Monetrey, the Cambodian singer, is a rising Khmer pop artist who represents Cambodia at the first Eurovision Song Contest Asia with “I Let You Go”, singing second of eleven in the Grand Final in Bangkok on Saturday 14 November 2026. He won his ticket at Cambodia’s Finest Voice in Phnom Penh on 17 October, the last of the eleven national selections, with a ballad sung in Khmer, English and French. The organisers call him a “rising figure of the country’s new generation of pop artists” with a following among Gen Z listeners. This profile sets out everything published about him so far: his background, the song, how he won, his first rehearsal at the One Bangkok Forum, and what the prediction markets make of his chances. Where something has not been published, such as his real name or his age, we say so rather than guess.
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Image: Monetrey’s official artist card, Eurovision Song Contest Asia (eurovisionasia.com).
Key takeaways
- Who he is: a Cambodian pop singer whom the organisers place among a young generation “redefining the sound and image of Khmer music”. His real name, age and hometown have not been published.
- The song: “I Let You Go”, a ballad in Khmer, English and French. Its writers and producers have not been named.
- How he got there: he beat six other acts at Cambodia’s Finest Voice on 17 October, under a 40% Cambodian public, 40% jury and 20% international vote. Cambodia was the last of the eleven countries to choose.
- When he sings: second, after Vietnam, in the Grand Final at 20:30 ICT (14:30 CET) on Saturday 14 November. Sabay carries it in Cambodia; the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel carries it everywhere.
- First rehearsal, 8 November: alone on stage in gold and black, under a spotlight, with no LED graphics in the official clip.
- The odds: Polymarket, 03:14 UTC on 9 November, has Cambodia at 0.1% to win, 1.3% with the juries and 13% to make the top three, seventh of the eleven.
What’s on this page
Who is Monetrey? · Biography and career · The song · How he won · At the One Bangkok Forum · Odds · Watch and vote · By the numbers · FAQ
Who is Monetrey?
Monetrey is a Cambodian singer who performs under that single name. The official Eurovision Song Contest Asia biography calls him “a rising figure of the country’s new generation of pop artists”, blending contemporary pop and emotional melodies with “a distinctly Cambodian identity”. Aussievision, reporting his win on 17 October, describes him in the same terms: a rising pop artist who combines contemporary pop with Khmer influences. Because 2026 is the contest’s first edition, he is also Cambodia’s first Eurovision Asia act.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Monetrey (stage name; real name not published) |
| Country | Cambodia |
| Age and birthplace | Not published by the organisers or the broadcaster |
| Described as | A rising Khmer pop artist with a Gen Z following and “millions of views across digital platforms” (official biography) |
| Tagged by the organisers as @monetrey | |
| Song | “I Let You Go”, a ballad in Khmer, English and French |
| Selection | Won Cambodia’s Finest Voice, Phnom Penh, 17 October 2026 |
| Broadcasters | TV5 Cambodia is the participating broadcaster; the Grand Final airs on Sabay in Cambodia |
| Grand Final | Slot 2 of 11, Saturday 14 November 2026, One Bangkok Forum |
| Polymarket, 9 November | 0.1% to win; 13% to finish in the top three |
The gaps in that table are real gaps. As of 9 November neither the organisers nor TV5 Cambodia have published his real name, his age, where in Cambodia he comes from, a label or a discography, and this page will not fill them in from guesswork. Two naming notes help anyone searching for him. Eurovoix’s reports on 17 October and 8 November both use the spelling “Monterey” in places, alongside “Monetrey”; the official site, the contest’s photo captions and this site use Monetrey. And the organisers tag him as @monetrey on Instagram.
Monetrey’s biography and career
The published biography is about style rather than dates. According to the organisers, Monetrey is “known for his strong visual universe and storytelling-driven approach”, and treats each release as a complete creative project “combining music, cinema, fashion and youth culture”. They credit him with a fast-growing audience in Cambodia, “millions of views across digital platforms” and “a strong connection with Gen Z listeners”, and say he is moving towards “a more ambitious and internationally minded artistic direction”. No chart positions, awards, release titles or dates are given, so we list none.
His Eurovision Asia story is easier to date. Cambodia’s national selection was announced on 21 June, with applications open to singers and record labels (our report from June). It was expected in early September. On 3 September it was dated for 17 October instead, a six-week slip that made Cambodia the last of the eleven countries to choose. On 16 October the organisers published a guide to the seven acts, and the next night Monetrey won, 28 days before the Grand Final.
