Channthy was born into war and poverty as the only daughter of army tank driver Reach Lon and grew up poor in Prey Veng Province, a rural area in Cambodia, before moving to Phnom Penh.
She formed the Cambodian psychedelic rock band "The Cambodian Space Project" with her Australian husband Julien Poulson and worked as the lead singer and songwriter releasing 5 albums and touring 24 countries around the world.
[1] Channthy collaborated with a range of artists including Dennis Coffey of Motown Funk Bros who she worked with to produce and record her seminal third LP "Whisky Cambodia".
She twice recorded duets with iconic Australian poet laureate Paul Kelly on the songs "The Boat" - a song dealing with the issue of asylum seekers and included on 2013's Key of Sea compilation, in 2017 she recorded again with Kelly a re-working of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra's classic "Summer Wine".
Channthy was fond of French chanson and collaborated with Bad Seed Mick Harvey on the Serge Gainsbourg track "Contact", as well as, covering and regularly performing France Gall's classic "Laisse Tomber Les Filles" in her live set.