| Namal Udugama නාමල් උඩුගම | |||||||||
| Birth Name: | Prasanna Namal Udugama | ||||||||
| Birth Date: | 21 October 1967 | ||||||||
| Birth Place: | Thalathuoya, Kandy, Sri Lanka | ||||||||
| Spouse: | Ruwanthi Mangala | ||||||||
| Children: | Dehemi, Nomitha | ||||||||
| Education: | Thalathuoya National School, Kandy | ||||||||
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Prasanna Namal Udugama (born October 21, 1967 නාමල් උඩුගම) is a Sri Lankan singer, composer and songwriter. One of the most popular artists in Sri Lanka, before the era of reality shows, he is regarded as a symbolic icon in modern Sri Lankan music industry. In the 1990s, he was hailed as the prince of dreams(සිහින කුමාරයා) among the youth.[1] The health issues in 2014 made him to slow his singing career. Udugama recovered well from a successful liver transplant in mid-2015.[2]
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 Hewahata 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 Wenwanne Na"; the song established his career in the Sri Lankan music industry. Udugama is married to actress Ruwanthi Mangala, and they have one daughter, Dehemi and one son, Nomitha.[3] [4]
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. He was thereafter treated in Global City Hospital in India for the liver transplant .The surgery was done by Dr Gomathy Narasimhan, who is a Senior Consultant HPB & Liver Transplant Surgery at Global Health City, Chennai.[5] He returned to Sri Lanka with a successful transplant on June 5, 2015.[6] [7] [8] 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.[9]