Cambodia’s leading rap artist VannDa launches his new song “Time To Rise” as his team at Baramey Production accelerates its partnership with mobile communications company Cellcard.

The young artist is already proving to be one of Cellcard’s most influential Brand Ambassadors with more than 3 million followers on Social Media and an impressive 250 million streams in 2020 alone.

This latest song launch has been months in the making and comes with an important message of motivation and inspiration for all of Cambodia’s young talents.

VannDa commenced his #TimetoRise campaign in November 2020, shortly after signing with Cellcard.

The campaign signalled a movement to give the Kingdom’s artists fairness and better contractual conditions when endorsing brands, which is an important means of earning income for talents across all categories.

In response, Cellcard has overhauled its talent contracts to include better conditions around exclusivity and transparency as well as including free access to a lawyer hotline if talents need support.

Baramey Chief Executive Officer Laura Mam explained that their collaboration with Cellcard was laying the foundations for a better future for all Khmer talents and was focused on providing a platform for artists to build their skills and broaden their exposure to the region and the world.

“There are many exciting projects in development involving VannDa as well as a host of other artists,” she said.

“Covid has forced us to be even more creative and has resulted in some wonderful collaborations that are lifting the bar for the Khmer music industry in general.”

The “Time To Rise” song and video combines the classical sounds of Cambodian master of the chapei dong veng, Lok Kruu Kong Nay, with VannDa’s raw modern hip hop style.

Both artists feature in the video, which was shot on location at the National Museum in Phnom Penh and features rising star Sophia Kao who has joined Baramey recently on a global deal. VannDa and Sophia Kao additionally collaborated on the latter’s new single “Time,” the video for which is also presented by Cellcard.

The two companies’ unique partnership also extends beyond licensing and brand activations to new and exclusive content which Baramey will provide for Cellcard’s products and services across a variety of digital platforms throughout 2021.

Cellcard Chief Executive Officer Ian Watson said the Baramey partnership was more of an incubation for Khmer digital content exploring new ways of engaging talents and fans and forging partnerships that expanded local artist’s horizons.

“Cellcard is really excited with the quality of content launching in the market today and is committed to continuing supporting artists to define their goals and work actively with them to see these achieved.”

About Cellcard: Cellcard is Cambodia’s longest-serving and only 100 percent locally-owned mobile communications company. It is also Cambodia’s most-awarded mobile network, having achieved more than 30 industry awards for network excellence. Cellcard is Proudly Khmer and is committed towards uplifting Cambodian talents and the Cambodian economy through realising its vision of a digitised future for all.

About Baramey Production: Baramey Production was founded in 2016 as a pioneering music label, nurturing the talents of original music stars in Cambodia. Today, Baramey has a roster of the hottest original artists and has evolved into a true entertainment company that constantly challenges the status quo, and brings fresh new experiences to Cambodian audiences. Baramey artists include VannDa, Laura Mam, Sophia Kao, Polarix, Songha and more.