge have mastered the skills of lying from somewhere. Hun Sen, Pen Sovan, Chea Sim, Nuon Chea, Heng Samrin, Khiev Samphan and some people here in Camdisc probably can tell us whom they've learned to trick, to cheat, and to lie from.”

The same author also provided a glimpse of Ms. Huoy Meas tempestuous marriage to Yel, a drummer in the national radio band: “When I was eleven, I biked to see my girl friend who lived next door to Pou ‘Chel or Yel’, the drummer for the ‘Vithiyuk-Jeat-Dantrey’, who was Bang Huoy Meas' husband. We saw them fight (verbally) over jealousy. A week later, Pou Yel wrote a song titled ‘Srey Ka-ngok Meas’ for Im Song Seum to sing. Bang Huoy Meas returned with ‘Chet Khos Pi Mun’ to Pou Yel. Im Song Seum sang another one for Pou Yel (I forgot the name of it), then, Bang Huoy Meas launched ‘Sam-Dei [Boross?]’, then, ‘Kaun Nouv Et Pa’ ... When Pou Yel got a new girl friend, a beautiful blond Khmer-mix Barang, selling flower at ‘Phsar Chass’, he cooled down.”

In dedication to the memory of Ms. Huoy Meas, please find below a few of her oldies song.

Until next time, fare well!

P from Long Beach

Huoy Meas - Neuk Heuy Neuk Tiet (Missing you over and over)

http://www.archive.org/download/HuoyMeas-NeukHeuyNeukTeat/HuoyMeas-NeukHeuyNeukTeat.mp3

A word about “Neuk Heuy Neuk Tiet”: The original song (1962) was interpreted by French singer Johnny Haliday in the movie “Sophie” with Catherine Deneuve, a clip of which is shown below.

“Retiens la nuit” (Hold the night) by Johnny Haliday

Retiens la nuit … avec toi, elle parait si belle

(Hold the night … ‘cause with you, it’s so marvelous)