KOKILADEVI WEERATUNGA
The 107th birth anniversary of Sri Lanka’s pioneer songstress Kokiladevi Weeratunga falls on June 12. Born on June 12, 1912, she studied music under several veterans from her childhood. She was passionate about music and arts from her early childhood. She always spoke proudly about her younger days when she was put under top music teachers like Chokkalingam Master and Veena Shanmugam. The turning point in her career came in 1925 when she met Maris Pathiarachchi Master and sang a duet with him on January 23, 1929 creating history and emerging as the first Sinhala female singer to sing at the Colombo Radio (later Radio Ceylon and SLBC now). Mulu Lokema Pirunu Situ Devi Vishaka was her first song that was aired live on Colombo Radio. From then on she sang several Sinhala, Tamil and Hindi songs. Her gramaphone era songs included Bari Shree Katha, Mathpen Welandama Duruwei Hemadama and a couple of Tamil songs. In 1939 she sang Sripathi Sriharee, Vishnu Devindu and other songs for the HMV label. The highpoint in her career came when she was selected as the first Super Grade female singer of Radio Ceylon while Pandit Amaradewa was the first male Super Grade singer. Later she taught music at Visakha Vidyalaya - Colombo, Anula Vidyalaya - Nugegoda and Sujatha Vidyalaya - Matara. She passed away on July 5, 2007.