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Coco Lee
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This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. |
| Coco Lee | ||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | 李美林 | |||||||||||||
| Pinyin | Lǐ Měilín (Mandarin) | |||||||||||||
| Jyutping | Lei5 Mei5 Lam4 (Cantonese) | |||||||||||||
| Birth name | Lei5 Mei5 Lam4 (李美林) | |||||||||||||
| Ancestry | Harbin, China | |||||||||||||
| Origin |  Hong Kong |
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| Born | January 17, 1975  Hong Kong |
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| Other name(s) | Ferren Lee-Kelly | |||||||||||||
| Occupation | singer, songwriter, actress | |||||||||||||
| Genre(s) | Pop, C-pop, dance-pop, hip hop, R&B, adult contemporary, soul | |||||||||||||
| Label(s) | Capital Artists (1993–1994) Fancy Pie (1994–1996) 550 Music/Epic/Sony Music Entertainment/Sony BMG (1996–2008) Warner Music (2009–present) |
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| Years active | 1993–present | |||||||||||||
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Coco Lee (Chinese: 李美林; pinyin: Lǐ Měilín; Cantonese Yale: Lei5 Mei5 Lam4), born on January 17, 1975,4 also known in America as Ferren Lee-Kelly, is a Chinese pop singer, songwriter, record producer and actress from Hong Kong.5 She is the only Asian artist to have multiple top-three singles in the MTV Asia Hitlist. "Do You Want My Love" also entered the music charts in America and the entire album, Just No Other Way gave Coco a break in the English market.6 Coco speaks Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and American English fluently.
Coco had first gained recognition when she won first runner-up in the 1993 New Talent Singing Awards with her rendition of Whitney Houston's "Run to You"7. A local record company noticed that Coco's voice stood out aside from being the only contestant to sing in English. The following day, Capital Artists asked her to sign a contract with their label.8
Coco is the first Chinese person to perform in the Oscars, singing the Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song, "A Love Before Time", from the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, in the 73rd Academy Awards.9 Coco also provided the voice of Mulan in the Mandarin version of Disney's animated feature of the same name.10
Coco's music has been influenced by genres ranging from pop, hip-hop, R'n'B, adult contemporary and soul. While her releases have often received mixed critical reception, she is renowned for her East-meets-West music and melismatic vocals. She has also been nicknamed the "Asian Pop Diva" by the media and due to her worldwide success, critics called Coco the "Best-selling Female Artist" of the continent.
In 2001, Asia Weekly magazine named Coco as one of the most powerful people in Asia on their Power 50 list.11
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Early life and discovery
Born and raised in Hong Kong with ancestry from Harbin, Northeast China, Coco is the youngest of three children. She has two elder sisters, Nancy, who was her manager before, and Carol. Her father passed away when she was young. When she was 10 years old, her mother brought Coco and her sisters together to live in San Francisco, California. She went through school while experimenting with her singing voice, and followed her elder sisters in entering several local singing contests. She attended Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco. Later on, Coco had a brief enrollment at the University of California Irvine, but dropped out for poor grades. Coco is close to her mother, who previously managed her career.
After Coco's high school graduation in 1992, she went back Hong Kong, to see her two sisters' (Carol Lee and Nancy Lee) participation in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, and while there, she came first runner-up in the 12th Annual New Talent Singing Awards. The following day, she was approached by the record label Capital Artists.
Her career
After winning in the 1993 New Talent Singing Awards, Coco was approached by Capital Artists and asked her to sign a contract with them. She made her debut on June 15, 1993, with her compilation album, 火熱動感93勁秋版 (with the 1st track 火熱動感 LaLaLa). Then, she appeared in several compilations with other singers such as Edmond Leung, Allen Ting, Sammi Cheng or Andy Hui. A year later, she worked with Fancy Pie Records and released her first solo albums in Mandarin Love from now on and Promise me. In 1995, she released an English language cover album Brave enough to love (13000 copies sold in one month) as well as her third Mandarin album called Woman in love. Coco gained recognation and had her first big concert the same year in Taiwan, untitled You're in my heart.
In 1996, Coco signed a contract with Sony Music Entertainment. "Coco Lee" became the best selling album of 1996 in Asia, notably with the song Yesterday's passion, as was her second English cover album "CoCo's Party". In 1997, CoCo released her Mandarin album entitled "Sincere" as well as a self-titled Cantonese album (her natine language). 1998 was an even bigger year for her. Her Mandarin album Di Da Di was released and sold to 1 million copies in less than 3 weeks. The hit song Di da di (cover of Maria Montell's "And So the Story Goes") is one of Coco's hit songs such as After winter's gone, Longing to see you or All I want to say from the same album.
For her next album Sunny day, Coco registered the song Colors of the world for the opening of the Football World Cup, and the song The answer for the Chinese movie Bishonen. What's more, Walt Disney Pictures hired her to sing the theme song "Reflection" and be the voice of the heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan. The English version of the song appears on her maxi single Take a chance on love as well as Missing you in 365 days, the theme song of the cartoon Lotus lantern.
