SA Chorus, piano, instruments as available

Recommended for: Elementary and Middle School

Surangani is one of Sri Lanka’s best-loved baila songs, a lively, syncopated style of music that blends Afro-Portuguese folk rhythms with South Asian melodies. Baila became a staple of coastal communities, sung at weddings, street festivals and parties.  Surangani is a playful love song with a catchy refrain and lively beat that invites clapping and dancing. Over the decades, it has been sung in Sinhalese, Tamil and Hindi, becoming a cross-cultural anthem across South Asia. Ms. Tandon lovingly reimagines Surangani as "a song from my childhood," arranged and recorded as a gift for her grandchildren.

Performance Time: 4:15 minutes

Surangani Surangani Suranganika malu gena va               I brought fish for Surangani

Malu malu malu, Suranganika malu                                    Fish fish fish, Freshly caught fish

Suranganika malu gena va                                                   I brought fish for Surangani

Once a papa met a mama under a willow tree

Said the papa to the mama will you marry me?

Then they had some little babies one two and three

Now they are a very very happy family

Grandpa grandma always bringing bag full of treats

Books and toys and puzzles but not so many sweets

Best time for family is when my grandma Laila

Shakes her hips and arms and legs and starts to dance the Baila                                          

Pruthugeese karaya rathval alanna Suraya                        The Portuguese soldier who came to take pearls, Suraya

Hathuru raja maraya mulu lo hollanna veeraya                 Enemy kings defeated everywhere by a brave hero

Colombo tho aave inthala Lison nagare                              He came from Colombo and then to Lisbon city

Appa appa re paythire vinodamire                                     Father, father, let’s have fun