A winning combination
by Mahes PERERA
Her voice is of that restrained
low key variety and she caused a sizeable buzz when she won the Observer
Golden Clef Promising Singer 91 Award. She’s Sureshini Wanigasuriya,
hailing from the traditional land of musicians and singers - Moratuwa.
Today she is the vibrant singer of the group Tribe led by vocalist
Thilak Samarakone. “The third member of the trio is Sukumal Perera the
keyboardist who handles vocals as well, with a wide repertoire of baila,”
clues in Sureshini.
A self trained singer and you can confidently say with a gifted
voice, Sureshini prior to her stint with Tribe has come a long way on
the road of music. Her launch into the industry was with the group
Europa and she had a successful two year stay with them in Oman, before
she decided to join the hip group Aquarius who were making many waves in
Germany.
“Performing out of Sri Lanka is an experience for every musician.
Discipline and entertaining is ingrained into you. The audience and
guest is important and you can’t fail on it.
I left Aquarius to come back to Sri Lanka and joined Ecstasy and
found myself again out of home when the band played in the Middle East.
After my stay with Ecstasy I moved over to the band Sohan the
X’periments and had eight years of an interesting career with them.
With Tribe where do you perform now?
“Our mainstay nightspot is at the resort hotel Kani Lanka in Moratuwa.
We have large cosmopolitan guests coming in to enjoy our music on
Sundays from 7.30 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. and we are also featured at Taj
Exotica, Bentota on Mondays and on Fridays at the Colombo Swimming Club.
Our repertoire ranges from hip hop, commercial pop including the top
chart hits Sinhala pop, soul and of course evergreens and retro.
Thilak’s style is in a groove of his own.
He sings in falsetto, enjoys folk and rock and the music of the Bee
Gees, which is a sure winner at a lot of private functions, including
weddings, cocktails and dances. As for Sukumal his speciality is the
baila and you know how popular that is today. Of course we share the
Sinhala pop repertoire and it has been rewarding.”
Having this music pow wow with Sureshini was interesting. Her
favourite song she reveals is Aint It Funny by Jennifer Lopez and she
thinks that more of our teenagers should be adventurous and determined
if they wish to make a career out of music.
Participation at the many TV singing and dancing contests has helped
our youth to divert their energies into something profitable for them in
the future.
“I can imagine and understand their enthusiasm they are lucky too,
they have many opportunities to be recognised,” is Sureshini’s parting
shot.
Pic: Herbert Perera
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