about
biography
“The shining Moon among
thousand Stars”
The isle of paradise, rich in its cultural heritage, which produced the Amaradeva’s, the Martin Wickremasinghe’s, the Sarathchandras, the Khemadasa’s, the Rohana Weerasinghe’s, the Nanda Malinie’s have now birthed the next generation of artists. The likes of Sashika Nisansala, Nelu Adhikari, Nirosha Virajini, Kasun Kalhara, etc has taken up the utmost duty of passing the wisdom of classical music to the successors while maintaining the tradition and cultural identity of our country. Among them, emerged a charming muse, by the name of SAHELI ROCHANA GAMGE who is no stranger to the musicophiles all over the world. No, she is not merely that, she is Visharad Saheli Rochana Gamage, the definite silver lining in the dark cloud of modern Sri Lankan music which hung heavily over the Isle tormented by decades of war and cultural conflicts. There is no debate over the fact that Music has a healing element embedded with it and in this epoch, Saheli’s albums ‘Saheli’ (meaning friend ‘Yeheliya’), ‘Ayubowewa’ (meaning ‘a long life to you’) and the recently released ‘Saheli In Collaboration’ will be soothing medicine to heal the hearts of everyone. Like her name exemplifies, Saheli, is a true friend of Sri Lanka and its culture and it is fortunate to feel that there is at last somebody to fill the vacuum in Sri Lankan music after the great maestros.
Saheli was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka on March 08. She is the daughter of Usha Rannulu Gamage and Chandana Gamage both of whom are well-known entrepreneurs and businesspersons in the shipping industry. She was brought up in Maharagama, Sri Lanka alongside her younger brother Sahel Chandula Gamage. Saheli did her Primary and Tertiary education at the Srimavo Bandaranayake Vidyalaya, Colombo 7 where she was a bright and outgoing allrounder who excelled both in education and extracurricular activities especially in relation to sports and music. She had played netball and basketball and held memberships in the school Western Music Band and the school Orchestra.
She chirpily states in a sweet voice that she started her music career at the age of two and a half years by playing a small play drum given to her by her “Chooty Mama” (Meaning the youngest brother of her mother). From that age onwards, we see her rising steadily making various accomplishments in the field of music. Saheli’s first encounter with the mass media comes at the age of three where she sings a song at a program in SLBC and later at the age of four she gets a chance to show off her skills, of course as a small tot, by singing “Udetath Awith” in a television program called “Kurulu Kedella” which was telecasted by the ITN.
The list does not stop there and Saheli states that “I did many TV programs in Rupavahini. “Athuru Mithiru”, “Humpty Dumpty”, “Lapati Pela”, “Kan Kan Booru” and “Kawru Weida Man” etc are some of them. She was awarded a certificate for singing and acting in these programs for many years from the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation”. Other than these, she has won the gold medal at the All Island and the National Level Sinhala Language and Literary Day singing competition held in 2001 and was chosen as the best competitor out of all the winners and repeated the same feat in the year 2002 and thus she was awarded the “Sishya Prabshvara” trophy in 2003 by the Colombo Educational Zone in recognition of her winning the same event for two consecutive years. Later on, with time and clime, she was vested with a six-year degree of Visharadha (Vocal) in the first division by the University of Bathkande Sangeet Vidyapith, Lucknow, India.
As a musician, Saheli’s journey has not been one in which she was catapulted into stardom overnight like some of our recent “Stars”. Like her song ‘Gadamba kula’ states, it has been a slow and gradual movement forward, accomplished with effort, extreme training and hard dedicated work done with a feeling. In her passionate mission to do something special in and for the field she loves, she was ably and thoroughly guided by a range of professional musicians and teachers starting from Visharad Neela Wickramasinghe. Visharad Nanda Malini, Visharad Deepika Priyadarshani, Visharad Shantha Senerath Yapa, Visharad Chandika Rajapakse, Visharad Mano Malavaraarachchi and Senior Lecturer Mr Mahanama Wickremasinghe have all been her teachers and guiders in the music field.
