හෙන්රි කල්දේරා
17 songs performed · 1 composition · 1 lyric written
Henry Kaldera (also spelled Henry Caldera; හෙන්රි කල්දේරා) was a Sri Lankan singer, songwriter, and musician known for his warm solo recordings and a large body of children’s songs broadcast on national radio. Blind from the age of fourteen, he built a four-decade career on radio and record, and is remembered for hits such as Thara Patiya and Lanka Mage Lanka.
Henry Kaldera was born on 19 August 1937 in Maradana. He lost his sight completely at the age of fourteen and went on to study at the Seeduwa Deaf and Blind School, where he received musical instruction connected to the maestro Sunil Shantha. That training shaped the clean, melodic style that would mark his later recordings.
Kaldera became a radio artist in 1968 and reached a wide audience with his first hit, Thara Patiya (තාර පැටියා), in 1972. He released a four-song album in 1977 and, over his lifetime, issued three audio cassettes and two compact discs. Most of his output was solo work, and a notable share of it was written for children, a repertoire that kept his voice familiar to generations of Sri Lankan listeners.
Beyond his radio breakthrough, Henry Caldera is associated with devotional, patriotic, and tender melodies. The patriotic Lanka Mage Lanka and the pilgrimage song Samanola Siripa Simba Simba sit alongside gentler numbers like Midule Sudu Weli Thalaye (මිදුලේ සුදු වැලි තලයේ) and Eeye Udaye. The lullaby-style Hadannepa Amme reflects the children’s-song tradition he is best known for.
In 1979 Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa arranged a house for the singer, and in 1993 the state honoured him with the Kala Bhushana award. Henry Kaldera died of cancer on 11 October 2006 in Seeduwa, aged 69. He is remembered both for overcoming blindness to make a living in music and for a catalogue, listed by some sites under the spellings Hendri or Henri Kaldera, that remains a fixture of Sinhala children’s and devotional song.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Henry Kaldera.