This is not a post to defend Lahiru Perera, his music or anything. This just what I see from all the drama happening over his world cup cheer song ‘Enna’. If you have listened to any of Lahiru Pereras songs, you must have realised that he is not Amaradewa, Suni Edirisingha, or not even Sunil Perera or Iraj when it comes to music style. He is in a different class, popular among some and not so popular among others. In songs like Rambari and this one, his lyrics are mostly a meaningless bunch of words thrown together in a way that rhymes. Nothing more. If some one is trying to measure his music with a measuring stick any better than that, I don’t think it is practical. Because any one can see that his songs are mare entertainment and not serious art work.
Honestly, his song ‘Enna’ is no way near the quality that is required from an official Cricket World Cup 2011 cheer song for Sri Lanka. But it is ok as just another Cricket World Cup cheer song, given the sorry state of all the World Cup cheer songs that we have for this Cricket World Cup. This post on islandcricket gives good coverage in that topic. Actually until this drama break out I thought there is no official song from SL this time. If some one authorized made this official song after listening to it, that is a decision which should have never been taken. If Lahiru wrote this song on a request for an official song for Cricket World Cup 2011, he should not have written that too. And even if he wrote that on a request from some authority, that client should have rejected it after looking at the out put. And obviously Lahiru is not the guy you should hire if you want an official song.
Having said above, Lahirus song is an ok cheer song which goes well with typical Sri Lankan cricket atmosphere, and it is nothing more than a typical Lahiru song. And that was the case until Presidential order to ban the song as official song. Which is the correct thing to do, because it should not have been made the official song at the first place. What is interesting is the reaction generated to that news by the public. Suddenly the entertaining singer have become the root of all evil. You can see that in most of the comments posted in following links on dailymirror.lk. Link 1, Link 2. It is interesting to watch how Sri Lankan minds work.
/Rakhitha
Tags: Cricket, Cricket World Cup, Cricket World Cup 2011, Cricket World Cup 2011 Official Song, CWC, CWC 2011, dailymirror.lk, Enna, islandcricket.lk, Lahiru Perera, Music, Sri Lanka
3 comments on “Drama over ‘Enna’ (Banned Sri Lanka Cricket World Cup Song)”
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I agree. It’s a great song. But it is so full of slang (which when immediately translated to English does not look good.) But like it or not.. that’s our culture. We all know that “nawaseelanthe thalmasunge hakupannanna” doesn’t literally mean “we will mutate Whales from New Zealand.” One countries slang cannot be understood by people from another country that speak another language. And they shouldn’t try to either. Because that is taking it out of context.
That being said, song chock full of slang don’t need to be official song for an international event.
But it is still a win-win situation. President get brownie points from his counterparts in Australia, New Zealand and the likes for banning the song. People like me who never knew Lahiru Perera will know him and listen to his music from now on. Sri lankans will listen to this song and play it everywhere during the WC and it will get the highest hits on youtube. Lahiru Perera if he keeps his mouth shut and don’t piss off Mahinda and manage to not end up in a white van, would be very famous thanks to this incident.
Hek Hek! Well Said!
Any way by any means we should not insult any other nation or any personality. It is a bad example for the youger generation. Even the other song where he says about Queen of UK, Sharuk & Prince Charles should be banned – It is of course a very nice tune . but the words are not acceptable by any educated man.