රාජු බණ්ඩාර
13 songs performed
Raju Bandara (රාජු බණ්ඩාර), born Prabath Kumara Wijesundara Bandara, was a Sri Lankan singer, guitarist and stage performer who became one of the most recognisable voices in Sinhala popular music from the early 1990s onward. He is remembered for emotive love songs such as Ma Adarei Mulu Lowatath Wada, Rosa Mal Kumari and Ran Malak Lesa Gena Pudannata.
Bandara was born on 14 April 1960 in Kegalle, into a household already steeped in music. His mother, Chandra Bandara, was a graded vocalist at the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, and his brother Mahinda Bandara was also a musician. He attended Kegalu Maha Vidyalaya, where he played lead guitar for the school band, the early grounding that shaped him first as an instrumentalist rather than a singer.
Before stepping out as a soloist, Bandara worked the live-band circuit. He co-founded the Western music ensemble Nayagra with Rookantha Gunathilaka, performing at hotels in the Kurunegala and Habarana areas, and later toured abroad with touring outfits across England and France. That long apprenticeship on stage gave his later solo work its assured, road-tested feel.
His solo breakthrough came with the 1993 album Man Adare Ran Seenu, which established him as a vocalist in his own right. Through the 1990s he became a fixture of outdoor musical shows, where his warm tenor and steady delivery carried ballads about love and longing to large audiences across the island.
Bandara’s catalogue leans heavily on melodic, sentiment-driven love songs. Among the works featured on Lyrics-lk are Ran Seenu Nada De, Kanduleli Dese and Kawdo Mage Lowe Seri Seruwe, each presented with Sinhala lyrics alongside English translation and meaning for bilingual readers.
Bandara also worked as an actor, earning a nomination for best emerging actor for his role in the television drama Diya Keta Pahana. He remained active in his later years, appearing on television music programmes and releasing the album Dannawada Oya in 2024. Raju Bandara died on 15 January 2026 at the age of 65, leaving a body of love songs that the Sri Lankan diaspora continues to return to.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Raju Bandara.