Balal Hamine

Balal Hamine – About the Singer

The name Shiromi Fernando popularly known as “Baby Shiromi” towards the end of 1960’s still linger in the minds and hearts of those who loved her songs at that time.

Shiromi set the trend for young girls below twelve at that time enter the Sinhala pop singing era.

She was introduced to singing by her uncles who at that time were in the forefront in Sinhala pop music groups.

They were the popular “Dharmaratne Brothers” that comprised Ronald, Maxwell, Christy and Melroy.

Of them it was Melroy who was instrumental in introducing his little neice to singing. Shiromi kicked off with the popular number “Konda Namagena”, a song for a grandmother.

It was composed by Melroy. As she reached the peak in no time, she became a household name. She once sang a song for a friend who was dying from Leukaemia.

This song almost made everyone sad and people started to crowd her house at Kotahena thinking that Shiromi was suffering from that illness.

It was written by Melroy and sung by Shiromi said she had never heard of anyone escaping death by the deadly desease.