Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Referring to the brouhaha over the video circulating on social media in which a popular singer Umara Sinhawansa was mispronouncing a key lyric whilst performing the National Anthem at the 2023 LPL opening ceremony, Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Minister Vidura Wickramanayake warned legal action against the incident.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, the Minister said, No one can distort the National Anthem of any country as it represents the county’s identity and culture. Therefore, such incidents where the National Anthem is distorted can’t be condoned. 

A national anthem can’t be remixed or performed as a rap music. Hence, the Ministry is contemplating taking action against the recent incident. In addition, we will also take steps to inform the relevant parties in this regard,” he said.    

There is a standard way of singing the National Anthem and the standard version is available on YouTube. With this trend, I am not surprised if the National Anthem is performed while being naked in the future,” the Minister added.

Popular singer, Umara Sinhawansa ruffled feathers on social media after mispronouncing a key lyric whilst singing the National Anthem at the 2023 LPL opening ceremony. 

In the video she is repeatedly heard singing the anthem as ‘Namo Namo Mahatha’ instead of ‘Namo Namo Matha’ thus sparking a controversy amongst netizens online, which has also resulted in the current trending hashtag Mahatha across all social media platforms. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)