Nanda Malini

Nanda Malini

Nanda Malini (Sinhala:නන්දා මාලනී) (born 23 August 1943) is a Sri Lankan singer. She is one of the best known and most honoured singers of Sri Lanka. Her choice of singing themes are based on real life and social-cultural situations. Her songs intricate notional ideas of relationships, life-circumstances, and emotions that stem out of human realities.She has been credited as starting a new chapter in Sri Lankan classical music.

Concerts Early life

Nanda was born to a rural family of nine in Lewanduwa in Aluthgama, Sri Lanka. She moved to Kotahena in Colombo as an adolescent and was admitted to Sri Gunananda Vidyalaya where she came under the tutelage of T. N. Margaret Perera. After winning a poetry contest, Radio Ceylon W. D. Amaradeva invited Nanda to take part in a song, she sang the song "Budu Sadu" on Karunaratne Abeysekera's popular program known as Lama Mandapaya on Radio.

Debu

Nanda continued her training after achieving fame, learning under B. Victor Perera. She studyied for a year at Heywood Institute of Artand moving on to Bhatkhande Music Institute in Lucknow, India in 1963. She would later return to the University to obtain a Visharada degree in 1984. Upon her return to Sri Lanka, Malini appeared on Amaradeva's programme Madhuvanthi singing the songs "Sannaliyane" and "Ran Dahadiya Bindu Bindu." Malini has had a string of successful releases. Her lyrics depict realistic life situations, love, relationships, and emotions. The songs "Pipunu Male Ruwa", "Sudu Hamine", and "Kada Mandiye" attest to her effort to expose the hearts of women. Some of Nanda's popular songs, such as "Manda Nawa Karanawa", show a humorous and sensitive account of a young woman's experience of loneliness.

Concerts

In 1971, Nanda collaborated with Pandit Amaradewa in the Srawana Aradhana concert. In 1973 she started her first solo concert series, and after having 530 shows the series ended on 22 May 1979. In August 1981 she started another concert series ‘Sathyaye Geethaya’. She played 500 shows and ended in August 1984. She conducted her next solo musical concert series Pavana in June 1987 which ran for 18 months with 205 shows. After 22 years her newest solo musical concert titled ‘Shwetha Rathriya’ was held with the collaboration of Sirasa FM in 2010.

Awards

She has won eleven Sarasaviya Awards and eight Presidential Awards for Best Female Singer. The University of the Visual & Performing Arts conferred on her the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Performance Arts) Honoris Causa named the Darshana Soori Sammana in 2017.