Mignonne Fernando is a Sri Lankan singer, part of the popular group "The Jetliners".

Early life

Born Mignonette Malathi May Rutnam, she won

Radio Ceylon Radio Ceylon ( ''Lanka Guwan Viduli Sevaya'', , ''ilankai vanoli'') is a radio station based in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) and the first radio station in Asia. Broadcasting was started on an experimental basis by the colonial Telegraph Departme ...

's Talent Contest at the age of seven. Her interest in law was overtaken by her passion for music, received formal training in Western classical music, speech and drama. This proved to be her greatest strength and an excellent foundation to her musical career that was to follow.

The Jetliners

In 1965, Mignonne along with her group The Jetliners became an instant success under the guidance of manager Tony Fernando who would later become her husband, and their popularity grew.

, introduced her music not only to a local audience but across South Asia. During the early years of the group the Jetliners enjoyed star billing at the Coconut Grove nightclub situated in the

Galle Face Hotel The Galle Face Hotel, founded in 1864, is one of the oldest hotels east of Suez. It is located on Galle Road, Colombo. The Ceylon Hotels Corporation is now part of the Galle Face Hotel Group. . The current chairman of the hotel is Sanjeev Gardin ...

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. In 1969, she became the first Sri Lankan to be signed up by

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

Records UK, and

Keith Prowse The Keith Prowse company originated from a partnership in 1830 between two musical instrument makers who opened a shop selling their goods. It later became a theatre ticket agency and music publisher; after a merger with the Peter Maurice company ...

Music London. The

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

ese song 'Wedding Song' (Mangala Mohotha) was her first song to be copyrighted by KPM. Her song "Love Don't Let Me Down" won the Embassy Award at the World Popular Song Festival. Another original composition "Someday My Love" won the Matsushita Award and Special Jury Award for Composer and Performer at the Festival of Song. A Sinhala composition "Oba Nisa" was selected for the finals of the 5th Olympiad of Song in Athens,

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

in 1972 where it won the gold medal. "Coconut Man" made the finals of the World Popular Song Festival in Tokyo, the first time a female singer/composer had ever done so.

References

External links

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Personality of the Week – Mignonne Fernando

News article on Mignonne Fernando on World Music Central
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernando, Mignonne 1943 births Living people Alumni of St. Bridget's Convent, Colombo 20th-century Sri Lankan women singers

Early life

The Jetliners

See also

References

External links