| Kumar Navaratnam | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Religion | Hindu |
Kumar Navaratnam was a locally popular rock and roll singer in Colombo, Sri Lanka during the 1980s and 1990s.
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The dominant music genre in Sri Lanka is Sinhalese and Tamil pop songs based on bollywood film music and Baila music. Thus the emergence of western rock bands in the 1980s was an unusual phenomenon. Further Kumar was a minority Tamil musician in a field dominated by Goans, foreigners and other locals.
Kumar Navaratnam emigrated to Bourneville in late 1970s at the height of his popularity in Sri Lanka. As a musician he started as a bass guitarist and switched to lead guitar and introduced and played Rock and Hard Rock. No one ever has done it before him. His departure to the US created a void in the music scene in Sri Lanka for sometime.