Krom Nominated for Grammy

A Grammy Award is the highest honor there is in the music industry, and a Cambodian band has been nominated in two categories at next year’s Grammys in the United States. Very few bands from Asia have ever been nominated for a Grammy, and despite Cambodia’s rich musical history, no band from the Kingdom has ever been nominated, until now. Krom, a Phnom Penh-based band whose songs are performed in Khmer and English, have been nominated in two sections of next year’s prestigious awards, for Best World Music Album and Song of the Year.

The band, made up of two Australians and three Cambodians, play an unusual and original blend of musical styles they call the Mekong Delta Blues, and their songs cover subjects that few other musicians dare to explore – things like prostitution, slavery and human trafficking – but subjects Cambodians know only too well. “I call our music Mekong Delta blues, a variation on Mississippi blues, and the two other singers in the band, sisters Sophea and Sopheak Chamroeun, are both classically-trained Cambodian opera singers,” said songwriter, singer and guitarist Chris Minko, an Australian who spent many years working with disabled people in Cambodia.

“They sing like angels, while I’d probably make Tom Waits sound like a soprano.” The other members of Krom, which means “group” in Khmer, are Jimmy Baeck, an Australian who plays slide guitar, sax and accordion, and Phnom Penh music shop owner and record producer James Mao Sokleap, who plays bass.

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