WOW Concerts: Female Legends/Badass Women

The Chitrasena Dance Company is Sri Lanka’s oldest and most prestigious dance company. Established in the 1940s by Guru Chitrasena, who was instrumental in bringing Sri Lanka’s traditional dances from the village rituals to the modern stage, the Dance Company became his vehicle of expression both in traditional dance forms and contemporary dance, which set the standards and transformed dance theatre in Sri Lanka. Today, his dance school and Company led by wife Vajira and daughter Upeka.

Shaping with the essences of Kandyan, Low country and Sabaragamu traditional Sri lankan percussion art, mixing with offshore percussion music along the way, Thuryaa's ultimate goal is to explore and develop a novel trend in the Sri lankan percussion art scene. Sithara Maduwanthi, the leader of Thuryaa was the first female student enrolled in the percussion music department of the University of Visual & Performing Art; Colombo.

Umara is the youngest female artist in Sri Lanka to have collaborated with the legendary international artist Shankar Mahadevan also known as Shankar Ehsaan Loy. She was also the first female and the youngest Music Audio Engineer in Sri Lanka, until she left for Hong Kong a few years ago to pursue her music career in art of jazz music. 

Ashanthi De Alwis is the queen of Sri Lankan Pop. An artiste who has proved herself by pushing boundaries with her music locally and internationally, winning many international awards for her compositions. She is now geared to shed light on important social issues that affect the youth and women in Sri Lanka. 

ELSZ is a producer, harpist, vocalist and dancer based in New York. ELSZ is recording at NYC’ oldest recording studio with Grammy Award winning engineer Jeremy Loucas. She released singles Bright Eyes in 2017 and Poison on International Women's day 2016. Poison is dedicated to victims and survivors of gender based violence, with all proceeds being donated to Women in Need, SL. She has toured internationally, playing major festivals such SXSW, EMC & BIGSOUND. 

Deja Vu is an all female music act created by Sri Lanka's Hip Hop Queen, Ashanthi. Deja Vu has four members who sing/rap – Stephanie Pereira, Kavindi Kulasena, Hasnah Jainudeen, and newest member Svetlana Abeysekara. From acts ranging from Nicki Minaj to the 50's Andrew's Sisters, these girls can pull off any genre of music. Starting out their careers as professional musicians in late September 2015, they have performed at many exclusive corporate events around Sri Lanka.

Amendra is a multifaceted artiste. Emerging in the music industry, Amendra is known to pull off any genre of music. Her voice is full of soul, emotion and drama - enabling her to gain Trinity College London vocal examinations and win awards, gold medals and a medal of Honour from the British and International Federation of Festivals for Music, Dance and Speech U.K. Amendra has performed for the World Conference and Edexcel Colors Nights and she continues to perform today.

Prashani Balasooriya is an architecture student currently doing her first year at the City School of Architecture. She attended Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo 5 for her primary and secondary education.

Megan still doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up, and also hopes she will never grow up. That's partly why she loves dabbling in different interests, one of them being singing. A chorister at her convent school, and then a full time bathroom singer, Megan has never sung commercially except as a chorus voice for her cousin’s rap albums and on radio jingles.  She was introduced to the trade by Ashanti De Alwis.