Desmond De Silva and Manoharan - Ruhune Yaapane

Ruhune Yapane
Sri Lankan Baila
---------------Desmond Silva-----------------------
Desmond De Silva was born in Matara, Southern Sri Lanka. He launched his career in music in the capital Colombo as the lead vocalist of the band Fire-Flies in 1963. Later he went on to sing in other groups, Spitfires, Gabo and The Breakaways and The Jetliners. In 1976, he launched his own band Desmond and The Clan, who performed in the middle east, Maldives and other south asian countries, before he went solo in 1984.

Desmond rose to popularity in Sri Lanka for his renditions of Baila music such as Wally Bastiansz's Yaman Bando, Polkatu Handa, Mamma No Pappa No etc which is influenced by Portuguese and Spanish music styles. He recently celebrated 40 yeas in music showbiz. Desmond lives in the United Kingdom.

Desmond was a pupil of the maestro late Wally Bastiansz. Haai Hooi Babi Archchi is one of Wally's famous Baila songs about an eccentric old woman who lived in Moratuwa in the 1940s, one of top hits of Wally. Whilst as Police Officer attached to the Police Band, for Wally during the 1930s and 40s it was quite common to play tunes of Western Marches, and other tunes with 6/8 rythm. Therefore, quite naturally Wally re-arranged some of these tunes to suit his own lyrics to create great Baila songs and rythms. Babi Archchi was one of such creations that paved the way for many other Baila artists such as Maxwell Mendis, A.E. Manoharan, Anton Jones etc. Babi Archchi was based on the Repasz Band March written by Charles C. Sweeley and Harry J. Lincoln, copyrighted in 1901.

Desmond's Komali Paney is another variation of the world famous The Repasz Band March, a song about a young hot girl who entered the University.

The original Repasz Band, a non-military brass band, was founded in Williamsport in Pensylvania in 1831, and is still continuing in the United States, being the oldest non-military band. The Repasz Band March is their signature tune. There website is - http://www.lycoming.org/repaszband/

source: http://www.youtube.com/user/goonewj

---------------------A.E. Manoharan--------------------------------
Although A.E.Manoharan is famous today as a pop singer few will know that he began his entertainment career by acting in dramas and locally produced films in the '50s and early '60s. Manoharan's singing career began in Colombo in 1970 when he sang for Great Friends Enterprises. In 1964 he acted as hero in the 1st Tamil movie produced in Jaffna by Joe Devanand named "Pasa Nila". Since the he has acted in more than 260 films in five languages. In 1972 he was appointed as a Producer for Dramas in the commercial section of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. It was during this time that he started specializing in pop-music and released many labels in Tamil, English and Sinhalese. During this period he also recorded the now popular "Surangani" theme on suriya label. In 1973 he was presented with the Pop Chakravarthi title at a music festival at the open-air stadium in Jaffna.

Between the years 1975-76 he performed several music shows throughout Sri Lanka in both Sinhala and Tamil. Among the favourites during this period are Patumami, choodamanike, surangani etc. His singing career also took him along to acting in films and in 1977 he acted as the hero in Vaadai Kaatru which won the President's Award for the best story. This was soon followed by his role in Tamil films in which he acted with leading South Indian idols like Sivaji Ganesan Rajnikanth, Kamalahasan and Dharmendra.

Manoharan has also performed in musical shows all over the world in countries like U.K., Australia, Europe, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia. Manoharan was also a contract singer for Hotel Breeze in Madras during the year 1999-2000.He has also been a singer at the Surangani Music Festival in Chennai for a number of years. During A.E.Manoharan the years 2004, 2005 and 2006 Manoharan had acted and also been a playback singer in several films including "Virumbuhiren", "Thoty Jeya", "Jay Jay" Directed by Charan and Durai, "Vaaliban","Kaathal Kaditham","18 vayathil naan" and in Malayalam, "Thuruppu Gulna" with Mamooty.

A.E. Manoharan was honoured with an Appreciation Award at the 9th annual Awards Gala of the Canadian Tamils Chamber of Commerce, held on April 1, 2006.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Desmond
• De
• Silva
• Manoharan
• Baila
• Sri
• Lanka
• Sinhala
• Music
• Wally
• Bastiansz
• Bastian
• Kaffringha
• Kapiringna
• Portuguese
• Dance
• Viole
• Maage
• Kaffrinha
• Viola
• guitar

[guitarmanaruna]

Two great legends in Sri Lankan Baila - Desmond & Manoharan .....thanks for sharing...!!

-Aruna

[shinypath]

I love this song

I Love Srilanka

My motherland

beautiful country

very proud to be a Srilankan

[1alfazulu]

great songs from legendary singers.........hope to see them again in stages

[malfirst]

I love the pair! A E Mano can still sing! Happy to see Mani nearly after 3 decades! Good luck!

[MegaContented]

Ca somebody translate this to tamil, Please, I love the spirit of this song, The sentiments .

[rioram1]

I love my country and these songs

[soma2uk]

Hi!

Its a very apt song for this time as the severed bondage between both the communities by the war must flourish again!

All the best!

Soma

[chamal101]

i love this song...desmond is always the best!!!!!!!!

[chamalka]

nice job

[dilukabey]

Super!

[bailaman]

5 stars!