Since then the organisers have kept him busy on social media. On 31 October their Instagram account posted a swap with Delta Goodrem, who sang “Eclipse” for Australia in Vienna in May and finished fourth with 287 points: she sang “I Let You Go”, and he answered with his own take on “Eclipse”. On 3 November they introduced him as “the charismatic Cambodian” representing his country, and on 8 November, as he reached the stage, as “our golden boy”.
“I Let You Go”: the song
“I Let You Go” is a ballad, and the organisers describe the performance that won in Phnom Penh as “atmospheric”. It is sung in three languages: Khmer, English and French. That mix fits the official picture of an artist with a Cambodian identity and an international direction, though neither he nor the organisers have explained the choice in anything we can find.
What is it about? No official translation or lyric summary has been published. The English title points to a song about letting someone go, and the ballad form fits that reading, but it is our reading, not an authorised one. Anyone searching for the meaning of the Khmer and French lines will not find an official answer yet. We do not reproduce lyrics on this site.
Who wrote it? The songwriters and producers have not been published by the organisers or by TV5 Cambodia, and we had found no credit by 9 November. The official performance video is on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel, titled “Monetrey - I Let You Go | Cambodia”, and the organisers link to it from their running-order announcement of 29 October.
The best-known version so far may be one he did not sing. Delta Goodrem is covering all eleven entries in their original languages for an official series that began on 27 October. The Cambodian episode, in which she performs “I Let You Go” and Monetrey answers with “Eclipse”, had about 150,000 views and 3,700 likes on Instagram when we checked at about 02:00 UTC on 9 November. That is a large audience for a song whose writers are still not named.
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How Monetrey won the ticket to Bangkok
Cambodia’s Finest Voice was a one-night, seven-act final on Saturday 17 October at the AEON Mall Sen Sok Event Hall in Phnom Penh, hosted by MC Bonika and MC Davuth. It began at 18:00 ICT (13:00 CEST) and was scheduled to run for about two and a half hours. TV5 Cambodia is the country’s participating broadcaster; the organisers’ guide sent viewers in Cambodia to Sabay and everyone else to the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel, where the show is still available to watch.
The result came from three pools under section 8.1 of the voting terms: 40% from viewers in Cambodia, 40% from a professional jury and 20% from a Rest of World online vote. Voting was free on the Eurovision Asia website, with eight votes per person that had to be spread across at least three songs. That is a different rule from the Grand Final, which is 50% jury and 50% public.
He beat a field with real track records. The organisers’ guide introduced the other six: Nov Dana, a singer and actress with a film career; Kesorrr, lead female vocalist of SmallWorld SmallBand; the rock singer-songwriter Sam Rocker; Satiya, a Khmer-Australian artist with more than 231,000 YouTube subscribers; and two rappers, GOOFY, whose hit “Komando” with Zedes has passed 11 million YouTube views, and MC PICH, known for his verse on “Cambo Cypher”, which has more than 44 million.
| Act | Name given by the organisers | Song | Published result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monetrey | Not published | “I Let You Go” | Winner |
| Kesorrr | Rithy Lomorkessor | “Goddess” | Top three (Aussievision: second) |
| Nov Dana | Nov Sovathavy | “Smoke on the Mekong” | Top three (Aussievision: third) |
| GOOFY | Koy Ponnaden | “Fly” | Not ranked |
| Sam Rocker | Pheng Sovandariza | “Angels” | Not ranked |
| Satiya | Not given | “Motherland” | Not ranked |
| MC PICH | San Sokphech | “Nor Na Ke Nor (Who’s That)” | Not ranked |
Only first place is certain. The organisers named the top three without ordering the other two, and Eurovoix marked both simply as “top three”. Aussievision put Kesorrr (spelt Koserrr in its story and in the organisers’ result) second and Nov Dana third; ESCBeat had them the other way round. No points were published. Our report from the night has the full result, and the Cambodia country page keeps the selection history.