The success of her Million fans concert in Taipei in 1998, second to Michael Jackson in terms of audience, with more than 30,000 people who watched, caught the attention of Sony Music United States and Tommy Mottola. In November, she had a concert at Bally, in Las Vegas. In 1999, Coco sang When you tell me that you love me with Julio Iglesias. This song appears on the Asian version of his album My life : The greatest hits. The same year, Coco sang Married you for the movie Notting Hill. This song appears on her Mandarin album Today til' forever. Later on, she was invited by Michael Jackson to perform at his "Michael Jackson and friends" charity concert in front of 60 000 people.
In 1999, 550 Music represented Coco with her stateside debut album, Just No Other Way. Her love song Before I Fall In Love was included in the soundtrack of the movie Runaway Bride. She also had a duet called Can't get over with singer Kelly Price. Lee's English-language performance has received recognition throughout America, Asia, Australia and Europe. Indeed, She is the only Asian artist to have multiple top-three singles in the MTV Asia Hitlist with Before I fall in love in first place, then Do you want my love and Wherever you go, both from the same album, in second and third place.
In 2000, Coco released a new Mandarin album You & me. The hit track True lover held n#1 spot for a record 13 weeks on. At the end of the year, she performed with Ricky Martin and followed him in his Asian tour. In 2001, CoCo sang the song A Love Before Time12 for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She received worldwide exposure when she performed the song live at the 73rd Academy Awards ceremony. Critics commented that she hit the high C6s right on, and delivered solid vocals. This song appears in English in the soundtrack album and in Mandarin in her next album named Promise released in October 2001. It contains Cantonese and Mandarin songs such as So crazy, a duet with the singer Jay Chou called Dao ma dan or Baby I'm sorry, which immediately became great successes. In December, she had a Christmas concert at Mandalay Bay, in Las Vegas.
In 2002, Coco released her remix album D. Is Coco (Dance is Coco). She notably sang a song against tobacco called From the beginning til' the end with singer Jacky Cheung. Then, she was the featured performer at a Houston Rockets NBA game. She became the first Chinese singer to ever perform the US National Anthem at a major global sporting event.
In 2003, she performed with Shaggy at the "MTV Asia awards" in Singapore and also presented the show with him. Coco has also been getting into acting. She co-starred in the Chinese comedy movie Master of Everything (aka Bamboo Shoot) with John Lone, which won the Best Foreign Film award in the 2005 Beverly Hills Film Festival. While in character within the movie, she sings one of her own songs, Di da di.
In the world of fashion and commerce, CoCo was an Omega Global Ambassador in 2004, and fashion house Chanel named CoCo its first "Asian-Pacific Celebrity Ambassadress". This brought Ferren's story full circle somewhat, as she got her nickname CoCo from being an admirer of the firm's products. CoCo, as the YouthAIDS ambassador had been to Bangkok, Thailand for the global AIDS conference in 2004. She attended the conference as the representative of the Asian artists to meet various youth groups discussing what she can do to educate them about AIDS.
In 2005, Sony BMG released her second English album, Exposed. This album contains the Korean theme song of Charlie's angels 2 called All around the world but also a duet called No doubt with Indian rapper Blaaze. CoCo visited countries all over Asia to promote her album. During her visit in the Philippines, she guested in SOP and performed the songs "Do You Want My Love" and "I Will Survive" with Regine Velasquez. Then, Coco sang Reflection with Lea Salonga for the opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland.
In June 2005, CoCo's engagement with Canadian businessman Bruce Rockowitz was made public, apparently having taken place some months earlier13.
Coco's follow up album to her C-Pop hit album Promise, titled Just Want You, features the hit single "Hip-Hop Tonight" with Vanness Wu, which follows in the same vein as No Doubt. The album Just Want You was released on September 22, 2006.
Then, Coco Lee returned to San Francisco bay area for a live concert at the Shoreline Amphitheater on September 22, 2007 with special guest Alex To. It was her first live performance in her hometown in several years.
In 2008, Coco was chosen to sing one of the Olympic songs, "Forever Friends", opposite Sun Nan14.
Current career
In 2009, Coco Lee ranked No.15 in E! Entertainment's list of the world's 25 sexiest pop divas, ahead of Kylie Minogue (No.18), Jennifer Lopez (No.20) and other big names15.
On Jully 17, she had a solo concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. She's the first Chinese singer to perform in this place.
Her new Chinese album East to west was released with Warner Music on August 14. The three hit singles are "Party time", "Beautiful theme song" and "Turn". It also contains the cover of Jay Sean's "Maybe" called "Love now" and "BYOB" ("Bring Your Own Bag"), a song to encourage people to bring and recycle their own shopping bags to save the environment.
Quotations
"I really idolize everything my sisters do, so I went into singing contests and won also. That's how I really got into singing."16
"People liked my voice so much, it was so different. I also combined the R&B feel with the pop music of Taiwan. Everyone there [in Taiwan] used to sing really conservatively – they sing to the melody and that's it. The music [Chinese music] just sounded so dead. I wanted to bring the R&B flavor and other Westernized sounds to my music, because that's the type of music I grew up listening to." (about her Asian audience)17
"When I work, I work. I don't think about anything else. I just wanna get the work done. And I'm a perfectionist."18
"They cannot imagine what I'll sound like. But always when I'm done singing, people are very surprised."19
Discography
To view a complete list of her albums, see Coco Lee albums discography.
Studio albums
Best Of albums
Live albums
Maxi singles
Compilations
Asian Chart-topping hits and singlesNot exhaustive
Videography
External links
References
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