මාලනී බුලත්සිංහල
66 songs performed
Malani Bulathsinhala (also spelled Malani Bulathsinghala, මාලනී බුලත්සිංහල) was a Sri Lankan playback and stage singer whose warm, classically grounded voice made her one of the most recognisable female vocalists of Sinhala popular music from the 1970s onward. Born 12 December 1949 in Boralesgamuwa and active for more than four decades, she is remembered for love songs and devotional pieces such as Dam Patin La Sada Basa Yanawa and Premaye Wil There.
Malani Bulathsinhala began performing as a child, joining the Lama Pitiya children’s program at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation around 1959, when she was about ten years old, billed in her early radio days as B. S. Malani. She later studied at the Bhatkhande Music Institute in India and trained in Indian classical technique, a grounding that gave her singing its disciplined phrasing. Her younger sister Sandhya Bulathsinhala also became a singer.
Across her career Malani Bulathsinghala moved easily between pop, soul, light classical and devotional material. One of her enduring recordings is the duet Dam Patin La with composer and singer Gunadasa Kapuge. Her catalogue ranges from the patriotic Me Rata Mage Rata to tender love songs and Buddhist devotional numbers, a breadth that kept her on radio playlists for decades.
Malani Bulathsinhala was the mother of singer and composer Kasun Kalhara, who became a leading figure in the next generation of Sinhala music. She died on 29 March 2001 in Los Angeles, at the age of 51, while preparing for a concert. Her recordings remain staples of Sri Lankan radio and continue to find new listeners among the Sinhala diaspora, who return to Malani Bulathsinghala’s songs for their clarity, feeling, and the unmistakable steadiness of her voice.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Malani Bulathsinhala.