නීල් වර්ණකුලසුරිය
5 songs performed
Neil Warnakulasuriya (also spelled Neel Warnakulasuriya, නීල් වර්ණකුලසූරිය) is a Sri Lankan singer and bandleader, best known as the founder and lead vocalist of the pop group Sunflowers. He has performed Sinhala popular songs from the early 1980s to the present, and his voice carries several enduring numbers in the baila and Sinhala pop tradition.
Warnakulasuriya built his career around Sunflowers, the group he leads as front man. The band played its first show on 4 September 1983 in Dankotuwa, and its name was reportedly suggested by the veteran musician Clarence Wijewardena, a central figure in shaping the Sri Lankan pop sound. From that base, Neel Warnakulasuriya became a fixture of the live-show and recording scene, working alongside the rotating cast of singers and instrumentalists that has kept the group active for decades.
His best-known recording is Sebalanane Oba Maruna Nowe (සෙබලානෙනි ඔබ මරුණා නොවේ), a soldier-themed song that remains widely searched and covered. The rest of his catalogue moves between tender love songs and lighter, danceable material, a range that suited the band-show circuit he came up in.
As a long-running band vocalist rather than a solo studio star, Warnakulasuriya is remembered chiefly through Sunflowers’ live performances and the songs that audiences still request. Lyrics-lk presents these songs in Sinhala script with English transliteration and translation, which makes the meaning of work like Sebalanane Oba Maruna Nowe accessible to listeners who search under both the Neil and Neel spellings.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Neil Warnakulasuriya.