Benjamin Sum (Burmese: ဘင်ဂျမင်ဆုမ်း; born 27 November 2000) is a Burmese singer of ethnic Chin descent.[1] He rose to prominence following his finish as the runner-up on the fourth season of Myanmar Idol.[2][3][4]

Benjamin Sum ဘင်ဂျမင်ဆုမ်း
Benjamin Sum in 2020
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin Sum
Born	(2000-11-27) 27 November 2000 (age 21) Kalay, Sagaing Region, Myanmar
Genres	Pop, pop rock
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instrument(s)	Vocals • guitar
Years active	2019–present

Early life and education

Benjamin Sum was born on 27 November 2000 in Kalay, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. His father was a missionary and died when he was four years old. His younger sister died at age four when he was eight years old, at the same time his mother diagnosed with cancer stage three when he was in middle school. His life story shocked the Myanmar audience as he stepped into Myanmar Idol 2019 as a contestant. He is currently studying Computer Science at University of Computer Studies, Kalay.[5]

Career

Ben started performing in public in 2018. He wanted to pursue a career in music, and so he auditioned for the fourth season of Myanmar Idol. Finally, he was selected in Top 11 finalists.

He made the grand final on the weekend of 28 December 2019, alongside Esther Dawt Chin Sung and Aye Mya Phyu. After Esther was declared the winner, he finished as the runner-up with over 50% of the public vote.[6] During his homecoming to Kalay a huge crowd of thousands fans gathered.[7]

After competing Myanmar Idol, he began shooting for commercial advertisements, stage performances, and preparing to record his first solo album.[8]

On 18 May 2020, he released a single song called "Pyan Twae Mae Yat" MV on his Facebook page which earned 1 M views within 24 hours and then 2 M views in 5 days.[9] Also it has long been number one on Joox's top 100 chart.[10][11]

Competition songs

• Week 1: He sang Mother how are you in Burmese version and he won the hearts of Myanmar audiences.[12]
• Week 2: He sang Ma Tar Nae (မတားနဲ့) which makes him the most popular contestant[13]
• Week 3: He chose the song Adipati Lanma Ka Chay Yar Myar (အဓိပတိလမ်းမကခြေရာများ), Casablanca in Burmese version, for the week of College Student life.
• Week 4: He chose the song Min Ma Shi Tae Nya Tway (မင်းမရှိတဲ့နေ့တွေ ညတွေ) in country theme.
• Week 5: He sang Sate Pyay Thachin (စိတ်ဖြေသီချင်း) the week to the remembrance of the iconic singer Soe Lwin Lwin.
• Week 6: He sang December Na Nat Khin (ဒီဇင်ဘာနံနက်ခင်း) for winter theme and he became a top 5 finalist.
• Week 7: He sang Say (ဆေး) for popular song week and is chosen as one of the top 4 finalists.

Discography

Singles

• The Day We Meet Again (ပြန်တွေ့မယ့်ရက်) (2020).[14]
• Girl from the House Next Door (ဟိုဖက်အိမ်ကကောင်မလေး) (2020)[15]

Award

• Joox Top 10 Popular Song Award for 2020

References

External links

• Benjamin Sum on Facebook