චන්දන ලියනආරච්චි
74 songs performed
Chandana Liyanarachchi (චන්දන ලියනාරච්චි, also spelled Chandana Liyanaarachchi) is a Sri Lankan playback and stage singer who rose to popularity in the 1990s with romantic and separation-themed Sinhala songs. Born on 6 May 1978 in Kuliyapitiya, he is widely remembered for melodies such as Sithin Adinawa, Suwanda Thiya, and Polruppaawee that have stayed in circulation for decades.
Liyanarachchi grew up in the Kuliyapitiya area and studied at local schools before moving toward a music career through the youth service-club scene of the early 1990s. That community, with its rehearsal studios and amateur stage shows, was his first platform, and he trained in vocals while drawing on both Sinhala pop and the Indian classical raagam tradition that shaped many Sri Lankan singers of his generation.
His breakthrough came with the 1994 cassette “Sihina Kumariye”, released on the kind of small local label that carried much of the decade’s popular music. Songs from that early run, including Polruppaawee and Sihina Asapuwe, became the foundation of his reputation as a singer of tender, melancholic love songs. Over the following years he recorded steadily, and several of those numbers, such as Liyathabara Mala Obada Lande and Nilwana Lande, remain among his most requested.
Much of Chandana Liyanarachchi’s catalogue was built with composer and lyricist Nihal Gamhewa, his closest early collaborator, alongside music directors Jayasiri Amarasekara and Rohana Weerasinghe and lyricists including Channa Jayanath and Ratna Sri Wijesinghe. On streaming his most-played recordings include Suwanda Thiya, Sithin Adinawa, Kiri Weherata Ihalin, Sanda Yaathra Kala (සඳ යාත්රා කළා), and Kavi Seepada Ahena Aatha, the last two from a 2023 release that brought his voice to a new generation of listeners. A flashback version of Samawenna Boo Pathakata kept him recording into the mid-2020s.
Chandana Liyanarachchi belongs to the wave of 1990s Sinhala vocalists whose cassette-era love songs still fill request shows, weddings, and diaspora playlists. His gentle delivery and the steady output of slow, sentimental melodies keep songs like Suwanda Thiya and Sithin Adinawa in regular rotation, and his more recent recordings show that the same listeners have followed him from cassette to streaming.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Chandana Liyanarachchi.