ලතා වල්පොල
68 songs performed
Latha Walpola (ලතා වල්පොල; also spelled Latha Walpala), born Matharage Rita Genevieve Fernando, was a Sri Lankan playback and recording singer whose voice carried Sinhala film and radio music across more than seven decades. Widely called the “Nightingale of Sri Lanka,” she sang for hundreds of films and recorded thousands of songs, becoming one of the most familiar female voices in twentieth-century Sri Lankan music.
Latha Walpola was born on 11 November 1934 in the Colombo area of British Ceylon. She came to public attention very young, performing on Radio Ceylon from 1946 when she was about twelve, first as Latha Fernando. Her early radio work led directly into the new Sinhala cinema, and she made her playback debut in 1953 with the film Eda Rae.
Walpola became one of the leading playback voices of the Sinhala film industry, lending her singing to hundreds of films across the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond. Her catalogue ranges from romantic film numbers and lullabies to devotional and seasonal songs. Lyrics-lk hosts a broad cross-section of that range, from the tender Doi Doi Doi Doiya Putha lullaby to the New Year favourite Awilla Awilla Sinhala Aurudda Awilla and the Christmas piece Kalakata Pera Ae Bethlehem.
Among the works most closely tied to Latha Walpola are Galana Seetha Jale, Adaraye Ran Wimane, and Sagara Lawalle Seethala Kadalle. Her marriage to fellow singer Dharmadasa Walpola in 1958 formed one of the best-loved musical partnerships in the country, and the two recorded together for decades. Latha Walpala is also remembered for devotional recordings, including Sinhala Catholic hymns that remain in seasonal rotation.
The Sri Lankan state recognised her contribution with the Kala Soori title (2005) and, later, the Deshamanya honour, alongside repeated Sarasaviya Awards for playback singing. Latha Walpola died on 27 December 2025, in her early nineties, ending one of the longest careers in Sri Lankan music. For listeners at home and across the diaspora, her recordings, from film romances to the well-known Doi Doi Doi Doiya Putha, remain a fixed part of the Sinhala songbook.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Latha Walpola.