Vivienne de Silva Boralessa

Vivienne De Silva Boralessa (24 November 1930 – 2 April 2017) was a Sri Lankan singer. A legend and an icon of Sri Lankan Buddhist music, She is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Started her music career at the age of 8 years old at Radio Ceylon in 1938. At 12 years old she was signed to His Master's Voice, in what is known as Sri Lanka's 'gramophone era'.

Born to a family with close ties to the Ceylonese arts industry, Vivienne De Silva began her musical career at the age of only 8 years old, Her first public performance took place in 1938, when she sang welcome songs for performances of two of her father's plays: The Sad State of Lanka and Election Echo, gaining the attention of her uncle, G.R. Edward, in the audience. Edward then convinced Boralessa's parents to allow him to perform a duet with her on Radio Ceylon later that year; she successfully auditioned for Radio Ceylon in 1940, before a panel consisting of Gunapala Malalasekera, S.L.B. Kapukotuwa, and B.S. Wijeyratne, becoming part of their in-house roster of live singers. She soon became one of the most popular radio and gramophone singer in Sri Lanka.

Vivienne De Silva was a royalty singer of His Master's Voice company, and became one of few artist under His Master's Voice to presented gramophone records with the full ownership of the artist music catalog for the company.

Vivienne De Silva Boralessa was the only artist to perform at the 2500th- (1956) and 2550th (2006) Buddha Jayanti as well as the 2600th (2011) Sambuddhatva Jayanthi celebrations held in Sri Lanka; she performed "Me pin bime" ("On this hallowed ground"), a song written for the occasion, in a duet alongside her son, Kapila at the latter occasion.

An only child, Boralessa grew up in a family with close ties to the Ceylonese arts industry, primarily due to her father G.F. de Silva's work as a playwright and producer, and his patronage of the arts in general.

Some of Vivienne's more well-known songs include: Dura Penena Thanithala (Far-seen plains) Nangi nangi Rupika (Sister Rupika) Nawathinna Tissa (Tissa, desist) Sambudu mangalle (Blessed (Buddhist) festival) Budu magula langama ewi (The Buddhist festival draws near) Ma Sanghabodhi swamine (My Lord Sanghabodhi)

While most of Boralessa's work was recorded on gramophone, she released a CD-based album containing her most popular tracks, entitled Sambudu Mangalle, in 2009.

De Silva-Boralessa was the only artist to perform at the 2500th- (1955) and 2550th (2006) Buddha Jayanti as well as the 2600th (2011) Sambuddhatva Jayanthi celebrations held in Sri Lanka; she performed "Me pin bime" ("On this hallowed ground"), a song written for the occasion, in a duet alongside her son, Kapila at the latter occasion. She was also awarded the Kalabooshana award by the Sri Lankan Government for her services to the country's music industry.

Personal life Vivienne de Silva-Boralessa married C.D.S. Boralessa (died. 11 March 2013) in 1953 at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo.