lit a candle 1d agoI only knew her work through film, but those songs stayed with me. There was something different about the way she sang, like she was telling you the truth whether you wanted to hear it or not.
Their story
Mirihana Arachchige Nanda Malini Perera (23 August 1943 to 20 August 2026), known as Nanda Malini, was one of Sri Lanka's best known singers. For nearly seven decades she sang film songs, Buddhist hymns, children's pieces, and political concerts that treated the song as a social duty. She died at…
Mirihana Arachchige Nanda Malini Perera (23 August 1943 to 20 August 2026), known as Nanda Malini, was one of Sri Lanka's best known singers. For nearly seven decades she sang film songs, Buddhist hymns, children's pieces, and political concerts that treated the song as a social duty. She died at her home in Nawala on 20 August 2026, aged 82, three days before her 83rd birthday. The government declared 21, 22 and 23 August days of national mourning. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake called her a true musical legend of our time.
She was born on 23 August 1943 in Lewwanduwa, Aluthgama, then Ceylon, the fourth child in a family of nine. Her father, Vincent Perera, was a skilled tailor and coat maker. Her mother, Liyanage Emily Perera, was a housewife. She had four sisters and four brothers. The family moved to Kotahena in Colombo when she was small. Sunday Times later described a childhood in Kasetti watte, where her father ironed coats with a coconut-shell-heated iron and she went to school in rubber sandals bought for 30 cents, earning the nickname Katta. She told Malinda Seneviratne that they lived in a rented house and that her father was her role model: she sometimes asked herself whether everything she did was a continuation of what he did.
At Sri Gunananda Vidyalaya she came under teacher T. N. Margaret Perera, who took her to Radio Ceylon. In 1956 she won a gold medal at the Padya Gayana poetry-singing competition at Borella YMBA. On Karunaratne Abeysekera's children's programme Lama Mandapaya she sang Budu Sadu, written by Asoka Colombage and set by D. D. Danny. A 2002 Sunday Times note dates that radio song to 1958. In 1963 W. D. Amaradeva chose her to sing in Ranmuthu Duwa, the first Sinhala colour film. With Narada Disasekara she sang Galana Gagaki Jeewithe, the first cinema song by Chandraratne Manawasinghe. The film swept the music Sarasaviya Awards that year, and she won Best Female Singer, her first major award. She later said Amaradeva taught her how to infuse power into the word, and that he was the person who had helped her most.
She kept studying after fame. She spent a year at the Heywood Institute of Art, studied with B. Victor Perera, and went to the Bhatkhande Music Institute in Lucknow. She completed the Visharada in 1984 with a First Division Distinction. Infolanka records that family problems stretched that certificate over about ten years. She appeared on Amaradeva's Madhuvanthi programme singing Sannaliyane and Ran Dahadiya Bindu Bindu. Songs such as Pipunu Male Ruwa, Sudu Hamine, and Kada Mandiye looked at women's lives. Manda Nawa Karanawa treated a young woman's loneliness with humour.
In 1971 she joined Amaradeva in the Srawana Aradhana concert series. From 1973 she ran her first solo series, 530 shows, ending on 22 May 1979. Sathyaye Geethaya began in August 1981 and ran to 500 shows, ending in August 1984. Pavana, launched in June 1987, ran 18 months and 205 shows. Lyrics were largely by Sunil Ariyaratne, who she said wrote about 75 percent of her songs, beginning with Sakura Mal, the first melody she composed. Pavana songs were banned on the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and Sri Lanka Rupavahini, and the concert itself was banned. She said the social conditions of that time compelled them to come out with Pavana, and that if they had not done it they would have had to ask themselves what their purpose in singing was. She also said she had to leave the country for a while in 1989. A Pavana line, widely quoted after her death, has the singer say she is no nightingale, only the woman you see on the road.
In 1984 she founded the Nanda Malini Ashram, later called the Nanda Malini Sangeetha Ashramaya, at 30 Vijayaba Mawatha, Nawala Road, Nugegoda. She taught voice to younger children and prepared older students for Visharada exams. She said she had around 400 students there. Cassettes and later CDs had their own arguments: Araliya Landata used young writers; Malata Renu used tunes by unknown composers; Sindu Hodiya was for pre-school children; Kunkuma Pottu was a set of Tamil folk songs, which she said was meant to show that Tamil people were not the savages they were often made out to be; Kirimaduwel celebrated Sinhala folk poetry. In 2007 she released Etha Kandu Yaye, 16 award-winning songs, at the BMICH Open Air Theatre, and told Daily News she had contributed to 105 films in 45 years and wanted those songs preserved.
