සුසිල් ප්රේමරත්න
5 songs performed
Susil Premarathne (also spelled Susil Premaratne or Susil Premarathna), සුසිල් ප්රේමරත්න, was a Sri Lankan playback singer and visual artist whose deep, melodious voice carried a generation of Sinhala songs across the 1940s through the 1970s. He recorded for Radio Ceylon and HMV during the formative decades of Sinhala recorded music, and several of his recordings, including Roo Rase Andina Lese and Somnasa Ho Santhapaya, remain household favourites.
Susil Premarathne was born on 5 April 1925 in Galle. He studied at Dharmaraja College and went on to the Colombo Technical College to train in art and creative work. His father, M. Sarlis Master, was a leading painter known for Buddhist and temple artwork, and Susil inherited both the artistic eye and the discipline that would later mark his career in two fields at once.
At the age of sixteen he was introduced to Radio Ceylon (later SLBC) by Herbert M. Seneviratne. There he worked alongside the dramatist C. A. Fonseka, the singer V. P. Leelawathie, and the violinist Vincent de Alwis, becoming a regular performer at the station. He reached the coveted “A” Grade artist status in the early 1950s. HMV Records began recording him in the late 1940s, and he served as a principal playback singer for B. A. W. Jayamanne’s film Sengawunu Pilithura (1951), performing solos and duets, some opposite the actress Rukmani Devi.
Over a recording career spanning four decades, Susil Premarathne cut close to a hundred songs, many of them duets. He recorded with Latha Walpola, as on Ru Rase, and with singers such as Mallika Kahawita, Indrani Wijayabandara, and Surya Rani. His best-loved recordings pair a warm baritone with the romantic and devotional themes typical of the era.
Susil Premaratne was also a working visual artist. He drew comic strips and illustrated stories (chithra katha) for Lankadeepa and later contributed to Vanitha Witthi, and the actor Gamini Fonseka is remembered among his art students. He died on 11 February 2010, leaving a catalogue of early Sinhala recordings that Sri Lankan listeners and the diaspora still return to. On Lyrics-lk, his songs appear with Sinhala lyrics alongside English transliteration and translation, including the enduring Roo Rase Andina Lese.
Every Sinhala lyric, composition, and song credit by Susil Premarathne.