Kala Bhushana Thelge Wayaman Peiris (Sinhala: ධනපාල උඩවත්ත; born 1 November), popularly known by stage name Dhanapala Udawatta, is a Sri Lankan singer.
[1] An indispensable singer on the outdoor stage, Udawaththa has been able to show his talents and sang several popular baila songs such as Ae Neela Warala, Ma Adaraneeya Mage Amma Wethatai, Man Italiye Thani Una, Nelum Wile Nelum Nelana and Ranga Nadeeka.
When Udawaththa went to a concert in Batapola in 1990, a girl came up to me on stage and asked to sing the song Ae Neela Varala Peenala.
In 1968–70, Udawaththa made his first cassette tape under the label 'Sisara' produced by Sing Lanka, which included 14 songs.
One of the songs, Kaiyi Mihiri Katha composed by R A Chandrasena and wrote by Saman Chandranath Weerasinghe.
Two or three times he read the two lines Udawaththa had written and he rolled up the paper and knocked it to the ground and said ‘I will never write songs for you again’ came out of the studio.
One of them held a gun to his head and said that he would kill him if Udawaththa sang the song Ma Adaraniya Mage.
Totally horrified by that incident, that day he sang the song Ae Neela Warala five times to that shock.
On another day in Bahrain, while Udawaththa was singing that song Ma Adaraniya Mage, a large glass bottle was brought on stage by former LTTE supporters.
[1] In 1993, he became an A-grade baila singer on the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), ranking first out of eighty-eight participants.
[2] On 27 June 2015, he performed a 'Dhanapala Udawatta Live in Concert with Plus Minus' at 6.00 pm at Panadura Town Hall to celebrate fifty years of his music career.