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ANIL BHARATHI UNCONQUERED EFFERVESCENT VOYAGE IN CELEBRITY FOR OVER FIVE DECADES-By SUNIL THENABADU Anil Bharathi’s signature song equally popular “ Bethlehempure” still remains the “evergreen” Christmas song for half a century.The lyrics were by a Buddhist legendary celebrated Karunaratne Abeysekera which still remains as the most popular Christmas song in the century perhaps centuries to come. Even if Anil sang this song only his name would still be etched in the hearts of all Sri Lankans not only Christians.The music of this song was by the POP music maestro Clarence and his Golden Chimes band recorded under the ‘Lotus” label one of the pioneers in records and cassettes.  Anil the lanky vocalist had innate skills but not known to have hereditary affiliations to music was the lead singer which added the requisite spice to the Golden Chimes bank in the early decade of the seventies. Anil, had skill in singing ...

Jan 11, 2022 Posted by In Articles, Sunil Thenabadu Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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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 ...

Dec 13, 2021 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged , ,
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CLARENCE WIJEWARDENA – By Des Kelly   In my humble opinion, the BEST Songwriter/Composer that Ceylon, then, Sri Lanka, now, has produced to date. Clarence would have been 78 years old, today, 3rd August, 2021, had he not passed on, due to complications connected with acute diabetes.          My tribute to him comes from the fact that, after hearing and loving his Composition “Dilhani”, I decided to write to him for permission to use his Music in order to complete my English version, which I titled “My Lovely Island Home”. Clarence gave me his kind permission in writing, and being always grateful to him, I decided to also record Dilhani, as best as I could possibly do, in Sinhala, in tribute to this guy who was unfortunately taken from us, far too soon.  ...

Aug 2, 2021 Posted by In Articles Tagged
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Golden Jubilee years of Sinhala Pop Music;-By Dr D.Chandraratna Christian youth herald an Integrative revolution Source:Island Right at the outset I need to justify the above subtitle. The readers may be understandably perturbed that the use of the word Christian is an irrelevant identity marker, given the violence that identity markers have caused in Sri Lanka. I am acutely conscious of Amartya Sen’s advice, ‘Reason before Identity’ before we classify groups (Identity Violence, 2007). However this identity profiling is only an empirical generalization contextualized here because it has contingent social significance. I wish to demonstrate how young, predominantly Christian youth, through Sinhala song stumbled on to foster amity, dialogue and communication between communities, ‘unloading a million bricks’ out of the Sinhala psyche (Langston Hughes, The Big Sea, 1986). Having relieved my burden I shall come to the subject proper. This article is to celebrate more than half a century of ...

Jul 6, 2021 Posted by In Articles Tagged ,
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“THE BIRDS & THE BEES” – By Des Kelly   The song was composed by Clarence Wijewardena, who also was the Music Director when  Annesley Malawana recorded it.            This version was performed by a pretty ordinary bloke & a pretty extraordinary girl, when you get to the bottom of it.  ...

Oct 27, 2020 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged Comments 0
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“REMEMBERING CLARENCE” – By Des Kelly             He was certainly one of the very best Singer/ Songwriters that Sri Lanka was proud to call their own. Clarence Wijewardena wrote many songs, most of them, at the request of friends who, in turn, had friends wishing to record a “Clarence-song”.              This writer was already in Australia, when Clarence wrote a song entitled “Dilhani”, dedicated to the baby-  daughter of yet another friend, no doubt. It wasn’t known to many folk that Clarence wrote his song-lyrics in a simple exercise book, that most Sri Lankans would remember as a relic of their School days. He wrote many songs, so there were many exercise books, and in addition, at the beginning of each song, being a Catholic, he would also write a special little prayer, asking God to help him complete the ...

Sep 14, 2020 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged Comments 0
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“TOGETHER AGAIN” – By Des Kelly “THE SAME PLACE, TOGETHER AGAIN”. sounds like a great Song -title, doesn’t it ?. This beautiful little video clip was sent to me via Valerie Weerakoon and Charmaine Phillips, and yes, ladies, the Ceylon we knew was also named Seylan, Taprobane, Serendip, by the Persians, Serendib, by the Arabs, Serendivis, by the Romans,”The Pearl of the Indian Ocean, “The tear of India”, “My Lovely Island Home” by your’s truly, & right down to the Sanskrit name  “Simhaladvipah”, split down the middle to be called Simhala (Sri Lanka),dvipah (Island), which of course, it is right now (The Island of Sri Lanka). That said, I would like to thank both Valerie & Charmaine for the message they send, a message of Peace & Harmony for every square inch of those twenty six plus, thousand square miles of what could have also easily been called God’s Second ...

Jun 29, 2019 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged , , , , , Comments 0
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MY LOVELY ISLAND HOME – By Des Kelly   There are many “song-titles” resembling the above, but the true story regarding the music and lyrics to a most beautiful song, was heard by this writer, not long after I had migrated to Melbourne, with my young family, from Ceylon, in 1962. It would have been still the mid 60’s, and I really cannot recall exactly when or where I heard it. The “title” was completely different, and the song Dilhani-dhuvani was being sung by a female of Lankan origin, that I had not heard of, nevertheless, Indrani Perera sang this song so very well (it was on cassette, I think), I listened to it, many times over, and remember feeling extremely homesick for the Country we had just left for good, not because we wanted to, but because we had to. Homesickness, sadness,there’s not much difference, I can tell you.   ...

Aug 26, 2018 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged , , Comments 0
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“LEGENDS OF LANKA” – By Des Kelly While we can “boast” many “Legends of Lanka” both past and present, Legends in almost every field of Endeavour, there would also have to be the journalistic “Legends” to write about all the  singular achievements of these people, and today, I would like to introduce a Lankan Journalist who has really “been there & done that”. To “face-book” fans, he needs no introduction at all. He makes his “comments” regularly on F.B., pulls no punches, with articulate abandon, and, best of all, (for me), is a personal friend.       I speak to Joe Vanlangenberg often and never fail to be amazed by the fact that there is hardly a single Vocalist, Male or Female, Group, Band, or Music Conglomeration that Joe isn’t familiar with. This particular article goes back to the days of Donavan Andree, Entrepreneur Extraordinaire, in old Ceylon, as we knew ...

Jul 16, 2018 Posted by In Articles, DESMOND KELLY Tagged , , , , , , , Comments 0
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