By Harischandra Gunaratne
The Sri Lankan singing duo Ashanthi and Ranidu took the local music scene by storm with the release of their debut CD "Oba Magemai" ("you are only mine") to a packed house in Colombo recently.

They are the youngest Sri Lankan duo to have signed up with an international record label, making their maiden release with Sony Music and M Entertainments.

This album also features for the first time a Sri Lankan Garage rhythm track and reaching out to youth of today with this new concept of music has always been our vision, said Ranidu in an interview with ‘The island’ soon after its release. Elaborating on their new album he pointed out "it’s a blend of the latest western sounds like garage, dance, hip hop and RB with a Sri Lankan flavour which has enabled them to create successful new thinking, that will not only reach out to the youth, but to a wider audience".

This CD with a lot of fusion contains 12 English and Sinhala tracks of which one is an instrumental by Ranidu, Ashanthi has written the lyrics of all English songs while the Sinhala lyrics are by Bandula Nanayakkarawasam and Chanaka Jayasekera. Production handled by Ranidu himself with Ranga Dassanayake the audio engineer while Bhathiya Jayakody of "Bhathiya and Santhus" fame has helped the twosome with harmony and creation of the track ‘don’t waste my time’.

Ashanthi and Ranidu were sponsored by Ole Springs bottlers company.

Ashanthi with many achievements in the field of music to her credit has the distinction of being named the ‘most promising female singer at the 2000 Shanghai-Asia music festival. She started composing songs at an early age and the song ‘Out of Blue’ on "Bhathiya and Santhush’s Life" album written by her won her an international award. She was also the leader of the Ladies College choir and her association with semi classical and jazz music has helped her immensely in her music career.

She also performed as the main backup vocalist for ‘Bhathiya and Santhush’ and travelled extensively both around Sri Lanka and overseas and has been featured in their albums ‘Life’ and ‘Tharunye’ which brought them popularity overnight.

Ranidu reading for his bachelors degree in economics at the Yale University, USA is a pioneer in the youth music industry and has handled the production of the album and the creation of original ‘Ashanthi and Ranidu’ which created a sensation in the music scene today. He has performed together with them on recordings and live performances on all major television and radio channels in Sri Lanka. Ranidu learnt his programming skills under the tutelage of keyboard wizard Dilup Gabadamudalige and is responsible for the catchy lyrics of ‘Bhathiya and Santhush’ smash hit ‘Manusathkule’. He also directed and composed music for the opening ceremony of Asian Athletic Championships 2002 and was a member of the Azia Danzi music festival in Kazakhastan.

Ranidu was a member of the choir of his alma-mater Royal College, Colombo with an excellent academic background, achieving the best results and winning the coveted ‘Royal Scholar’ award. He had the unique distinction of captaining Royal at squash and representing the school at rugby, cricket and swimming at various age levels. Ranidu is the son of Southern Military Commander Brigadier Lanka Jayaratne and Mrs. Priyanthi Jayaratne in the banking profession while Ashanthi is the daughter of one of the top female vocalists in the country Antoinette de Alwis and of Lucky de Alwis, better known in the advertising circles.