Nihal Nelson (; 9 January 1946 – 13 December 2022) was a

Sri Lanka 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, ...

n vocalist, songwriter and composer. One of the most influential singers in Sri Lanka, and considered 'undefeated on the concert stage', Nelson holds the record for the most albums recorded by a Sri Lankan artist, at a total of 113.

Personal life

Nelson was born in

Moratuwa Moratuwa () is a large municipality on the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka, near Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia. It is situated on the Galle–Colombo (Galle road) main highway, south of the centre of Colombo. Moratuwa is surrounded on three sides ...

on 9 January 1946 as the only child in the family. His father, D.C. Hendrick was a businessman and his mother, D.P Weerawardena was an English teacher. He started primary education at Innocent Maria Mixed School (now known as Rawathawaththa Roman Catholic College). After passing grade 8, he entered Moratu Maha Vidyalaya where he completed his

GCE Advanced Level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational a ...

schooling in 1960. It was here that he began to focus on making music. Nelson married Malini Sriyalatha, the second in a family of four, on 16 May 1974. The couple have one son, Kanchana Tharanga, who was born on 10 January 1978 and works as a radio sound administrator. Nelson's wife Malini died in July 2020.

Career

Nelson was popular on the school stage as well as in Moratuwa as a singer. However, he had to polish his musical ability to enter the music world. During this period, he met Sarath Munasinghe (now a monk, Meegahawela Sumanashantha Thero) who had written many songs. In 1962 during a wedding, he met popular musician A. J. Kareem, who introduced him to composer R. A. Chandrasena. Nelson's first recording ''Lassanata Pipunu Wanamal'', written by Munasinghe, was released in SLBC as an EP on 31 March 1963 under the guidance of Chandrasena. Later, he joined Kandy Lake Club with Chandrasena. Nelson was among the first Sri Lankan vocalists to release a

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback * Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...

in 1978 with ''Gune Ayyage Kamare''. The release was on Wijaya Ramanayake's Tharanga label, which introduced the format to Sri Lanka. Nelson was also among the first to release a

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

in the region. Nelson's 110th album ''Nihal 110 Dot Com'' was released in 2000. It was recorded at Sunflowers Studios in Mahawewa,

Chilaw Chilaw (, ) is a city in Puttalam District, North Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is governed by an urban council, whereas the outskirts are governed by a pradeshiya sabha of the same name. The town is located 80 kilometers away from Colombo via ...

, with Neil Warnakulasooriya conducting and music by the

Sunflowers ''Helianthus'' () is a genus comprising around 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of ''Helianthus'' are native to ...

. At this point Nelson had been singing on the concert stage for 55 consecutive years. He also worked as a playback singer for many films. His maiden playback singing came through the film ''Pem Kurullo'' with the song "Kasii Basili Na". It was written by Chandradasa Fernando and the music was composed by Tony Weeratunga. He then did playback for the films ''Sakvithi Suwaya'', ''Loka Horu'', ''Rodaya'', ''Hari Yanakota Ohoma Thamai'', ''Sanda Wata Rantharu'', ''Loku Thaththa'', ''Mal Warusa'', ''Valampuri,'' and ''Diyamanthi''. He also sang a song called ''Hitha Honda Minihage'' for

Gamini Fonseka Kala Keerthi Sembuge Gamini Shelton Fonseka (; 21 March 1936 – 30 September 2004) was a Sri Lankan film actor, film director and politician. Often considered one of the greatest actors in Sinhala cinema, Fonseka dominated the industry in the ...

. On 15 March 2013, a "50 years old, Nihal Awith" concert was held at the Musaeus College Auditorium to celebrate his 50 years of singing. In 2015, Nelson was awarded the 'Moratupura Ratnavibhushana' award.

Death

On 13 December 2022, Nelson died in his residence after suffering a heart attack, at age 76.

Legacy

In January 2021, it was announced that the third lane of his hometown, Rawathawatte, Moratuwa, would be named after the veteran singer.

References

External links

* Nihal Nelson Official YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@NihalNelsonOfficialYoutube * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Nihal 1946 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Sri Lankan male singers People from Moratuwa Sinhalese singers