මොරිස් විජේසිංහ
5 songs performed
Moris Wijesingha (also spelled Moris Wijesinghe or Morris Wijesinghe, මොරිස් විජේසිංහ; born Morris Denzil Bernard Wijesinghe, 16 October 1941 to 31 August 2020) was a Sri Lankan pop singer and playback vocalist whose warm, melodic style made him one of the recognisable voices of the 1980s Sinhala music scene. His career stretched across more than four decades, and he is remembered for songs such as Doowillen Wathsunu Thawara and Oba Enna.
Wijesingha was born in Mount Lavinia and educated at St. Peter’s College, Bambalapitiya. He came to singing through the music he heard as a schoolboy, drawn to the western and Sinhala popular songs of the day and to the church choir, and he developed his voice alongside the guitar. He married Marina Vinodani Perera in 1969.
Working in pop, soul, and rhythm and blues, Moris Wijesinghe built his reputation through the 1970s and 1980s on radio and in playback recording. His film work began in 1981, and over the years he recorded with several of the era’s leading composers and writers. The lyricist Upul Shantha Sannasgala penned Oba Enna Oba Avith Yanna (ඔබ එන්න ඇවිත් යන්න එන්න) for him, and he also worked with composer Rohana Weerasinghe and lyricist Ajantha Ranasinghe among others.
Wijesingha’s best-loved recording is widely held to be Doowillen Wathsunu Thawara, and his catalogue also includes the much-played Nil Ahas Thale Age, a melody he shared with other vocalists including Neela Wickramasinghe and Chitral Somapala. He won a Sumathi Award in 2001 for the teledrama song “Peradiga Ahase” and a Presidential award for his singing in the serial “Samanalee”.
Moris Wijesinghe remained active in music into the 2010s and died on 31 August 2020 at the age of 78. For listeners across Sri Lanka and the diaspora, the songs of Morris Wijesinghe still carry the unhurried, romantic mood of 1980s Sinhala pop, which keeps them in regular rotation decades after they were first recorded.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Moris Wijesingha.