Deshamanya Kalasuri Matharage Rita Genevieve Fernando (11 November 1934 â 27 December 2025), better known by her stage name Latha Walpola (), was a Sri Lankan singer. Affectionately known as "The Nightingale of Sri Lanka", Walpola had a stellar career as a playback singer spanned for eight decades and sang about 6750 songs for nearly 600 films.
She was born as Rita Genevieve Fernando in Bambalapitiya on 11 November 1934, as the third child of the family with five siblings. Her father, Joseph Linus Fernando worked at Cargills store. Her mother, Elizabeth Muriel was a teacher at a convent, who encouraged Rita to become a singer. She lived in the house "Dhawalagiriya" in Bambalapitiya in first few years and later moved to Mount Lavinia after one of her father's brothers sold it for Rs. 35,000. She received her education at St. Anthony's Convent in Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, where she led a church choir. She was a diehard fan of Rukmani Devi and Chitra Somapala, where Rita sang their popular songs at various school concerts in multiple times.
When Latha visited India for recording the playback singing for the film Ahankara Sthree, her father got very angry where he fought with Latha's mother and set fire to the things in the house. Therefore, Latha's brother, sister, and mother had to move to a relative's house.
At the age of 12, she joined the choir of Radio Ceylon in 1946 under the guidance of Wilman Silva, a neighbour. Accompany with Wilman, she went to meet C. A. Fonseka, who was a radio dramatist and musician. After seeing her singing abilities, Fonseka guided her to perform in his "Sarala Gee" program with his son C. D. Fonseka, who is also a singer. At the age of 14, she joined with C. D. Fonseka and his brother Erwin Fonseka to sang songs for a radio program once a month and also got the opportunity to join the group singing for the same program in 1947. During this period, she also met violinist Vincent de Alwis, who later introduced her to popular singers Susil Premaratne, C. T. Fernando, P. L. A. Somapala. In 1947, Walpola sang her first solo song, "Kandulu Denethe Vehena", which had lyrics by Sarath Wimalaweera and music composed by Vincent de Alwis, the resident violinist at Radio Ceylon. Then she sang songs for Susil Premaratne's Sarala Gee program and made popular duets with Premaratne "Ra Ruse Andana Lese" and "Ranwan Ran Karalin". In the same year, Latha made her first solo song recorded for radio "Namo Mariyani". The song is recorded as the song sang by Latha for the most times. It was recorded for Columbia Label and the album sold millions of copies.
She studied music under the musician Sunil Premaratne, who changed her name Rita Fernando to Latha Fernando after seeing her vocal similarity to Indian singer Lata Mangeshkar. She became extremely popular by singing duets like "Selalihini Kovul", "Malbara Himidiriye Pipune" and "Lo Ada Ninde" with C.T. Fernando. By 1950, she was well known in the country, covering the songs "Sukomala Banda Lelawa", "Dunhinda Helena", and "Diyaluma Helena", originally sung by Chitra Somapala. Walpola has recorded for both the Columbia and His Master's Voice record labels for many radio songs under the name Latha Fernando.
After many years in radio, Latha got the opportunity to meet K. Gunaratnam, the owner of Cinemas film production company. Gunaratnam invited Latha for playback singing in his 1953 film Sujatha, but later denied by her father. Even though her mother gave permission to sing songs, but her father was against it from the beginning. In the same year, she met Shanthi Kumar and made her maiden playback singing for Kumar's film Eda Rae without informing her father. In the film, she sang three duets "Hari Hari Ha Ha", "May Prithi Prithi Darling" and "Habata Mage" with Herbert M. Seneviratne, written by D. T. Fernando and music composed by Mohammed Gauss.
The film became a blockbuster and her singing excellence was identified by film producer S. M. Nayagam and musician R. Muttusamy, who trained her voice for film background music. Under their guidance, Latha made her breakthrough in the 1953 film Prema Tharangaya. In the film, Latha had six songs to sing and two were duets with actor Aruna Shanthi. However, Aruna had a difficulty singing the songs during the recording. At that time, musician M. Ariyadasa introduced Dharmadasa Walpola to record the duets with Latha. The duo made their first duet "Honda Honda Weya Lowa" which became highly popular among the public. After that success, she received several films in the following years such as: AhankÃÂra, Stree, Radaḷa Piḷiruva, MÃÂthalan, Dingiri Mæá¹ÂikÃÂ, DuppathÃÂgàDuka and RÃÂkhÃÂva. With the arrival of Latha, film producers were forced to send South Indian singers Jikki, Jamuna Rani, K. Rani back to India, which made the way to Sri Lankan singers for playback singing. Latha contributed to 35 films with his husband Dharmadasa Walpola for three decades. She had the opportunity to sing in 33 films between 1952 and 1960 and won the Sarasaviya Award, presented to individuals involved with the cinema of Sri Lanka, four times for the films: Getawarayo, Naarilatha, Okkoma Kanapita and Chitti. She won the first Sarasaviya Awards for the Best Female Singer in 1965 for the song "Heena Hathak Meda" for 1964 film Getawarayo.
