‘Collateral Damage’ by Mario Ananda:
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Multi-faceted young singing sensation Mario Ananda Abeykoon, the son of late Gratien Ananda, launched his newest single ‘Collateral Damage’ on January 26th on all worldwide platforms including Spotify, Apple Music etc.
The song is all about the children who died since the dawn of the age due to various wars and conflicts. The visual of this song will soon be coming out on ‘Living on the Edge’ series on PEO TV- Channel 18 as a series every Friday 7.30pm. Mario Ananada is featured on ‘Living on the Edge’ TV series on Three Vision Music TV. The lyrics and vocals of ‘Collateral Damage’ are by Mario Ananda and the audio was recorded by Gayan C Bentharage.
‘The song lyrics came to me after doing the melody two days before the concert. The children at NSIS were talented enough to learn the melody within 24 hours and we recorded the song and performed it on the next day. I need to thank Kaushi, who is in charge of the media unit of NSIS. My thoughts and thanks go for my father Gration Ananda, my mother Srima Chandrani, my sister Dulanjali Ananda and the Armin Ghering of Arnuka Records Global, who came all the way from Germany to publish all of my Western originals worldwide’ he added.
‘Collateral Damage’ was first performed at a concert held at Negombo South International School (NSIS) last month.
‘Negombo south international school had its ‘School Concert’ recently and I was invited as the Chief Guest to grace the occasion. When I’m usually invited for something special, I try my best to use the opportunity to give out a message with my presence. So three days prior to the concert I told one of the girls of the media unit of the school (Chamathka) that I will do a song with the other students and will perform the same as a surprise to the audience. The Principal Anushka Perera gave the green light for this wholeheartedly’ Mario explained the background of the birth of this new song.
The new song is gaining wider exposure on digital media, though it is just few weeks into the web. The short video of the song with NSIS children is now released on his YouTube Channel.
‘Mario Ananda YouTube Channel’ on April, 2021 along with his sports related song ‘Living on the Edge’ (English) / ‘Randee Nosali’ (Sinhala).
‘I like to thank the school kids who acted with me and sang with me on the short film and the audio visual of ‘Collateral Damage’ are really talented. Chamathka, Ravana, Kevin, Claudia, Sara, Ershon, Yemeema, Savenya, Shera and Nethu faced the camera for the very first time. The first time they acted on a short film and their humility made it easy for them to understand the depths of the emotions, which I wanted them to express during the shoot’ Mario explained.
Mario Ananda Abeykoon came up with a new concept to uplift the sports aspect of the country two years ago. He has been engaged in many social services related to children, such as voicing against drugs, alcoholism, smoking, suicide, ‘child labour’ and ‘child abuse’.
His song ‘Living on the Edge’ was created to redefine teenage and sportsmanship.
‘I need to thank Sudarshana Somarathna and Kalinga Hapugoda, our camera crew of the Visual and short film. Bandara, the still photographer, Anupa Premarathne and Harsha De Silva of Three Vision TV Channel for support offered while the song and short film shoot.