නන්දා මාලනී
187 songs performed · 7 compositions
Nanda Malini (also spelled Nanda Malani, නන්දා මාලනී; born Mirihana Arachchige Nanda Malini Perera on 23 August 1943) is one of the most respected singers in Sri Lankan music, known for a classically trained voice and for songs that turned everyday life and social conscience into popular melody. Across six decades she recorded work ranging from tender love songs to pointed protest material, and her recordings remain staples for Sri Lankan listeners at home and across the diaspora.
Nanda Malini was born in Lewwanduwa, Aluthgama, and grew up in a large rural family before the household moved to Colombo. She studied at Sri Gunananda Vidyalaya and trained at the Heywood institute, then travelled to the Bhatkhande Music Institute in Lucknow, India, in 1963 for formal study in Indian classical music. She later completed a Visharada degree, the grounding that gives her singing its disciplined phrasing.
Her path to broadcasting began after she won a school poetry-recitation contest, which led to an invitation from W. D. Amaradeva to sing on Radio Ceylon. Playback and recording work followed, and over the 1960s and 1970s she became one of the leading female voices in Sinhala song. A long collaboration with the lyricist Sunil Ariyaratne shaped much of her catalogue, and she also worked with composers including Rohana Weerasinghe, whose arrangements suited her clear, unforced delivery.
In the late 1980s Nanda Malini and Sunil Ariyaratne staged the Pavana concert series, a body of socially and politically charged songs performed widely across the country. Some of that material was kept off state radio and television at the time, which only deepened its reach among audiences who heard it on cassette and in concert. The series cemented her reputation as a singer willing to give voice to hardship, injustice, and women’s lives rather than romance alone.
Whether singing of love, motherhood, or social struggle, Nanda Malani is known for clarity of meaning: the words always land. Lyrics-lk hosts a broad selection of her recordings, including the much-loved Pipunu Male Ruwa and Sudu Hamine, a song she also composed. Other titles on the site show the range of her work, from Jeewithe Kawiyak to Premaya Nam and Sanda Eliya.
Nanda Malani has received numerous honours over her career, including multiple Sarasaviya and Presidential awards for her singing, and in later years an honorary doctorate recognising her contribution to the arts. She is widely credited with opening a new chapter in Sinhala music, one in which a popular singer could also be a moral and social voice. For many listeners her recordings of love and longing sit beside her protest songs as part of a single, unmistakable body of work, which is why Nanda Malani‘s catalogue endures across generations.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Nanda Malani.
Performed by: Damayanthi Jayasuriya (දමයන්ති ජයසූරිය)