Coco Lee

CoCo Lee (Chinese: 李玟; 17 January 1975 – 5 July 2023) was a Chinese-American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was one of the best-selling artists in Asia and is widely regarded as a significant figure and a diva. Her career began in 1993 in Hong Kong, and she gained early fame in Taiwan through a series of successful albums, establishing herself as an icon. She released 18 studio albums, 2 live records, and 5 compilations.

Lee, who was described as the "Asian Mariah Carey", was noted for her Americanized dance routines. She voiced the lead character of Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of the 1998 Disney film Mulan and sang its theme song, "Reflection".

Lee was the first Chinese singer to have music released globally, making her the first Chinese singer to break into the western market. Her 1999 album Just No Other Way was the first ever English-language album recorded by a Chinese singer. Her 2000 single "Do You Want My Love" achieved international success, appearing on the US Billboard Hot Dance Breakouts Chart at No. 4 and entering the top 50 of the US Billboard Dance Club Songs Chart while also peaking at No. 14 on the Australian Singles Chart and No. 20 on the Official Chart in New Zealand.

Her 2000 song "A Love Before Time", from the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and she performed it at the 73rd Academy Awards, becoming the first, and so far only, Chinese artist to perform at the Oscars. Lee was also the first Asian-American singer to sing the US National Anthem at an NBA game, the first Asian singer to hold a concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the first non-mainland Chinese singer to win the Chinese singing reality show I Am a Singer, and the first Asian brand ambassador for Chanel. In her final years, Lee struggled with health problems, having been diagnosed with depression in 2019. She died by suicide in Hong Kong in 2023, aged 48.

Early life

Ferren Lee was born on 17 January 1975 in Hong Kong or Wuhan. She was a posthumous child, as her father had died before her birth due to an illness. Lee had physical defects in her left leg, causing lifelong challenges. After her husband's death, Lee's mother moved the family to Hong Kong to seek support from relatives. They faced difficult times there before emigrating to the US when Lee was nine years old. Lee had two elder sisters, Carol and Nancy, the latter of whom would become Lee's manager early in her career. Growing up in San Francisco, Lee attended Redding Elementary School, Presidio Middle School, and Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School. She won Miss Teen Chinatown San Francisco in 1991.

At the age of 17, Lee won a local singing contest twice. After graduating from high school in 1993, she entered a TVB competition in Hong Kong and was offered a recording contract. She attempted to juggle her singing career in Hong Kong with her pre-medical studies at the University of California, Irvine, but she eventually left school after one year. During an interview in 1997, Lee said she had never intended to become a star. Her goal in life had been to become a surgeon, following in her mother's footsteps.

Career

Beginnings and Sony Music: 1993–1998

In 1993, Lee returned to Hong Kong to visit her sisters. While there, she took part in the 12th annual New Talent Singing Awards and was the first runner-up, singing Whitney Houston's Run to You. The following day, Capital Artists offered her a recording contract.

When she was 18, Lee came to Taiwan to start her music career. Advised by her sister, Lee chose "Coco" as her English stage name and "Li Wen" (李玟) as her Chinese stage name.

She made her debut on compilation albums such as Red Hot Hits '93 Autumn Edition (zh). In 1994, she released her first solo albums in Mandarin in Taiwan, Love from Now On and Promise Me, through Fancy Pie Records. Her English-language cover album Brave Enough to Love and her third Mandarin album, Woman in Love, came out the following year.

In 1996, Lee signed with Sony Music Entertainment. Her next Mandarin album, CoCo Lee, became the best-selling record in Asia that year. She subsequently released another English cover album, CoCo's Party, also in 1996. The following year, she issued the Mandarin album Each Time I Think of You as well as a Cantonese record, COCO, the only one she ever recorded in that language. In 1998, her Mandarin album Di Da Di Hints came out, selling one million copies in less than three months.