After 22 years without a new solo concert series she returned in 2010 with Shwetha Rathriya, with Sirasa FM. In 2017 the University of the Visual and Performing Arts conferred the honorary degree Darshana Shuri, Doctor of Philosophy of Fine Arts, the first time a woman artist was so recognised by a Sri Lankan university. In 2024 she received a Derana Film Awards lifetime award for contribution to cinema. On 22 August 2025, her birthday, SLBC renamed Studio 09 the Dr. Nanda Malini Studio. Chairman Professor Uditha Gayashan Gunasekara apologised for the earlier ban. She said the broadcasting corporation had been the foundation of her musical journey.
In 2022, during the economic-crisis protests that helped topple President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the BBC reported that she supported the movement and performed for demonstrators. A chronicle of those protests places her, with Sunil Ariyaratne and others, at Galle Face on 12 April 2022.
She was married to artist and director Suneth Gokula. They had two daughters, Varuni Saroja and Ama Sarada. Wikipedia records that Varuni married Chaminda, son of lyricist Dharmasiri Gamage, and that Ama married Sanjeewa. Sunday Times said the daughters survive her. Cause of death was not made public. On her own wish, remains lay at the ashram, not at another public hall. Pansukula rites were set for 10:00 on 22 August, the procession left at 15:30, and cremation at Borella General Cemetery was at 17:00, without a ceremony at the ground. Hundreds of thousands passed the ashram. The President and Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya paid respects. A hybrid orchid, Nanda Malini Ascosanda, had already been named for her in 2004. What remains is the work: radio hymns, film duets, and the banned wind of Pavana.
Biography adapted from English Wikipedia; BBC 21 Aug 2026; Ada Derana; Sunday Times 23 Aug 2026; infolanka; Sunday Observer 2007; Daily News 2007; Ministry of Media 2025..
In their own words
“I had to move out of the country for a while in 1989 because of this.”
Same interview cluster, on the Pavana bans. She also said: 'I believe that it happened because of the background I came from.'
“The social conditions of that time compelled us to come out with Pavana. If we hadn't done it, we would have had to ask ourselves what our purpose in singing was.”
To Malinda Seneviratne, infolanka profile. She added that she had said those songs were valid only for that time, and people were free to throw them away, but she believed the issues were still present.
“A slogan was slowly forming in my mind. It said 'the song has a social purpose to fulfill'.”
Same infolanka interview, on moving from pleasing the ear to political song.
“I remembered the pain of being rejected when we went door to door selling what our father sewed. This was voiced through Pavana. Not persevering with Pavana would have been to neglect our social responsibility.”
Quoted in a published interview excerpt carried by methinks and related Sri Lankan interview coverage. She added that some Pavana songs were still relevant and that people must work toward making them irrelevant.
“The banning of a work of art is a great injustice.”
Sunday Observer conversation, 21 October 2007. In the same conversation she said banning amounts to killing an artist and violates listeners' rights, because it takes away the artist's living and the public's access.
“He taught me how to infuse power into the word.”
On W. D. Amaradeva, infolanka interview. She called him the person who had inspired and helped her most.
“I have contributed to 105 films during my 45 years in the field.”
Daily News, 5 September 2007, discussing a plan to re-record film songs. She also said old tracks had not been preserved properly and that some instruments used then were hard to find.
“I who sing for you, am no nightingale, just the woman you see on the road.”
English sense of a Pavana lyric (Obata gee gayana mama, kokilawaka nowemi; maga thote oba dakina geheniyayi), quoted by Sunday Times, 23 August 2026. Lyric associated with Sunil Ariyaratne; sung by her.
“We were very poor and had nothing by way of assets.”
On the Kotahena childhood, infolanka. She said her father was determined and did not get into debt, and asked herself, 'are you not your father?'
Photos
1Nanda Malini singing in a white sari, 17 December 2006. Commons description: photograph (cropped) of Sri Lankan singer Nanda Malini.
Dec 2006
by People Forever
That detail about the birthday haunts me too.