Biography
Ranidu Lankage is a top Sinhalese R&B and hip hop artist. He is also the individual who has single handedly taken the genre of Sinhalese RnB/ pop to new and never before seen heights in the international arena.
Ranidu is the first Sinhalese artist to be played on the venerated Radio1 of the BBC and also the creator of the first Sinhalese single to be played on MTV, channel V and Z music India.
Early Career
In the past four years Ranidu has produced an incessant array of hits that has revolutionized the Sri Lankan music industry and has left his competition behind in a cloud of dust. Lankage's first single Oba magemai set the standard in new age Sinhalese pop and became an instant hit on the radio charts scoring no1's on all Sinhalese radio and Video charts which included Hiru top 40, Rasa risi gee, Sithgath gee etc . With the release of the album Oba magemai in 2003 Ranidu also became the youngest Sri Lankan artist to be signed by an international record label. (Sony music India). Ranidu followed the success of his first single with 4 top 20 hits, namely Obe ath allagena, Sinasenna, Kandulen midee and Sadaa. Although the album became wildly popular and was one of the top selling albums in Sri Lanka, Ranidu was not going to stop there. He went back in the studio in the summer of 2003 to create one of the masterpieces of New age Sri Lankan music, namely, the album "Diviyapura/ All my life" which included the monster hit "Ahankara Nagare".
Rise to Fame
With its release in the summer of 2004 the single "Ahankara Nagare" became an instant mega phenomenon. The song captivated the hearts and minds of young and old alike in Sri Lanka and became undoubtedly the biggest original Sri Lankan single to come out in the past decade. The song climbed to the top of the charts within days and gave Ranidu unprecedented fame and recognition within Sri Lanka. However, one of the biggest breaks in Ranidu's career came when Ahankara Nagare charted on the BBC's official Asian Music chart. This led to many astonishing achievements in the following year which included Ahankara nagare becoming the first Sinhalese single to be included in an internationally distributed compilation, namely, Essential Asian RnB, which included songs by Asian music titans such as Raghav, Jay Sean, Rishi Rish, Punjabi Hit Squad and Beenie Man.
Next came the inclusion of Ahankara on the 'Asian Flavas' compilation on HOM records in India. This also resulted in the track becoming the fist song to be played on MTV India, Zee music and Channel V. In fact, Ahankara went to top the weekly video chart on Zee music. Ranidu followed up this unprecedented success with another banging single titled "Kelle" which once again charted on the BBC Asian Chart and received rave reviews and world wide airplay. With this Ranidu's album Diyiyapura became one of the most successful albums by a Sri Lankan artist of all time.
Capping off a phenomenal year was the astonishing success of the Album 'Iraj', a project which featured 3 tracks by Ranidu, namely, "Ninda noyana handawe", "Madumathiye" and "Playas lounge". Ninda noyana which was composed and sung by Ranidu was the most popular love ballad to come out in 2005 and will be a song that lives on in the hearts of the people for many years to come. Following this achievement Ranidu headed to Australia with Iraj Weeraratne and his group to perform at the world renowned Sydney Opera House in March of 2005 and galvanized the Australian audience with an electric performance.
Ranidu also embarked on his first major tour in Sri Lanka in the summer of [[2005] and as expected all shows were a massive success. This was not an end point for Ranidu as he once again collaborated with Iraj to come up with what is currently Sri Lanka's top selling Single " Mata Aloke Genadevi Sansaraye". Once again this track resulted in international success for Ranidu with the song airing on the Radio1 BBC, BBC Asian network and 1 Xtra and also being aired on all Sri Lankan and Indian music TV channels. Aloke was also included in the Bombay Bronx compilation by the BBC's superstar DJ and Ranidu and Iraj's mentor DJ Nihal. Ranidu also appeared on the Adil Ray show of the BBC's Asian network to promote the singles inclusion in the main play list of the station.
Current Life