The end product of such training is obviously visible when one listens to her songs. Her creations are studded with rare jewels glimmering and shining in the form of literary and lyrical creativity. There is no doubt that it is high, classical, cultured art. Her songs include the styles of Indian Classical, Karnataka, Folk music, stage drama style, and even Western. The themes of the songs are deeply rooted in Sri Lankan culture, the beauty of the nation, religious diversity, love and loss, and the country’s mainstream identity dealing with issues like social injustice, the difference in treatment between the haves and the have nots and poverty, about the victory and consequences of the civil war.
Saheli came into the spotlight in 2008 with the release of her album, ‘Saheli.’ Despite being her debut, the album featured a richly curated list of multi-language songs in diverse genres and exceptional collaborations with industry veterans such as Amarasiri Peiris, Iman Perera, Sunil R Gamage, Kularathna Ariyawansa, Rohana Weerasinghe, Victor Rathnayake, Darshana Ruwan Dissanayake, and Mahanama Wickramasinghe. Her ‘Ekama Eka Tharuwai’ duet with the Sirasa Super Star Finalist Darshana Pramod has quickly captured the hearts of the fans and became a sensation throughout the country.
The year 2009 was a watershed moment in Saheli’s singing career. Saheli rose to prominence with ‘Ayubowewa Maharajanani’ (meaning ‘great king, long life to you’), an influential patriotic song devoted to the President and the three victorious armed forces for bringing the three-decade-long civil war to an end. This iconic song is rooted deeply into the hearts of joyful Sri Lankans and is widely regarded as the country’s second national anthem. The song ‘Ayubowewa Maharajanani’ swept the country and the people voted it the most popular song of the year, and Saheli was named the most popular singer of 2010 at the SLIM-Nielson Peoples Awards Ceremony. Owing to this success, Saheli’s second album ‘Ayubowewa,’ was released on May 18, 2009, featuring even more impressive collaborations with the likes of Kasun Kalhara, Samantha Perera, Rev. Rambhukana Siddhartha, Suresh Maliyadde, Amila Thenuwara, Darshana Dissanayake, Nilar N Kasim, Indrajith Mirihana, Prof Carlo Fonseka, H M Jayawardena, Denister Perera, Upali Maldeniya and Anushka Dasanayake. This album was an instant success and one of its’ songs ‘Kusumalatha’ which depicts the social injustice done to the minority groups in Sri Lanka in the guise of war, won the most popular music video of the year in the 2012 Sumathi Awards Ceremony.
debut album - 'saheli' (2008)
2nd album - 'ayubowewa' (2009)
After her 2nd album release, Saheli took a divergent path in her life, in pursuit of her lifelong aspiration to be a Medical Doctor. As she puts it, “I know it may come as a surprise to some, but I consider music to be my hobby even though I vested a significant amount of time, money and energy into it. I’ve always wanted to become a Doctor, do more with my knowledge of music and explore the possibilities of healing illnesses through the use of music therapy, particularly in the mental health patients”. With that zeal, she has devoted a significant portion of her life to pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor and finally graduated from Tbilisi State Medical University in 2016. Saheli is currently working as a medical officer at the Gold Coast University Hospital in Queensland, Australia, where she is on the verge of achieving her goal.
After several years in the dormant, Saheli emerged from the shadows in 2016 with her first-ever mashup single ‘La Isla Bonita,’ surprising fans all over the country. The song topped the charts of Sri Lanka and made an international breakthrough by luring thousands of enthralled overseas fans via YouTube and social media. In her own words, “The response has been overwhelming, and I was not expecting such outpourings of love and support from everyone. I’ve never forgotten about music or my fans. I was working quietly in the background to prepare something special, and I can’t wait to show them what I am up to”.
