Nimal Mendis

Nimal Mendis (born 29 March 1934, Colombo, Ceylon - died 2015, Malabe, Colombo, Sri Lanka) was a Sri Lankan singer and songwriter, and was one of a handful of Sri Lankan musicians to appear on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops (1968). The following profile was authored by Nimal Mendis: My first break in England came when my song “Kiss Kiss Kiss” was sung by Mary Marshall. The recording was handled by Dennis Preston who later was to become the father of the traditional Jazz revival in the UK. It was released on Columbia. I have 22 songs published in Britain and have written music for films in Sri Lanka. “Kandyan Dance” an instrumental was my second piece in the West. Recorded by Friedel Berlipp and his Orchestra in Germany it went on to be No 2 on Radio Luxembourg. It was also released in the States. I have written the background score and songs for eleven Sri Lankan films. ”Films and Filming“ magazine in the UK says of my score for Lester James Peries’ film “Godking”: “score featuring such disparate styles as a baroque fugue and souped-up seventies orchestration has an ultimately moving theme at its heart“. At present my song “Girls” translated by Duminda Allehendra and sung by Amila Sandaruwan with a video production done by the students of the Digital Film Institute of Sri Lanka has been uploaded on Youtube. Its the first Sinhala Blues song and has been having rave reviews . The link to it is: [see Web Links] “Black Pearls & Green Diamonds” has eight of my songs on an LP for Decca by “One Two and Three” a folk group in Britain. I appeared with my singing partner Sandra Edema in 1968 as guest artists with my song “Feel like a Clown” on “Top of the Pops” in London and “Beat Club” in Germany that year. Record Producer Ray Horricks says this on the sleeve of the “Black Pearls and Green Diamonds” LP: “Nimal’s work combines an awareness of western melody and harmony with great originality in his story ideas, while there is a very exotic Eastern flavour about his choice of words. When it came to making this album I found myself preferring his numbers to the many better known folk items the three singers have in their repertoire". The artist left the following notes in Web Links: [for the youtube link] At present my song: “Girls” - the first blues song in Sinhala sung by Amila Sandaruwan and translated by Duminda Allehendra. The video was produced by the students of the Digital Film Institute of Sri Lanka [for the itunes link] There are 19 songs of mine in an album "A Songwriters Diary" Vol 2 on Itunes.