The musical show of "Night of Stars" was a successful event. I am happy that I was one of the performers and was able to contribute for this extraordinary event. The show was held on Sep 27th, 2008 to raise funds for the "Prithipura Infant Homes" in Sri Lanka. This event was organized by "Rhythm Company" a well known musical group in Los Angeles. I am looking forward to participate and contribute in many of these events in future.
For more info of this event click here or you can read more about "Prithipura Infant Homes" by visiting their official website at http://www.prithipura.org
Also I want to let you know that Bollywood playback singer legendary Mahendra Kapoor passed away on Sep 27th. The news brought sadness to all the Mahendra Kapoor fans. He was one of the singers who opened my eyes and ears to Hindi musuc way early in life with his melodious voice.
Please listen to my new karaoke recording. You can access song information by clicking here.
This time it is a Sinhala song. This song I sang for my son Dinisha. Also recently one Ed signed my guest book and requested to sing songs from different artists. With both in mind I recorded a song from Clarence Wijewardana. Please give it a listen and any comments are welcome, yes that means ........ good or bad.
Let me welcome you to my site by greeting "Ayubowan". This is a traditional Sri Lankan way of greeting someone. "Ayu" meaning ayusha and "bowan" meaning more, translate to English as "may you live longer". Usually while you say Ayubowan you take your palms together at chest level. Welcome!
Somehow we have crossed our paths in the journey of our lives. Probably, you know me, or perhaps you don't know me at all. This may be the first time you are safely landing here. Well, it's good, isn't it? and I think it's excellent. I am excited to have your comments and feed backs.
You can listen to some songs that I have attempted to sing, for now at least, in two languages Hindi (official language of India) and in Sinhala (official language of Sri Lanka). Yes, I was born (in Ramboda, a beautiful upcountry city) and raised in Sri Lanka (prosperous land). At the moment I live in USA. Though, I am far away from my mother land, I always remember and cherish the culture, history, smiling faces and beauty that I grew up in. Watching a video, singing a song, participate in cultural activities here, would make my memory run back thousands of miles.
Few things I ask you to do until you come back to this site next time
Give me a feed back if you like, criticize me, take all your armor .... dice and slice me. This is one of many moments that I accept with all the due respect to you.
OK you do not need to give me a feed back. You can at least sign my guest book. So that I know I have met you at least once, not physically but your name is so familiar, who knows the world is so small and we will meet someday, somewhere.
I have many things in my mind to add later besides Sinhala karaoke songs & Hindi karaoke songs, I am being the engineer it takes sometime, with thousand things I wanted to accomplish within 24hrs, it's so impracticle. Yet, I am so glad that I could record few songs and share it with you.
Last but not least, perhaps the most important reason why I opened this site is to create an awareness to severe world hunger, in some parts of the world and therefore, please do not waste food. Also please if you are a Sri Lankan living in abroad please join with me helping Empower A Village. Feed a child and support their education, it does not take much. See how simple it is. Visit the website. Be happy with what ever little you have, may peace prevail on earth, among communities, among nations, among races, religions, may peace and happiness prevail with you!!!
Cherio, Tata or let me say Ayubowan once again! live long
Shantha Senadheera
Little history of world karaoke and sinhala karaoke
Karaoke song originated in Japan, in early 70's and created by a singer Daisuke Inove. He was asked by many of his guests to provide a music track of his songs, in order for them to sing along for his music. Soon Inoue made a coin operated tape recorder, which plays his songs for 100 yen. This was the first karaoke song machine. The word karaoke came from two Japanese words. The word karaoke can be separated into two words. "Kara", shorten word for "karano", meaning empty and then the second "oke", meaning orchestra. Translate into english as "empty orchestra". Early karaoke song machines, like one of Inoue obviously used cassette tapes, but today with the technological advancement, the karaoke tapes are replaced by CDs, VCDs, Laserdiscs and lately with DVDs. Started in Japan, karaoke was soon spread to rest of the Asia and then to USA in 90's. Then the karaoke was spread further to Canada and other western countries. Torana Music Box, in Sri Lanka is the pioneer in Sinhala karaoke songs and was founded by Mr. Sarath Kothalawala in the year 1972. Today there are many Sinhala karaoke song creaters in Sri Lanka. I am very greatful to them for providing quality VCD and DVD Sinhala karaoke song tracks, taking us to a height that no one dreamed of several years back.
Hindi karaoke and I There are so many interactive Sinhala radio stations with general public in Sri Lanka today. If you think about history of broadcasting in Sri Lanka it goes back to 1923. The service was provided by Radio Ceylon, the oldest broadcasting service in Asia. In 1967 it became a public co-operation and named as Ceylon Broadcasting Co-operation. When Ceylon became a republic nation in 1972, Ceylon became Sri Lanka, so as the broadcasting service to Sri Lanka Broadcasting Co-operation (SLBC).
I remember Hindi song broadcast through SLBC twice a day everyday with Sinhala translations. Mid day broadcast was usually not accessible due to schooling but the night broadcast was something I was looking forward to. Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle were some of the legends I grew up listening to. Of those, Mohd Rafi became my favorite. His singing style, melodious voice, versatality caught up my attention since early child hood. Ever since, he became my favorite Hindi play back singer. Naushad, Laxmikant Pyarelal, Shankar Jaikishan, A. R. Rehmaan, Kalyanji Anandji, S. D. Burman’s rich music compositions found it’s way to Sinhala cinema and reverberated the silver screen. Many of popular Sinhala oldies revolved around these music compositions and even today they stands ever green melodies in Hindi or even the recreated with Sinhala lyrics. I was just hooked on.
Hindi karaoke or for that matter even Sinhala karaokes are not easily accessible to general public in Sri Lanka. CD technology and internet in 70s and 80s were not even in our dreams. Even today CD/DVD players, internet are things that are not affordable to majority. When it came to technology, only available recording device was a cassette player in these days. That was exactly what I did in my first attempt in recording. Still remember my first recording in my pre-teen years with no music at all. No one heard this recorded piece, except for one person. That was one of my friends’ dad. He encouraged me saying “son, you should learn music” but the formal education and my studies took priority over music and never learned a music note in my life but desire to learn still lingers.
What a difference it made over the past decade or so. Now Hindi karaoke is abundant, though it is available, obtaining high quality Hindi karaoke could be a challenge. Same true with Sinhala karaoke. Now internet is fairly accessible easy access to Hindi karaoke and Sinhala karaoke music tracks are a dream come true for any singer regardless of what stage of singing you are in and when you attempt to sing along with a good quality tracks, you virtually feel that you are surrounded by a full live orchestra. It does not matter whether you are alone, in front of a microphone or in front of an audience, just sing, it will sure to relax you. I will end this note by saying “may your life be a melodious one”.
