Nimal Mendis

Who is Nimal Mendis?

Nimal Mendis is a Sri Lankan singer and songwriter. He is one of a handful of Sri Lankan musicians to appear on the BBC television programme Top of the Pops in 1968. Mendis was married to his wife Ranjani Mendis for 33 years who died in October 2010. His son's name is Paul-Marie Mendis and together they run Mediaeye Music. Mendis is a long standing member of the Performing Rights Society and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society of Great Britain.

Mendis was discovered in the late 1950s by Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia. The radio station dominated the airwaves in South Asia in the 1950s and 1960s—the station backed his songs from the start, including "Kandyan Express", turning them into hits in South Asia. People from all over the Indian sub-continent wrote in to Radio Ceylon requesting his songs.

Mendis had been involved with music from his early childhood, and has lived for many years in London travelling often to Sri Lanka. He lived for five years with his wife Ranjani at Le Paradis in the Charente, the South West of France.

Mendis was so moved by the devastation of the 2004 tsunami that he composed a Tsunami song to aid the victims. British Parliamentarians commended his composition in a motion in the House of Commons. Linda Perham MP sponsored early day motion 638.