රෝහණ වීරසිංහ
13 songs performed · 199 compositions · 2 lyrics written
Rohana Weerasinghe (රෝහණ වීරසිංහ; also spelled Rohana Veerasinghe), born Dickmadugodage Rohana Chithrakumara Weerasingha on 18 February 1949, is one of Sri Lanka’s most prolific music directors. Trained first as a sitar player, he has set melodies to several thousand Sinhala songs across films, teledramas, and stage works, and his arrangements shaped the sound of late twentieth-century Sinhala cinema.
Weerasinghe was born in Algiriya, in the Matara District of southern Sri Lanka, the youngest child of Henry and Sepalin Weerasinghe. He studied at several schools in the hill country and in Colombo before learning the fundamentals of music under K. V. S. Perera and Kithsiri Aluthge. He went on to the Government Music School to study Oriental music, mastering the sitar, and later joined the orchestra of the composer Premasiri Khemadasa as a sitar player. That apprenticeship, working under one of the island’s leading orchestral minds, gave Weerasinghe the grounding he carried into his own work as an arranger.
Before composing full time he taught music in government schools, including D. S. Senanayake College. In 1982 he joined the Sing Lanka studio as a sound engineer, and around this period he began producing the songs that established him, including early hits for T. M. Jayaratne and Neela Wickramasinghe. From there he became a fixture of the recording industry, credited with melodies for a very large body of songs for film, television, and the concert stage.
On Lyrics-lk his work as a composer runs across generations of singers. He wrote the music for Ha Patiyan Wage, Konda Kurullata and Punchi Hora performed by Nanda Malini, several pieces sung by Sunil Edirisinghe, and the Wala Kulak Gena Muwa Karamu Hiru recorded by the actor and singer Vijaya Kumarathunga.
Weerasinghe’s catalogue moves easily between film playback, devotional and patriotic songs, and the theme music of popular teledramas. The site features his compositions for the Sarigama film alongside the Muthu Kuda teledrama theme, as well as duets and solo numbers carried by younger voices such as Uresha Ravihari, Edward Jayakody and Kasun Kalhara. Beyond composing, Rohana Veerasinghe occasionally wrote lyrics, including for Gan Wathura Gala.
Across his career Weerasinghe has received multiple Sarasaviya Awards and Presidential Film Awards for best music direction, among other national honours, and was named the country’s most popular music director in the late 1990s. Since 2006 he has also served as an advisor on cultural and aesthetic affairs. For listeners across the Sinhala diaspora his arrangements remain among the most recognisable in the catalogue, and his name, whether written Rohana Weerasinghe or Rohana Veerasinghe, is attached to many of the songs they grew up with.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Rohana Weerasinghe.
Performed by: Damayanthi Jayasuriya (දමයන්ති ජයසූරිය), Nuwan Nayanajith Kumara (නුවන් නයනජිත් කුමාර)
Performed by: Karunarathna Diwulgane (කරුණාරත්න දිවුල්ගනේ)
Performed by: Ananda Weerasiri (ආනන්ද වීරසිරි), Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Chamika Sirimanna (චාමික සිරිමාන්න)
Performed by: Lakshman Wijesekara (ලක්ශ්මන් විජේසේකර)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Damayanthi Jayasuriya (දමයන්ති ජයසූරිය), Rookantha Gunathilaka (රූකාන්ත ගුණතිලක)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Edward Jayakody (එඩ්වඩ් ජයකොඩි), Nanda Pathirana (නන්දා පතිරණ)
Performed by: Edward Jayakody (එඩ්වඩ් ජයකොඩි)
Performed by: T.M. Jayarathne (T M ජයරත්න)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Janaka Wickramasinghe (ජානක වික්රමසිංහ)
Performed by: Udaya Sri Wickramasinghe (උදය ශ්රී වික්රමසිංහ), Uresha Ravihari (උරේෂා රවිහාරි)
Performed by: Edward Jayakody (එඩ්වඩ් ජයකොඩි)
Performed by: Samitha Mudunkotuwa (සමිතා මුදුන්කොටුව)
Performed by: Athula Adikari (අතුල අධිකාරී), Samitha Mudunkotuwa (සමිතා මුදුන්කොටුව)
Performed by: Damayanthi Jayasuriya (දමයන්ති ජයසූරිය), Rohana Siriwardena (රෝහණ සිරිවර්ධන)
Performed by: Nirosha Virajini (නිරෝෂා විරාජිනී)
Performed by: Achintha Sudarshani (අචින්තා සුදර්ශනී), Thisari Nethmini Perera (තිසරි නෙත්මිණි පෙරේරා)
