Mariazelle: Singer With the Golden Voice

• Before she broke out in the early 1980s with Kandy Lamissi (composed by a band of our contemporaries ‘The Blue Sapphires’ and first sung by Sathya Perera - Umara & Umaria’s mother), she was predominantly an OUTSTANDING singer of English songs. No frills, frills or riffs, her delivery and pitch were just pure

Singer Mariazelle Goonetileke

By Aruna Siriwardhana

When we first met in the mid 1970s as members of ‘The Emeralds’, Mariazelle, just a year older than me, was already well known (through a weekly radio programme) as the singer in ‘The Junior Rhythmiers’ - a band of teenagers.

Before she broke out in the early 1980s with Kandy Lamissi (composed by a band of our contemporaries ‘The Blue Sapphires’ and first sung by Sathya Perera - Umara & Umaria’s mother), she was predominantly an OUTSTANDING singer of English songs. No frills, frills or riffs, her delivery and pitch were just pure. 

I’m certain there’ll be many to extol various aspects of her posthumously; so,  I take a moment to speak about two special beings in Mariazelle’s life. 

One is Surgeon Prof. Srinath Chandrasekera (a musician himself) who for the past 6 months or so, took indescribably attentive care of her together with his team at Kalubowila Hospital. 

The other is singer Dinu who virtually placed her life & affairs on hold to care for Mariazelle. Almost every day, twice, often three times , she visited the hospital, coordinated supply of medication, and doing everything possible for M. 

Prof. Srinath and Dinu are the two true heroes in the sad final verse of ‘Ballade pour Mariazelle’.