නාරද දිසාසේකර
14 songs performed · 2 compositions
Narada Disasekara (නාරද දිසාසේකර, also spelled Narada Dissasekara) was a Sri Lankan singer of the Radio Ceylon era, remembered as the first artist to win a Sarasaviya Award for Best Male Playback Singing. Born 7 June 1933 and active from the mid-1950s, he built a catalogue of gentle, melody-led Sinhala songs that remain in steady rotation among older listeners and the diaspora.
His full name was Narada Leelananda Caldera Disasekara. He was educated at St. Thomas’ College, Kotte, and at Kalutara Vidyalaya, and was a keen schoolboy cricketer before music. He joined Radio Ceylon in 1954, first working in the engineering section, and moved into singing for the station around 1955. That route, from the technical staff to the microphone, was unusual and is part of why his story is still told.
In 1964 Disasekara became the inaugural winner of the Sarasaviya Award for Best Male Playback Singing, recognised for Galana Gangaki Jiwithee, his duet with a young Nanda Malini from the film Ranmuthu Duwa. The song, with its image of life as a flowing river, became one of his signatures and helped fix his place among the leading male voices of the period.
He recorded widely for radio and for film playback, contributing songs to pictures such as Getawarayo. Across this work the Disasekara style stayed consistent: clear diction, unhurried phrasing, and an emphasis on the words over vocal display.
Beyond the award-winning duet, Disasekara is closely associated with Atha Gau Ganan Duren, often cited as his best-loved recording, alongside the lighter, playful Arichchi Borichchi and Pipi Pipi Renu Natana. His tender ballads Adara Nil Dase and Mulu Hadin Mama show the warmer side of the same voice.
Disasekara received honorary recognition from the universities of Colombo and Moratuwa and a national arts decoration in 1999. He died on 19 May 2010. His son, the actor Saranga Disasekara, carried the family name into a later generation of Sri Lankan screen work. For listeners who grew up with Radio Ceylon, the Narada Dissasekara songbook is still the sound of an era when a melody and a clear lyric were enough.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Narada Disasekara.