Coco Lee
Ferren "Coco" Lee (Chinese: 李玟; 17 January 1975 – 5 July 2023) was a Chinese-American singer and songwriter.[3][4] She was raised in Hong Kong and the United States. Lee began her career in Hong Kong before expanding to Taiwan and internationally.[5][6] She released 18 studio albums, two live albums, and five compilation albums.[7][8]
Coco Lee
5 July 2023 (aged 48)
Shimenfeng Memorial Park, Wuchang District, Wuhan, China[1][2]
- Singer
- songwriter
- dancer
- actress
1993–2023
- Hong Kong
- Taiwan
- San Francisco
李玟
Lǐ Wén
Lǐ Wén
Lei5 Man4
李美林
Lǐ Měilín
Lǐ Měilín
Lei5 Mei5-lam4
Lee has been described as "enormously influential" and Asia's Mariah Carey.[9][10] She was also noted for her Americanized dance routines.[11] She voiced the lead character Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan, a 1998 animated Disney film, and sang its theme song, "Reflection". She was the first Chinese singer to break into the American market. Her album Just No Other Way, which was released in 1999, was the first English-language R&B album recorded by a Chinese singer.[12] Her English single "Do You Want My Love" received international attention, appearing on the US Billboard Hot Dance Breakouts chart at No. 4 and entering the top 50 of the US Billboard Dance Club Play chart as well as the Australian Singles Chart.[13][14] Lee performed the song "A Love Before Time" from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at the 73rd Academy Awards, becoming the first, and so far only, Chinese to perform at the Academy Awards.[15][6][16] She was also the first Chinese-American singer to sing at an NBA game, the first Asian to hold a concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the first non-mainland Chinese singer to win the Chinese reality show I Am A Singer, and the first Chinese- brand ambassador for Chanel.[17] She spent most of her life in Hong Kong and died there at the age of 48.
Career[edit]
Career beginnings and Sony Music: 1993–1998[edit]
In 1993, Lee returned to Hong Kong to see her sisters,[32][33] who had participated in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant in 1992.[34][35] While there, she took part in the 12th Annual New Talent Singing Awards (1993) and was the first runner-up,[26][36][37] singing Whitney Houston's Run to You.[32][38] The following day, Capital Artists offered her a recording contract.[32]
Lee made her debut on compilation albums including Red Hot Hits '93 Autumn Edition (火熱動感93勁秋版).[39] In 1994, she released her first solo albums in Mandarin in Taiwan, Love from Now On (愛就要趁現在) and Promise Me (答應我), with Fancy Pie Records.[40][39] Her English language cover album, Brave Enough to Love (勇敢去愛), and her third Mandarin album, Woman in Love (被愛的女人), were released the following year.[40][39]
In 1996, Lee signed with Sony Music Entertainment.[40] Her next Mandarin album, CoCo Lee (往日情·愛我久一點), became the best-selling album of 1996 in Asia.[24] Later that year she released an English cover album CoCo's Party (CoCo's Party). The following year, she released her Mandarin album Sincere (每一次想你) as well as a self-titled Cantonese album, COCO (COCO).[40] That was her first and only solo Cantonese album. In 1998, the Mandarin album Di Da Di (Di Da Di·暗示) was released, selling 1 million copies in less than 3 months.[40]
International collaborations and English debut: 1998–2005[edit]
From her next album Sunny Day (Sunny Day·好心情), "Colors of the World" (颜色) was used for the opening of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and the song "The Answer" (答案) for the Chinese movie Bishonen. In 1998, she 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).[41][24] In the same year, she sang "Missing You in 365 Days" (想你的365天), one of the theme songs of the film Lotus Lantern, the first commercial animated feature film in Mainland China.[42][43]
In August 1998, Coco performed in Taiwan to a concert audience of more than 50,000 fans, the second-largest concert audience in Taiwan, exceeded only by Michael Jackson.[44][45] She also performed in Michael Jackson's "Michael Jackson and friends" charity concert.[46][47] In 1999, Lee released the Mandarin album From Today Till Forever (今天到永遠).[48] Later that year, under 550 Music, she made her debut Just No Other Way, which included the hit, "Do You Want My Love".[27] The song reached No 4 on the US Billboard Hot Dance Breakouts chart in December 1999,[49] marking her success as the first Chinese singer to break into the American market.[50] Her love song "Before I Fall in Love" (originally performed by Canadian female singer Joanna Pennock in 1995 on her self named only album, Joanne) was included in the soundtrack of the movie Runaway Bride.[46] She also recorded a duet called "Can't Get Over" with singer 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.[39] In Asia, she released a Mandarin album True Lover You & Me (真情人·You & Me). By 2000 she had released 20 albums in Asia and had sold 7.5 million copies of her albums on that continent.[51]
