Sai Sai Kham Leng

Sai Sai Kham Leng
စိုင်းစိုင်းခမ်းလှိုင်

Sai Sai at the Myanmar music concert in Singapore in 2011.
Background information
Born (1979-04-10) 10 April 1979[1]
Taunggyi, Shan State, Burma (now Myanmar)
Genres
  • R&B
Years active 1999-present

Sai Sai Kham Leng (Burmese: စိုင်းစိုင်းခမ်းလှိုင်; pronounced: [sáiɴ sáiɴ kʰáɴ l̥àiɴ]; also Sai Sai Kham Hlaing; born 10 April 1979) is a well-known Burmese rapper, songwriter, model, novelist, and actor of ethnic Shan descent. He is best known for his hip hop music and personal appearance.

Background Image

Sai Sai Kham Leng was born on 10 April 1979 in Taunggyi to Cho Cho San Tun and Kham Leng of an ethnic Shan aristocratic family. His great-grandfather Khun Htee, nepew of Saopha of Lai-Hka, was a signatory to the 1947 Panglong Agreement that was the basis for the formation of modern Myanmar, and one of nine senior government officials assassinated on 19 July 1947.[2] The day of the assassination is commemorated each year as the Martyrs' Day in Myanmar. He is the eldest son and has two younger sisters and a younger brother. Soon after he was born, his parents moved to nearby Aungban for two years before moving back to Taunggyi. He went to B.E.H.S (1) Taunggyi.[3] His parents divorced when he was in the 4th standard (4th grade) . He was living in two homes soon after divorce but ended up with his father. He would not see his mother for another six years.[1]

Sai Sai attributes his interest in music to his father. He grew up listening to songs by Sai Htee Saing and Aung Yin that his father listened to on a "small mono cassette player". Sai Htee Saing and his father were friends. But it was after his parents' divorce that Sai Sai earnestly took up music. His father bought him a guitar in 5th standard, and he learned to play it by 6th standard. Sai Sai became a judo player in the eighth standard. He won district level competitions in high school, and even participated in national youth competitions in Yangon.[1]

Sai Sai moved to Yangon and enrolled in the English major program in Dagon University. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Dagon University and a graduate diploma in English from the University of Foreign Languages, Yangon. His mother lives in Australia and his father died in 2006.

Career

Sai Sai Kham Leng's album release performance in Yangon, 2012

Like most children of well-to-do families in Myanmar, Sai Sai entered the Myanmar entertainment industry through connections and self-financing. At Yangon, Sai Sai first tried to break into the modeling industry but could not get any offers. He then tried a role in a direct-to-video movie that he and four other friends self-financed in 2000. In the same year, he launched his debut album Chocolate Yaung Yayge Einmet (Chocolate-Colored Ice Dreams). The follow-up album Thangegyin Mya Zwa (Graduation: Friends Forever) released in 2001 made him a household name.[1]

In his 2012 album Date Date Kyal, he included a song named "ပြီးခဲ့သောဇာတ်လမ်းအကျဉ်း" (Summary of the story till now) about his 33 years of his life. He celebrates his Birthday shows in April every year, gaining thousands of ticket sales which is a large number in Myanmar. He has celebrated 12 shows from 2004 to 2016 so far.

Personal life

Sai Sai is still single, and lives in Yangon. In an interview with People Magazine Myanmar in May 2009, he expressed that he was unsure about marriage as he comes from a "broken family".[4]

His relationship with Myanmar Actress Wut Hmone Shwe Yee was one of the most controversial relationships.[5][6] They never made their relationship public and they broke up after some years.

He is a Theravada Buddhist.[4]

Humanitarian work

In 2015, Sai Sai was involved in the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) Cover Your Cough Campaign,[7] which aimed to increase knowledge about how tuberculosis spreads through droplets in the air and the importance of covering your nose and mouth when you cough. In 2016, he continued his advocacy in this area with the Myanmar Unite to End TB Mass Media Programme[8] with the NTP, supported by The 3MDG Fund[9][9]

Discography

Studio Albums

Collaborative albums

Novels

Controversies

In 2014, there are several celebrities signing a petition to change a part of the constitution. He wrote on his official Facebook that he has only one small brain and one body, so he don't want to be responsible for many things, hinting that he is not interested in Politics. Netizens assume that he was referring to signing the petition but the intention of that post was unclear and later deleted after it was shared on Facebook page of Irrawaddy News. Film director Kyi Phyu Shin stated that she also has one small brain and one body but she will sign on the petition and be responsible for many things, clearly dissing him. Despite controversies, he signed on the petition.[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Thida Win (2010-03-05). "Sai Sai Kham Leng's Youth". Bi-Weekly Eleven Journal (in Burmese) (Weekly Eleven Media): 34.
  2. ↑ Tin Naing Toe (18 July 2010). "Brief Biographies of the Martyrs". Bi-Weekly Eleven (in Burmese) (Weekly Eleven Publishing Group).
  3. ↑ Myanmar Celebrity (2013-10-25). "A moment with Sai Sai Kham Leng". Myanmar Celebrity (in Burmese) (Myanmar Celebrity Youtube Channel).
  4. 1 2 Hnin Ei Ei Aung (May 2009). "25 Random Facts about Sai Sai". People Magazine Myanmar (in Burmese).
  5. ↑ "Did Than Shwe’s Grandson Kidnap Model?". .irrawaddy.org. 2009-01-08. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  6. ↑ "Wutt Hmone and Pyae Phyo Tayza's Couple Photos Leak Out - Myanmar Celebrity: Gossip, News, Video, Photo, Fashion, Entertainment". Myanmar Celebrity. 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  7. ↑ "Cover Your Cough Campaign, Myanmar | CAP-TB". www.cap-tb.org. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  8. ↑ "Unite To End TB Myanmar". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  9. 1 2 "Uniting to End TB in Myanmar". 3mdg.org. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  10. ↑ "ေဖေဖာ္ဝါရီမွတ္တမ္း | Sai Sai Kham Hlaing". Myanmar Music Store. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  11. ↑ "Happy Sai Sai Birthday | Sai Sai Kham Hlaing". Myanmar Music Store. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  12. ↑ "အၿမဲတမ္းေဂၚလီ | Sai Sai Kham Hlaing". Myanmar Music Store. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  13. ↑ "ဒိတ္ဒိတ္ႀကဲ | Sai Sai Kham Hlaing". Myanmar Music Store. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  14. ↑ "၁၀ စကၠန္႔ Volume (2)". Myanmar Music Store. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
  15. ↑ "ေဖ့စ္ဘြတ္ခ္အေကာင့္ ပိတ္ပစ္လိုက္တဲ့ စိုင္းစိုင္း | 7Day Daily - ၇ ရက္ ေန႔စဥ္ သတင္းစာ". 7Day Daily. 2014-05-31. Retrieved 2014-07-19.

External links

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