CLARENCE WIJEWARDENA – by Des Kelly

Quarter of a century has already elapsed since we lost him.

Clarence Wijewardena was, in my opinion, at the very apex of the tree of Musical Composers that Sri Lanka has ever produced, and there have been, and still are, many others.

It was in 1963, just a year after I migrated to Melbourne, that I first heard his song Dilhani, just fell in love with the tune and rendition by Indrani Perera, and decided on the spot, to write an English Version to this beautiful tune which I named My Lovely Island Home. Of course, I could not record this English Version of my song without written permission from Clarence. I cannot remember where he was living at the time, but I did write him a lerter which he promptly replied, giving me his permission and thereby I went ahead and recorded My Lovely Island Home, to the exact tune of Dilhani, and a couple of years later, Indrani Perera came to Melbourne, after being booked for a show here and as,I waa involved in the same show, I decided to join Indrani on stage, where we sang Dilhani together, she, in Sinhala, while I sang my English version in amalgamation with her. She loved it, the audience did, as well, and MLIH then became a huge hit in Lanka and was frequently requested over the airwaves, where many many years later

it is still a firm favourite. I am sure that Clarence would be very pleased about this

Tributes will continue to flow in for Clarence Wijewardena and for all my e’Lanka readers and members around the World, I hope you will enjoy my Sinhala Version as a background to this story, and also My Lovely Island Hone which just happened to be the home of Clarence aa well.

Farewell Maestro, once again,  SriLanka is still there, but it will never be the same, without you. This is your Lansi pal signing off.

Desmond Kelly.

(Editor-in-Chief) e’Lanka.