Monetrey at the One Bangkok Forum
Until the delegation reached Bangkok, nothing was known about the staging. On 7 November Eurovoix noted that Monetrey and the Cambodian delegation had not revealed any details of the performance. The next day, 8 November, he rehearsed on the Eurovision Asia stage for the first time, the fourth of the four acts on day one after Laos, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Eurovoix’s first look describes a stripped-back performance. Monetrey is alone on stage, dressed in gold and black, and the official snippet appears to show simple staging: a spotlight and no LED graphics. The organisers’ Instagram clip, captioned “Our golden boy”, had about 3,700 likes and 163,000 views at about 02:00 UTC on 9 November. Early on 9 November they posted a short follow-up from after the rehearsal, with the full interview on the ZOOP app.
Our reading: it was the barest staging of the opening day, and it puts all the weight on his voice and on the camera work. For a ballad, that can suit juries. But a first-rehearsal clip is short and edited, and it shows the concept rather than the finished camera script, so we would not read much into it yet. The market’s first response was mildly negative: our day-one rehearsal report recorded a 4.5-point fall in Cambodia’s Top 3 price on the day.
The other seven acts, including favourites Malaysia and the Philippines, rehearse today, 9 November, and no reports from those rehearsals exist yet. After that, the next fixed dates are the Preview Show on Friday 13 November and the Grand Final the following night.
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Monetrey Eurovision Asia odds
No fixed-odds bookmaker prices Eurovision Asia, so the only prices are on prediction markets, and those are not bookmaker odds. Polymarket runs six Eurovision Asia books, which had taken about $79.7K between them when we read them at 03:14 UTC on 9 November. Cambodia’s line in each is below: the mid (halfway between best bid and best offer), the quote, the last trade and the money traded on Cambodia’s contract.
| Book | Cambodia mid | Bid / offer | Last trade | Traded on Cambodia | Place in book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 0.1% | 0.1c / 0.2c | 0.1c | $1,138 | Joint last with Bhutan and Bangladesh |
| Jury winner | 1.3% | 1.0c / 1.6c | 2c | $284 | 10th of 11 |
| Public-vote winner | 0.1% | 0c / 0.1c | 0.3c | $371 | Joint last; five countries at 0.1% |
| Top 3 | 13.0% | 9c / 17c | 20c | $1,603 | 7th of 11 |
| Second place | 12.7% | 0.3c / 25c | 5c | $169 | 6th of 11 |
| Third place | 4.3% | 2.6c / 6c | 6c | $244 | 9th of 11 |
The card ranks each book by counting only the countries priced strictly higher, so the ties at 0.1% show as ninth and seventh. In practice Cambodia is joint last in the winner book and the public-vote book, and both treat a Cambodian win as close to impossible. The Top 3 market does not. At 13%, Monetrey is seventh of eleven for the podium, ahead of Mongolia, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal, and Cambodia’s Top 3 contract is the third most traded in that book, behind Vietnam and Mongolia, with its last trade at 20c. The 12.7% in the second-place book is not a real price: it is the midpoint of a 0.3c bid and a 25c offer.
Our reading is the one in our Eurovision Asia 2026 predictions, which rank him eighth: a 13% podium price is generous for an act the same traders put at 0.1% to win. The Top 3 book is eleven yes-or-no contracts, and its mids add up to about 325% rather than the 300% that three podium places imply, so its prices run high as a group.
Kalshi, the US exchange, tells the same story more bluntly. At our 01:48 UTC read on 9 November its Cambodia contract had last traded at 4c, but there was no bid at all, the offer was 51c, and only 61 contracts had ever changed hands. That is a stale print, not a price.
Where to watch and how to vote for Monetrey
The Grand Final is on Saturday 14 November 2026 at 20:30 ICT, which is 20:30 in Phnom Penh, 14:30 CET and 13:30 UTC, live from the One Bangkok Forum. Monetrey sings second, straight after Vietnam’s Tóc Tiên opens the show and before Laos’s Thinla. As the organisers put it, Cambodia “was last to select” but will be “second out on stage”. In Cambodia the show is on Sabay at 20:30 local time; everywhere else it streams free on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. Woody Milintachinda and Cindy Bishop host, with DARA and Jeff Satur as guest performers. Our viewing guide has every broadcaster and local time.
Voting is free on the web at eurovisionasia.com/vote, for over-18s who sign in with Google, Apple or Privy. Each voter has eight free votes and can buy up to ten more, to a maximum of 18, with no more than 16 for any one entry, and the votes must be spread across at least three countries. Nobody may vote for the entry of the country they live in, so voters resident in Cambodia cannot vote for Monetrey. The rule in section 3.3 is about residence, not nationality. His public votes have to come from residents of the other ten countries and from the Rest of World vote, which covers everyone living outside the eleven, Cambodians abroad included.