The year 2017 was another golden milestone in her life as Saheli joined in matrimony with her University sweetheart Amila Kapukotuwa on the 14th of June 2017. She also kept her promise to the fans by releasing her latest duet ‘Sasara Perada’ with her husband on their wedding day. Despite her love to grow old in her homeland, Sahelis’ professional obligations required her to relocate permanently abroad. Her love of music, however, has brought her back to Sri Lanka on numerous occasions to provide the fans with vocal and visual masterpieces such as ‘Lassana Lanka’ (meaning ‘the beautiful Sri Lanka’), ‘Bollywood Hits Mashup’, and especially the cover of the classic ‘Raththaran Duwe’ song (meaning ‘my dearest daughter’) at the request of late Prof. Carlo Fonseka.
graduation as a medical doctor (2016)
saheli and udara wedding ceremony - 14th june 2017
LATEST ALBUM - 'SAHELI IN COLLABORATION' (2021)
In the year 2021, Saheli has released her long-awaited third album ‘Saheli In Collaboration’ decorated by the collaborations from Sri Lankan music industry titans such as Amarasiri Peiris, Rohana Weerasinghe, W. D. Ariyasinghe, Edwin Ariyadasa, Mangalika Thennakoon, Ranga Dasanayake, Nawarathna Gamage, Lakshman Wijesekara, Chandana Hettiarachchi, and Aruna Gunawardana. The album contains songs in four different languages including her first-ever Russian songs which according to Saheli were composed at the request of her overseas fans.
There is no denying that the songs and the melodies are the products of the musical maestros in Sri Lanka and Saheli through her magical and enchanting voice does the meaningful lyrics justice. Close your eyes and listen to her songs and lyrics along with the soothing melodies which surround and encompass them. Let the sensation sink deep into veins and souls, feel the tingling chilling sensation of happiness creeping up your spine, calming and relaxing your heart and soul. Let the subtle variations in her voice penetrate deep into your heart and soul, it’s beautiful. Beautiful is in a sense meaningless, its content is infinite but infinitely variable, her songs will make us feel what true beauty is, it makes us understand what beautiful means. Saheli makes us feel proud that we are all Sri Lankans, about the very fact that Saheli Gamage is one of our own, standing up for a Sri Lankan Cultural Identity when it is fading and withering away. Furthermore, she humbly stated that her albums and singles were a total non-profit venture.
Saheli is by no means a Tabula Rasa. Even Odysseus, on his way back from Ithaca, who would not stop to the joyous beautiful melodies of the seductive muses, would stop to listen to this nightingale of Sri Lanka music without any doubt. In this consumerist, media-dominated, post-modern society, one can question the identity and the place Saheli has. But this is a new chapter, a new dose of medicine and once injected it will heal the wounds of this bleeding culture and fill in the absences and gaps while eradicating the neo-colonial forces of destruction. Saheli Gamage, as shown by her vigour and talent, is an “unswitchable torch”, the most powerful force in the Sri Lankan music arena and culture.
By Indraji De Zoysa
AWARDS
SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards 2010 - Most Popular Singer in Sri Lanka
Peoples Song Of The Year Award
Saheli was awarded the most popular singer in Sri Lanka and the peoples song of the year award at the SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards Ceremony in 2010 for her ‘Ayubowewa Maharajanani’ song. It is an influential patriotic song devoted to the President and the three victorious armed forces for bringing the three-decade-long civil war to an end. SLIM-Nielsen Peoples Awards (Sinhala: ස්ලිම්-නීල්සන් ජනතා සම්මාන) is an award given to distinguished individuals involved with Sri Lanka’s media brands and personalities each year. The awardees are chosen solely by people’s votes, through comprehensive nationwide research.
SUMATHI AWARDS 2009 - Most Popular Music Video of the Year
Sahelis’ ‘Kusumalatha’ song from her ‘Ayubowewa’ album has won the 3rd place on the most popular music video of the year category at the Sumathi Awards Ceremony 2012. Sumathi Awards (Sinhala:සුමති සම්මාන) is an award bestowed to distinguished individuals involved with the Sri Lanka’s television screen, each year by the Sumathi Group of Company, Sri Lanka in recognition of the contributions made by them to the Sri Lankan teledrama industry and television programs.
‘Didulana Sirimaviya’ Presidential Award - 2009
Saheli earned the ‘Didulana Sirimaviya’ Presidential Award in 2009, in recognition of being the highest accomplished student of the school. The award was presented by Sirimavo Bandaranayake Balika Vidyalaya, Colombo, Sri Lanka at an exclusive ceremony in the presence of the former minister of education Hon. Mr Susil Premajayantha and Mrs Pushpa Kalubowila, former principal of Sirimavo Bandaranayake Balika Vidyalaya among other distinguished guests.
winning Sinhalese language literature poetry recitation competitions in 2001 - 2002
Awarded by The Ministry of Human Resource Development Education and Cultural Affairs, Sri Lanka. Saheli has won the 1st place at all National levels and all Island levels consecutively in 2001 and 2002.
