Iraj Weeraratne

Iraj Weeraratne (born February 21, 1981) is a Sinhalese R&B and hip hop artist and music producer who raised the international profile of Sinhalese RnB/pop.

Early life

Educated at Royal College, Colombo and at Stafford International School, Iraj at the age of sixteen won the best keyboardist title in Sri Lanka awarded by the Guildhall Music School, UK, when he was a student at the Academy of Music. While at Royal College Iraj collaborated with Ranidu Lankage and Yauwanan Wigneswaran and formed ‘Zealots’, they also released their first original ‘Love You So’ in 1998 and received airplay on local radio stations. At Stafford he teamed with Ruki and Urban Sound to work on another original called ‘Sri Lanka 2030’.

Career

After studying Accounting and Finance at the University of Northumbria, he re-joined with Krishan and Ruki for the hit single ‘Roots’. This song revolutionized local music as it crossed borders and received airplay on all continents. This was featured in UK on BBC Radio 1. Following this he released his self-titled debut album - ‘Iraj’, which was co-produced by Ranga Dassanayake from Hit.