Namal Udugama (Sinhala: නාමල් උඩුගම;born 21 October 1967) is a Sri Lankansinger, composer and songwriter. One of the best popular artists in Sri Lanka, before the era of reality shows,[citation needed] he is regarded as a symbolic icon in modern Sri Lankan music industry. The health issues in 2014 made him to slow his singing career. Udugama recovered well from a successful liver transplant in mid-2015.
Early life and career
Udugama's father is a businessman and his mother is a housewife. He has two brothers and two sisters. He is the youngest in the family. Namal was educated at Thalathuoya Central college in Kandy. At school, he played guitar and performed at school events, before joining a band in Kandy. Udugama moved to Colombo, where he began to release albums. He composed and performed the song "Samuganne na wen wanne na"; the song established his career in the Sri Lankan music industry. Udugama is married to actress Ruwanthi Mangala, and they have one daughter and one son.[1][2]
In February 2015, Udugama became severely ill due to a liver failure condition and admitted to the intensive care unit of a leading private hospital in Colombo. His wife announced that he needs A-negative blood type for the immediate cure. He underwent four life saving operations in Sri Lanka, but needed partial or total liver transplant as the final treatment. After few days, there was a misleading news that he was dead. He was thereafter treated in Global City Hospital in India for the liver transplant . The required liver lobe was given by a cousin of his wife and the surgery was done by Dr Gomathy Narasimhan, who is a Senior Consultant HPB & Liver Transplant Surgery at Global Health City, Chennai.[3] He returned to Sri Lanka with a successful transplant on 5 June 2015.[4][5][6]
Before the surgery he released Sanda Aithiya song and after recovery, he released a solo hit Thamath Oya in 2015, which gathered crowd back towards him.[7]
Track listing
Samuganne Na 01 (Ra Sihine) album included songs[8]