Performed by: Bandara Athauda (බණ්ඩාර අතාවුද), Chandralekha Perera (චන්ද්රලේකා පෙරේරා)
Performed by: Nirosha Virajini (නිරෝෂා විරාජිනී)
Performed by: Jagath Wickramasinghe (ජගත් වික්රමසිංහ)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Bandara Athauda (බණ්ඩාර අතාවුද)
Performed by: Madhusha Ranasinghe (මධුෂා රණසිංහ)
Performed by: Malani Bulathsinhala (මාලනී බුලත්සිංහල)
Performed by: Pradeepa Dharmadasa (ප්රදීපා ධර්මදාස)
Performed by: Samitha Mudunkotuwa (සමිතා මුදුන්කොටුව)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Vidusha Nethranjali (විදුෂා නේත්රාංජලි)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Rohitha Wijesooriya (රෝහිත විජේසූරිය)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Chamika Sirimanna (චාමික සිරිමාන්න)
Performed by: Sahan Chamikara (සහන් චාමිකර), Thilakshi NImasha (තිලක්ෂි නිමාෂා)
Performed by: Nanda Malani (නන්දා මාලනී)
Performed by: Abewardana Balasuriya (අබේවර්ධන බාලසූරිය)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Krishantha Erandaka (ක්රිශාන්ත එරන්දක)
Performed by: Chandralekha Perera (චන්ද්රලේකා පෙරේරා), Rookantha Gunathilaka (රූකාන්ත ගුණතිලක)
Performed by: Sanath Nandasiri (සනත් නන්දසිරි)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Harshana Disanayake (හර්ෂණ දිසානායක)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Rohana Weerasinghe (රෝහණ වීරසිංහ)
Performed by: Pavari Amarasa (පවරි අමරසා)
Performed by: Amarasiri Peiris (අමරසිරි පීරිස්), Pradeepa Dharmadasa (ප්රදීපා ධර්මදාස)
Performed by: Karunarathna Diwulgane (කරුණාරත්න දිවුල්ගනේ)
Performed by: Ranjan Saliya Perera (රංජන් සාලිය පෙරේරා), Uresha Ravihari (උරේෂා රවිහාරි)
Performed by: Edward Jayakody (එඩ්වඩ් ජයකොඩි)
Performed by: Raini Gunathilaka (රයිනි ගුණතිලක), Ruwan Hettiarachchi (රුවන් හෙට්ටිආරච්චි)
Performed by: Nirosha Virajini (නිරෝෂා විරාජිනී)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Abewardana Balasuriya (අබේවර්ධන බාලසූරිය), Niranjala Sarojini (නිරංජලා සරෝජිනී)
Performed by: Edward Jayakody (එඩ්වඩ් ජයකොඩි), Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Harshana Disanayake (හර්ෂණ දිසානායක), Kasthuri Sooryakumar (කස්තුරි සූරියකුමාර්)
Performed by: Karunarathna Diwulgane (කරුණාරත්න දිවුල්ගනේ)
Performed by: Karunarathna Diwulgane (කරුණාරත්න දිවුල්ගනේ)
Performed by: Neela Wickramasinghe (නීලා වික්රමසිංහ)
Performed by: Damayanthi Jayasuriya (දමයන්ති ජයසූරිය), Ivo Denis (අයිවෝ ඩෙනිස්), Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Bathiya and Santhush (BnS) (භාතිය සන්තුෂ්), Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Nanda Malani (නන්දා මාලනී), Rohana Weerasinghe (රෝහණ වීරසිංහ)
Performed by: Nirosha Virajini (නිරෝෂා විරාජිනී)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Athula Adikari (අතුල අධිකාරී), Samitha Mudunkotuwa (සමිතා මුදුන්කොටුව)
Performed by: Uresha Ravihari (උරේෂා රවිහාරි)
Performed by: Nanda Malani (නන්දා මාලනී), Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Athula Adikari (අතුල අධිකාරී), Samitha Mudunkotuwa (සමිතා මුදුන්කොටුව)
Performed by: Uresha Ravihari (උරේෂා රවිහාරි)
Performed by: Dayarathna Ranathunga (දයාරත්න රණතුංග)
Performed by: Malani Bulathsinhala (මාලනී බුලත්සිංහල), Milton Mallawarachchi (මිල්ටන් මල්ලවාරච්චි)
Performed by: Charitha Priyadharshani (චරිතා ප්රියදර්ශනී), Edward Jayakody (එඩ්වඩ් ජයකොඩි)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Amarasiri Peiris (අමරසිරි පීරිස්), Manik Jayasekara (මැණික් ජයසේකර)
Performed by: Pradeepa Dharmadasa (ප්රදීපා ධර්මදාස)
Performed by: Kasun Kalhara (කසුන් කල්හාර), Uresha Ravihari (උරේෂා රවිහාරි)
Performed by: Nanda Malani (නන්දා මාලනී)
Performed by: Lakshman Wijesekara (ලක්ශ්මන් විජේසේකර), Pradeepa Dharmadasa (ප්රදීපා ධර්මදාස)
Performed by: Rookantha Gunathilaka (රූකාන්ත ගුණතිලක)
Performed by: Rookantha Gunathilaka (රූකාන්ත ගුණතිලක)
Performed by: Greshan Ananda (ග්රේෂන් ආනන්ද), Samitha Mudunkotuwa (සමිතා මුදුන්කොටුව)
Performed by: Sashika Nisansala (සශිකා නිසංසලා)
Performed by: Damayanthi Jayasuriya (දමයන්ති ජයසූරිය), Kamal Addararachchi (කමල් අද්දරආරච්චි)
Performed by: Vijaya Kumarathunga (විජය කුමාරතුංග)
Performed by: Janaka Wickramasinghe (ජානක වික්රමසිංහ)
Performed by: Amal Perera (අමල් පෙරේරා), Deepika Priyadarshani (දීපිකා ප්රියදර්ශනී)
Performed by: Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)
Performed by: Pushpa Thisera (පුෂ්පා තිසේරා), Sunil Edirisinghe (සුනිල් එදිරිසිංහ)