| Sai Sai Kham Hlaing စိုင်းစိုင်းခမ်းလှိုင် |
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At Hammersmith Palais |
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| Background information | |
| Born | 10 April 1979 [1] Taunggyi, Shan State, Myanmar |
| Genres | Burmese hip hop |
| Occupations | Singer |
Sai Sai Kham Hlaing (Burmese: စိုင်းစိုင်းခမ်းလှိုင်; pronounced [sáiɴ sáiɴ kʰáɴ l̥àiɴ]; also Sai Sai Kham Leng; born 10 April 1979) is a popular Burmese singer-songwriter, model, novelist, and actor of ethnic Shan descent. He is best known for his hip hop music.
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Sai Sai Kham Leng was born on 10 April 1979 in Taunggyi to Cho Cho San Tun and Kham Hlaing of an ethnic Shan aristocratic family. His great-grandfather Sao San Tun, Saopha of Mongpawng, 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. The hospital he was delivered in was his great-grandfather's namesake—the Sao San Tun Hospital. 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. His parents divorced when he was got to 4th standard. He was living in two houses soon after the divorce but ended up with his father. He would not see his mother for another six years. He did not recognize his own mother when they met again in Yangon.[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 at 5th standard, and he learned to play it by 6th standard. Sai Sai became a judo player at 8th standard. He won district level competitions in high school, and even competed in national youth competitions in Yangon.[1]
Sai Sai came to Yangon and enrolled in Dagon University as an English major. 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.
Like most children of well-to-do families in Myanmar, Sai Sai entered the Burmese entertainment industry through connections and self-financing. At Yangon, Sai Sai first tried to modeling but could not get any jobs. 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 then launched his first album Chocolate Yaung Yayge Einmet (Chocolate-Colored Ice Dreams). The follow-up album Thangegyin Mya Zwa (Many Friends) released in 2001 made him a household name.[1]
Sai Sai is still single, and lives in Yangon. In a May 2009 interview with People Magazine Myanmar, he expressed that he was unsure about marriage as he comes from a "broken family".[3]
He is a Theravada Buddhist.[3]