චිත්රා සෝමපාල
10 songs performed · 1 lyric written
Chithra Somapala (also spelled Chitra Somapala), චිත්රා සෝමපාල, was a Sri Lankan singer of the early gramophone and playback era whose voice helped shape Sinhala classical and cinema song from the late 1940s onward. Born Chithra Perera in 1932, she is remembered both for her own recordings and for the duets she sang with her husband, the singer and music director P. L. A. Somapala.
She began singing as Chithra Perera, training in the disciplined classical idiom of the day, and recorded for Columbia Records under the guidance of Master U. D. Perera around 1948. This placed her among the first generation of Sri Lankan women to record commercially, a period when Sinhala song was moving from imported melodies toward a more local sensibility.
After marrying P. L. A. Somapala in 1952, Chitra Somapala became one half of a celebrated husband-and-wife musical team. The two worked together as performers and as playback singers and music directors in early Sinhala cinema, and in 1966 they shared the Swarna Sankha award for popular film music direction. Their duets, sung for labels such as Columbia and His Master’s Voice, remain among the most recognisable recordings of the era.
Several of her best-known recordings are devotional and place-named songs that have stayed in the repertoire for decades, including the temple and landscape songs Dambulu Gale and Isurumuniyehi Pathali Galaka Hinda, and the gentle duet Sukomala Bada Lelawa. The patriotic and pastoral pieces she is associated with were later revived by her son, the singer and composer Chitral Somapala, who recorded a 2018 album dedicated to his parents’ music.
Chithra Somapala died in 1994. Her recordings sit at the foundation of the Sinhala song tradition, and her family carried the music forward: four of her sons and a daughter grew up in that household, and Chitral “Chity” Somapala went on to an international career while still returning to the songs his mother and father first made. For Sri Lankan listeners and the diaspora, the Chitra Somapala recordings remain a link back to the formative years of recorded Sinhala music.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Chithra Somapala.
Performed by: Chithra Somapala (චිත්රා සෝමපාල)