මොරිස් දහනායක
8 songs performed
Moris Dahanayaka (also spelled Moris Dahanayake or Morris Dahanayaka), මොරිස් දහනායක, was a Sri Lankan singer of the radio-era generation, remembered for his warm devotional and light classical voice on songs such as Meth Mal Pibidewa and Sinahawai Kandulai Sadaa. Born on 11 December 1935, he recorded for radio and HMV from the 1950s and stayed a familiar presence on Sinhala airwaves until his death on 26 April 2013.
Dahanayaka studied at several schools across the island, beginning at Saint Aloysius in Galle and continuing at Ananda College in Colombo, Saint Patrick’s in Jaffna, and Wesley College in Colombo. His school choir work gave him an early grounding in singing. A friend, Susil Premaratne, encouraged him into radio group-singing programmes, and he took formal vocal training under the music teachers Gauss and Shelton Premaratne.
His breakthrough came young: in 1952 he won a song competition with “Onna Olu Malak,” composed by Shelton Premaratne. He went on to cut HMV records and worked with music directors of the period, building a catalogue that moved between devotional songs, light classical numbers, and playback work for film. Moris Dahanayake also appeared in a number of Sinhala films during his active years.
His best-known recording is the devotional Meth Mal Pibidewa (මෙත් මල් පිබිදේවා), written by Siril A. Seelawimala. Lyrics-lk hosts that song alongside several others from his catalogue. The following pages collect his work in Sinhala script with transliteration and English translation:
Morris Dahanayaka belongs to the cohort of singers who came up through the choir-and-radio path of the 1950s, and his devotional recordings in particular keep an audience among listeners who grew up with that sound. For the diaspora, songs like Meth Mal Pibidewa remain a steady touchstone of older Sinhala religious and sentimental music.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Moris Dahanayaka.