She sang several songs composed by Indian musicians such as: Dakshina Murthy, T. F. Latif, T. R. Pappa as well as Sri Lankan musicians: B. S. Perera, W. D. Amaradeva, Sarath Dassanayake, Victor Rathnayake, Somapala Rathnayake, Sarath de Alwis, Sarath Wickrama and Premasiri Khemadasa. She dominated the Sinhala cinema as the only Sinhala songstress at that time and sung songs for sixty-three Sri Lankan actresses as early as Wansawathi Daulgala to recent Anarkali Akarsha from 1940s to 2000s. Latha made hundreds of duets with fellow musicians such as Susil Premaratne, C. T. Fernando, Dharmadasa Walpola, Mohideen Baig, Amaradeva, Sanath Nandasiri, Victor Ratnayake, H. R. Jothipala, Clarence Wijewardena, M. S. Fernando, Gratien Ananda and Rookantha Gunathilake.
Apart from that, Latha made background vocals for several popular Indian actresses such as Vyjayanthimala, Nimmi, Meena Kumari, Savitri, Chitra, Krishna Kumari, Nanda and Achala Sachdev. In 1957, she sang the song "Me Maaga Loke Obane" for Vyjayanthimala in the film 'Pathivatha', song "MÃÂgàNama Abdul RahmÃÂn" for Nimmi in the film 'Ayyai Mallyi', songs "Disne DëlàEnna ChandrÃÂ" and "Hada Thuḷa MàKavuda" for Nimmi in the film Angulimala. Then she made background vocals for Meena Kumari for the songs: "Brunda Vanaye", "Nil Menik Mage", "Lokaya Kartath Samanai", and "O Ratriyeye Mayame" for the film Ahimsaka Prayogaya.
In 2005, she won the Kalasuri award from the Sri Lankan government in 2005. In 2017, she was awarded the second highest civil award, Deshamanya, by the government. In 2016, she performed in the solo concert 'Ron Soya' on 2 April at 6:00 PM at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall.
In 2021, she received a lifetime achievement award during a ceremony held for 21 artists who made contributions to Sinhala cinema in its early decades. In 2022, she received a lifetime achievement award at the Ceylon International Film Festival in Santa Barbara, California; the awards ceremony was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in February 2023. She sang the song "Mahalu Viye Maa" penned by Premakeerthi de Alwis for the music of Stanley Peiris with her daughter Dhammika.
At the age of 86, she sang a song with music by Sarath de Alvis and lyrics by Jude Prasanna. Overall, she has sung more than 10,000 songs, including foreign language songs.
Apart from playback singing, she acted in three films: Eda Re (1953), Prema Tharangaya (1953) and Radala Piliruwa (1954). She also dubbed in the film Ahinsaka Prayogaya.
The biographical film Latha, based on the life of Latha Walpola has directed by Mano Weerasekara, where Umali Thilakarathne made Walpola's role.
After a short relationship, Latha married Dharmadasa Walpola on 7 April 1958, becoming known as Latha Walpola since then. A ceremonial wedding was held at Sirikotha, Kollupitiya. The couple has three sons: Suneth (born on 1958), Amith (born on 1960), Chaminda (born on 1966) and one daughter: Dhammika (born on 1964). Dharmadasa Walpola was born on 27 November 1927 and was an accomplished musician adapt at playing the flute, harmonium, violin and tabla. He had a playback singing career for over three decades until his death on 25 December 1983 at the age of 56.
Her sons Amith and Suneth are popular singers in Sri Lanka and continued father's legacy. Dhammika is also a singer, who is married to musician and guitarist Mahinda Bandara. Mahinda's younger brother Raju Bandara was also a musician, who died in 2026.
He had some misunderstandings with fellow songstress Angeline Gunathilake, but later resolved and became close friends.
Walpola was hospitalised in mid December 2025 with breathing difficulty and rumours circulated that she is dead, but later denied by her daughter.
Walpola died on 27 December 2025 at the age of 91 while receiving treatment at the Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital. Her remains were kept at the Jayaratne Respect Hall in Borella from 3pm to 10pm from 28 to 30 December 2025. The funeral took place on 31 December 2025 at the Kanatte Cemetery after full state honours at the Independence Memorial Hall.
|- || 1965 ||| Getawarayo || Best Female Singer || |- || 1970 ||| Naarilatha || Best Female Singer || |- || 1992 ||| Contribution to cinema || "Ranathisara" Award || |- || 1993 ||| Okkoma Kanapita || Best Female Singer || |- || 1996 ||| Chitti || Best Female Singer ||
|- || 1974 ||| Naarilatha || Female Singer with Most Number of Films ||
|- || 1996 ||| Chitti || Best Female Singer ||
|- || 1997 ||| Contribution to cinema || "Swarna Jayanthi" Award ||
|- || 1992 ||| Contribution to cinema || Golden Swan Award || |- || 1995 ||| Contribution to cinema || Golden Conch Award || |- || 2005 ||| Contribution to cinema || Kala Suri Award || |- || 2007 ||| Contribution to cinema || Deshamanya Award || |- || 2021 ||| Contribution to cinema || Lifetime Achievement Award || |- || 2022 ||| Contribution to cinema || Lifetime Achievement Award ||
|- || 2004 ||| Contribution to cinema || U.W. Sumathipala Award ||
|- || 2006 ||| Contribution to cinema || Appreciation Award ||
|- || 2024 ||| Contribution to cinema || Lifetime Achievement Award ||
|- || 2025 ||| Contribution to cinema || Lifetime Achievement Award ||
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