‘Shishya Prabhashwara’ Award - 2003
Awarded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development Education and Cultural Affairs, Sri Lanka, In Appreciation of out-standing winnings in all Island and national level singing competitions for two consecutive years.
other awards and certificates
Certificate of appreciation by saitm for the performance at the cultural festival
Award of appreciation by the palmadulla ganegama temple,
committee tributing the war heroes
award of appreciation by Padukka - angampitiya sri piyarathana dhamma school
Certificate of appreciation by boi sri lanka for judging the talents of bodu bathi gee contestants
Award presented by kala lanka padanama appriciating the success of 'ayubowewa' song
award from the sri lankan air force
award of appreciation by Sri Lanka Navy, ‘Seva Vanitha Unit’ for participation in the 'dae viru gee sara' fundraising event
Award of appriciation by prof jayasena kottegoda for the contribution to his cd release
social services
Donating the income generated from 'ayubowewa' song towards the construction of the 1st ‘Abhimansala’, a wellness resort in Anuradhapura for THE VICTIMS OF WAR
Saheli, in collaboration with Mobitel Sri Lanka, has donated over 600 million Sri Lankan rupees for the construction of the first ‘Abhimansla’ in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, with proceeds from her ‘Ayubowewa Maharajanani’ song.
‘Abhimansala (meaning ‘Brave Hearts Wellness Resort’) was planned and inaugurated by Sri Lankan Army. It houses 400 patients with all the facilities, Medical Attention and amenities such as Swimming Pool, Play Area, Gymnasium walking trails etc.
This fully equipped “Abhimansala” Wellness Resort was established to provide life long care and comprehensive facilities to the victims of war who suffered physical and mental disabilities. It functions as a fully equipped health resort and a Hospital. Medical treatments include physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, psychotherapy and also hydro therapy. Medical officers states that frequent musical event organized by Saheli, with the help of prominent figures in the music industry, act as a form of therapy for patients while also raising funds to continuously improve their care. This Resort and its all amenities will help the patients to irradiate all their feelings of tranquility.
Former President His Excellency Mahinda Rajapakse unveiled the finished resort to the public in the presense of other distinguish guests in a grand ceremony.
EXT. SOURCE: Abhimansala Anuradhapura
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Donation of a fully equipped House for a bedridden Soldier and his Family - Wanduramba, Sri Lanka
Saheli and Sri Lanka Mobitel Ltd has sponsord the construction of a house for the totally disabled War Hero, Corporal U.J. Nandakumara of 9th Battalion, Gemunu Watch (GW) in his own plot of land in Wanduraba, Galle. Saheli has donated the proceeds of the Mobitel Ringing Tone of her number one hit ‘Ayubowewa Maha Rajaneni’ towards this SVAB project. Soldiers of the Engineer Service Regiment contributed their skill and labour to build this house, with two bed rooms, a kitchen and a washroom.
Head of Site Acquisition of Mobitel Colonel (Retd) Athula Lanka Dewa and Saheli joined Mrs Jayasuriya for this house warming ceremony which took place honouring cultural rites and traditions. Senior members of the SVAB were also present.
MORE INFO : Sri Lanka Army
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volunteering as a member of the panel of judges for the 'ranaviru star' program
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conducting ‘Saheli in Concert’ fundraising program for the welfare of Naval families
Organized by Sri Lanka Navy, ‘Seva Vanitha Unit’ on the 25th of January 2014 to uplift the housing and education needs of children in Naval families.
providing free accommodation to carers of cancer patients
Saheli has provided free accomodation at her vacant house in Maharagama to the caretakers of the Cancer patients for over 10 years. Anyone with difficulty to travel from and to the hospital is allowed to take rest or stay for an extended time at her house with prior notice to the housekeeper.