In 2001, Lee sang the song "A Love Before Time" for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which she performed at the Oscars.[46] Her album Promise Coco (Promise) was released in October 2001. She recorded a Mandarin Chinese cover titled "Baby, I'm Sorry" (Baby 對不起) as the lead single of the album.[52][53] Her version's lyrics were co-written by Lee along with Lou Nanwei while the music is still the same original composition by Alfanno.[54] A music video was released on the same year by Sony Music Entertainment[55] Her version placed at number 35 on the Taiwan Yearly Singles Top 100 chart in 2001.[56] In 2002, Lee released her remix album D. Is Coco (Dance Is Coco). She sang an anti-tobacco song called "From the Beginning 'til the End" (煙絲萬縷) with singer Jacky Cheung.[39] In the same year, at the NBA (National Basketball Association) debut of Yao Ming Lee performed the US national anthem and became the first Chinese-American singer to sing at such an important international sporting occasion.[57] She also sang the anti-racism song "A Dream of One" with Korean singer Jin Young Park. In 2003, she performed with Shaggy at the "MTV Asia Awards" in Singapore and also presented the show with him.[58]
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 in the 2005 Beverly Hills Film Festival.[59]
Health issues[edit]
Lee was born with an abnormality in her left leg.[46] At the age of two, she underwent surgery which failed to correct the problem, causing her to rely more heavily on her right leg for most of her life.[87]
Lee received a diagnosis of depression in 2019.[88] Her sister said the condition deteriorated drastically the few months before her death although she had sought professional help.[27]
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 and had a tumor removed. In December 2022, the singer reported her weight as 42 kg (92lbs), sparking concerns for her health.[89][90][91] On 8 March 2023, she disclosed on social media that she had surgery on her pelvis and thigh in Hong Kong the previous month, after triggering an old leg injury during a dance rehearsal in October 2022.[46][87] She shared videos of herself learning to walk again with the aid of a walker as well as a nurse.[87] Lee had to take muscle relaxant medication after the surgery, an insider said.[92][93]
Philanthropy[edit]
Lee was actively involved in the work of UNICEF as a youth ambassador, promoting children's right and their well-being. She supported the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants children with critical illness their wishes. She was also an ambassador for the Organisation for World Peace in China, Cancer Fund's Pink Ambassador at Hong Kong's first breast cancer survivors' fashion show in 2016 and Youth AIDS ambassador at a global AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand in 2004.[132] As the Youth AIDS ambassador, she attended the conference as the representative of the Asian artists to meet various youth groups discussing what she could do to educate them about AIDS.[59]
Artistry[edit]
Lee was inspired by musicians such as Whitney Houston, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey. Because techniques employed by R&B singers in English would change the pitch and meaning of words in Cantonese, she taught herself Mandarin, which allows for more tonal flexibility.[32]
Honors and awards[edit]
Awards 1994
Top 10 Most Popular Idol
Best New Artist awards (Taiwan)
the Golden Dragon Chart Awards 1996
Best-selling album (Coco Lee) of 1996
Best MV (Yesterday's passion)
Awards 1997
Best Female Artist by the Best 10 Artists
MTV Asia Music Awards 1998
Best Album (DiDaDi)
Best Music Video (DiDaDi)
MTV/CCTV Chinese Music Awards 1999
Artist of the year
Radio Music Awards 1999 (Singapore)
Best international newcomer
Yale and Harvard Universities 2000
Asian-American of the year
Best Performer of the year
Awards in Hong Kong 2001
Best Mandarin Female Artist
Top 10 Artist of the Year
International Golden Melody Awards Malaysia 2001
Most Popular Stage Showmanship Female
M'sia Awards 2002
best song
MTV/CCTV Chinese Music Awards 2002
Best female artist of the year
MTV Style Awards China 2003
Breakthrough International Artist of the Year
Asia's Most Outstanding Performer[133]
Lycra Style Awards 2004
Asian Style Artist[134]
10 Best dressed of 2004
Changchun festival 2004
Best new talent (Master of everything)
QQ Star Awards 2010
Female Singer of the Year 2009
Album of the Year 2009
Hit Music Awards 2010
Best song of the year 2009 (BYOB)
Best female artist in Taiwan and Hong Kong area of the year 2009
Awards 2010
China's Top 10 Barbie Dream Girls
Awards 2016
Winner of I Am A Singer, Season four