The result is 50% professional juries and 50% public vote, combined country by country under section 8.2 of the voting terms. The Rest of World vote has no jury half.
The card sets Cambodia’s two split-book prices against the favourites’. Malaysia is 60.5% in the jury book and 38% in the public book; the Philippines is 14.5% and 34%. Cambodia is 1.3% with the juries and 0.1% with the public. Our reading: if Monetrey has a surprise in him, the jury half is the likelier route, because the residence rule shuts him out of the one audience most certain to back him. Every country is tracked on our Eurovision Asia hub.
What people search for: Monetrey by the numbers
Monetrey’s name is easy to mistype and hard to search. In the United States, Google treats “monetrey” as a misspelling of Monterey: all eight organic results we checked on 9 November were about Monterey, California, and so were all four “People also ask” questions. In the UK the search-volume figure for “monetrey” also belongs to the Monterey misspelling, so we leave it out. Adding “cambodia” fixes the problem but shows how thin the coverage is. The US top eight for “monetrey cambodia” is five social-media posts, led by the official Eurovision Asia Instagram, plus Aussievision, ESCToday and a Reddit thread on r/cambodia. Google showed no “People also ask” box at all.
Search demand around Cambodia’s entry is still small. Google search data from DataForSEO puts “eurovision asia cambodia” at about 10 searches a month in the UK, with 20 in the latest month, against 5,400 a month for “eurovision asia” and 1,300 for South Korea’s JUNHEE. On the organisers’ own channels he does better: his rehearsal clip and the Delta Goodrem swap had about 163,000 and 150,000 Instagram views when we checked.
FAQ
Who is Monetrey?
Monetrey is a Cambodian pop singer whom the organisers describe as a rising figure of Cambodia’s new generation of pop artists. He represents Cambodia at the first Eurovision Song Contest Asia with “I Let You Go”, after winning Cambodia’s Finest Voice on 17 October 2026.
How old is Monetrey, and where is he from?
He is from Cambodia. His age, his birthplace and his real name had not been published by the organisers or by TV5 Cambodia as of 9 November 2026, so we do not give them.
What is “I Let You Go” about?
It is a ballad sung in Khmer, English and French. No official translation or lyric summary has been published. The title suggests a song about letting someone go, but that is our reading, not an authorised one.
Who wrote “I Let You Go”?
The songwriters and producers have not been published by the organisers or the broadcaster.
When does Monetrey perform at Eurovision Asia 2026?
Second of eleven, in the Grand Final on Saturday 14 November 2026, which starts at 20:30 ICT (14:30 CET, 13:30 UTC). Vietnam opens the show and Monetrey follows.
Can Monetrey win Eurovision Asia?
The markets say it is very unlikely. Polymarket, read at 03:14 UTC on 9 November, has Cambodia at 0.1% to win and 13% to finish in the top three. Our predictions rank him eighth.
Can people in Cambodia vote for Monetrey?
Not if they live there. Under section 3.3 of the voting terms, nobody may vote for the entry of the country they are resident in. Cambodians living abroad, and viewers resident in the other ten countries or anywhere else, can vote for him at eurovisionasia.com/vote.
Sources
- Eurovision Song Contest Asia: Monetrey will represent Cambodia at Eurovision Asia, 17 October 2026; Your guide to Cambodia’s Finest Voice, 16 October 2026; the Monetrey artist page; the running order, 29 October 2026; Delta Goodrem sings the songs of Eurovision Asia, 27 October 2026; voting terms, sections 3, 6, 6.1, 8.1 and 8.2, updated 28 August 2026.
- Eurovoix: Cambodia: First Look at Monetrey’s Eurovision Asia Performance, 8 November 2026; the result report, 17 October 2026; the performance preview, 7 November 2026. Aussievision, result report, 17 October 2026.
- Official Eurovision Song Contest Asia Instagram captions, 26 October to 9 November 2026; like and view counts at about 02:00 UTC on 9 November. Official video titles from the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.
- Prices: Polymarket Gamma API, 03:14 UTC on 9 November 2026, mids between best bid and offer, placeholder contracts excluded; Kalshi, 01:48 UTC on 9 November 2026.
- Google search data from DataForSEO, checked 9 November 2026. Delta Goodrem’s Vienna result: this site’s Eurovision 2026 results.
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