International collaborations and English debut: 1998–2005

From Lee's next album, Sunny Day Feelin' Good, the track "Colors of the World" was used for the opening of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and "The Answer" (答案) was featured in the Chinese movie Bishonen. In 1998, Lee was hired by Walt Disney Pictures to sing the theme song "Reflection" (自己; translation: "myself") and voice Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan (花木蘭). The same year, she sang "Missing You in 365 Days" (zh), one of the theme songs of the film Lotus Lantern, the first commercial animated feature film in mainland China.

In August 1998, Lee performed in Taiwan to an audience of more than 50,000 fans. The next year, she performed in a "Michael Jackson and friends" charity concert and later released the Mandarin album From Today Till Forever. Later that year, under 550 Music, she released her first English album of original songs, titled Just No Other Way, which included the hit "Do You Want My Love". The song reached No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Breakouts chart in December, making Lee the first Chinese singer to break into the American market. Her love song "Before I Fall in Love" was included in the soundtrack to the movie Runaway Bride. She also recorded the duet "Can't Get Over" with Kelly Price. Lee recorded the charity singles "We Meet the Future" and "Hand in Hand" for SARS with other artists, including Wang Leehom, Stefanie Sun, Elva Hsiao, and Jolin Tsai. In Asia, she released the Mandarin album True Lover You & Me. By 2000, she had released 20 albums in Asia and sold 7.5 million copies of her records on that continent.

In 2001, Lee sang the song "A Love Before Time" for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which she performed at the Oscars. The track was introduced by the actress Julia Stiles as an "evocative love ballad" that combined "the flavor and texture of Eastern music with the orchestral color and sensitive lyrics of Western culture". Lee's next album, Promise, was released in October 2001 and included a Mandarin cover song titled "Baby, I'm Sorry" (Baby 對不起). The track placed at No. 35 on the Taiwan Yearly Singles Top 100 chart that year. In 2002, Lee released the remix album D. Is Coco (Dance Is Coco). She also sang an anti-tobacco song called "From the Beginning 'til the End" (煙絲萬縷) with singer Jacky Cheung. The same year, at the NBA debut of Yao Ming, Lee performed the US national anthem and became the first Chinese-American singer to sing at an NBA game. She also sang the anti-racism song "A Dream of One" with Korean singer Park Jin-young. In 2003, she performed with Shaggy at the MTV Asia Awards in Singapore and also hosted the show with him.

Lee co-starred in the Chinese comedy movie Master of Everything (自娱自乐) with John Lone, which won the Best Foreign Film award at the 2005 Beverly Hills Film Festival.

Second English album and Warner Music: 2005–2011

In 2005, Sony BMG released Lee's second English album, Exposed. It was banned in mainland China for "sexy" lyrics in a few songs, such as "Touch" and "So Good". Lee's next Mandarin album, Just Want You, came out on 22 September 2006. In 2008, she was chosen to sing one of the Summer Olympics songs, "Forever Friends", alongside Sun Nan.

As the first Asian singer to perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Lee had a solo concert there in July 2009, singing some of Michael Jackson's songs in homage to her idol. On 14 August 2009, she released a new Mandarin album, East to West, with Warner Music Group. It includes the song "Turn" (流轉), which was on the soundtrack to the film The Legend of Silk Boy. Lee also recorded the song "Smile Shanghai" (微笑上海), with artists including JJ Lin, Andy Lau, Jam Hsiao, and Jane Zhang, for the Shanghai World Expo 2010. On 27 March 2010, she began her East2West World Tour at Taipei Arena, in Taiwan. She performed at the Encore Theatre in Wynn Casino in Las Vegas on 3 and 4 July, then at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 2 October and in Nanning on 16 December. In March 2011, Lee was one of many artists who participated in the recording of the Artistes 311 Love Beyond Borders official theme song, "Succumb Not to Sorrow" (不要輸給心痛), on the Cantonese version. On 7 April 2011, her song "Dreams on Oriental Seas" (梦在东方的海上), featuring Sun Nan, was broadcast. It was named as the theme for the 14th FINA World Championships, which took place in Shanghai on 16 July.