| Young Sri Lankan soprano Kishani Jayasinghe was awarded the Asian Woman of Achievement 2009 for Arts and Culture in the UK at a glittering awards ceremony held at the exclusive Hilton Park Lane hotel on May 20.
This auspicious year marked the 10th anniversary of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in the UK, which is designed to identify, recognise and celebrate achievements by Asian women - whether professional or personal - within the commercial, professional, artistic and humanitarian sectors. Winners for this award are selected from a panel of approximately 15 judges from various disciplines from nominations spanning the entire Asian continent. Former winners have included film director Gurinder Chadha, actress Meera Sayal, human rights activist Shami Chakrabarti and Professor Xiangqian Jang.
This year’s awards were presided over by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Cherie Booth Blair QC, former first lady of Britain, who is also the Patron of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, was also amongst the guests. The black-tie ceremony played host to over 700 VIPs and well wishers.
Kishani was also invited to perform during the ceremony and sang Vissi d’arte, vissi d’amore - literally meaning ‘I live for art, I live for love’ - from Puccini’s Tosca which was received with thunderous applause and no doubt won her many new fans and followers.
Kishani, the youngest competitor in her category of Arts and Culture, is the first Sri Lankan to have won this award and did her country proud by scooping the award despite strong competition from four other established and accomplished professionals -- Jaishree Misra, award winning Indian author/film classifier; Carolyn Choa, a Chinese dancer/choreographer/director, Roxanne Zand, an Iranian auctioneer/Asian and Middle Eastern art expert for Sotheby’s, and Pakistani Kamila Shamsie, a New York Times best-selling author.
The award for arts and culture was the final award of the night as the organizers felt it was the category that historically women have made the biggest contribution to society. They went on to say that despite the intense competition, Kishani was “a clear winner for this award having been a volcanic presence that has broken all manner of boundaries for Asian women and shown real passion and determination to succeed in following a dream, despite great obstacles in her path”.
In her witty, heartfelt and inspiring acceptance speech, Kishani said that she was born and raised in Sri Lanka and never considered becoming an opera singer and thanked her parents and family for their courage and unconditional support when she jumped from the legal ship to the musical one and encouragement to follow the road less travelled; her teachers Mary Anne David and Pamela Cook MBE for putting her on this path. She dedicated the award to her husband Kaveenga Wijayasekara who changed his life and moved half way across the world to support her dream.
“Asia is a hotbed of untapped artistic talent which is just waiting to be discovered and I hope this award will go on to inspire other Asian women to have the courage to live their passions and follow their dreams,” Kishani added.
It was a proud moment to see a Sri Lankan stand shoulder to shoulder with her Asian sisters on the winner’s podium bringing pride and recognition to her country once again. | 
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