Researching May Sweet

May Sweet was the dominant female singer of Burmese pop music from the late 1970s to the 1980s, bridging popular singers from the 1970s like Nwe Yin Win and L Khun Yi to Maykhala, her main rival in the mid-1980s, and to Hayma Ne Win and Connie in the late 1980s. She also collaborated with other male singers, most notably with Kaiser. She achieved immense popularity starting in the late 1970s with a series of repackaged Western cover albums called Panthi Thachinmya (lit. Apple Songs), written by successful cover songwriter Thukhamein Hlaing, and a series of classic Burmese cover albums produced by Maung Kyemon. Her covers, some of which were originally written for male singers, often became more popular than the original covers. She also had many successful "original" songs as she was the top choice of songwriters of the day. Her most famous song, or her signature song, is Maung.

At the peak of her popularity in the early to mid-1980s, the fourth daughter of five-time Myanmar Academy Award winner Myint Myint Khin also starred in a number of films where she appeared with leading men of the day like Pyay Nyein and Kyaw Thu. In the 1990s, she chose to focus on her music career, and stopped making films. Though the Burmese pop music scene had changed from slow rock/pop to Europop, techno, heavy metal and hip-hop, she stayed with her tried-and-true pop ballads. With her strong fan base, she was able to keep releasing new albums. Ironically, the next generation of female singers promptly covered many of her popular songs (both covers and originals) though none achieved her success. The songs remain closely identified with her. The longevity of her popularity and dominance at the top remains unparalleled in Myanmar where even most successful female singers do not last more than a few years. To date, she remains the only singer to have achieved success in both Western-style pop and classic Burmese music genres.

May Sweet left the Burmese music scene and the country in the late 1990s after she was married to a Burmese-American from New York City in 1997. She resides with her husband in Delaware, US. They have 1 daughter. She continues to perform for Burmese expatriate audiences around the world. Later, she returned to Myanmar and sings her songs again and make many shows. Now, she is as a judge in Myanmar Idol.