Coco Lee

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Coco Lee
李玟
CoCo Lee at Shanghai 2013718 (cropped).jpg
Lee in 2013
Born
Ferren Lee ()

(1975-01-17) 17 January 1975 (age 46)
Alma materPresidio Middle School
Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School
University of California, Irvine
Occupationsinger, songwriter, actress, dancer
Years active1993–present
Spouse(s)
(m. 2011)
AwardsAwards 1994
Top 10 Most Popular Idol
Best New Artist awards
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[1]
Lycra Style Awards 2004
Asian Style Artist[2]
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
Musical career
OriginBritish Hong Kong
GenresPop, C-pop, dance-pop, hip hop, R&B, soul
LabelsCapital Artists

Sony Music Entertainment
550 Music
Epic
Sony BMG
Warner Music Group
Universal Music Group
Chinese name
Chinese李玟
Ferren Lee
Chinese李美琳

Coco Lee (Chinese: ; pinyin: Lǐ wén; born Ferren Lee, 17 January 1975)[3] is a Hong Kong-born American singer-songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actress.[4][5] Lee's career began in Hong Kong and then expanded to Taiwan.[4][5] Her single, "Do You Want My Love" also entered the US music charts. Her first full-length English-language album was Just No Other Way. As a Chinese American, Lee is the first and only person of Chinese ethnicity to perform at the Oscars; she performed the Best Original Song nominated, "A Love Before Time" from the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Early life[]

Born in Hong Kong, Lee is the youngest of three children and was born to a Malaysian Chinese father and a Hongkong Cantonese mother.[6] She has two elder sisters, Nancy, who was her manager before, and Carol. Her father died before she was born. When she was 9 years old, her mother brought Lee and her sisters to live in San Francisco. She attended Presidio Middle School and Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School, both in San Francisco. The summer after graduating from high school, she was offered a recording contract in Hong Kong and attempted to juggle her burgeoning career there with her studies at the University of California, Irvine[7] but eventually left after her freshman year to concentrate on her pop career.[8]

Career[]

Career beginnings and Sony Music: 1992–1998[]

After Lee graduated from high school in 1992, she returned to Hong Kong to see her sisters participate in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant. 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. She made her debut by appearing in several compilation albums, such as Red Hot Hits '93 Autumn Edition (火熱動感93勁秋版). In 1994, working with Fancy Pie Records, she released her first solo albums in Mandarin, Love from Now On (愛就要趁現在) and Promise Me (答應我). In 1995, she released an English language cover album, Brave Enough to Love, as well as her third Mandarin album, Woman in Love (被愛的女人). In 1996, Lee signed a contract with Sony Music Entertainment and her subsequent album, "Coco Lee" became the best-selling album of 1996 in Asia.[citation needed] In 1997, she released the Mandarin album "Sincere" as well as a self-titled Cantonese album. In 1998, the Mandarin album Di Da Di was released and sold to 1 million copies in less than 3 months.[citation needed]

International collaborations and English debut: 1998–2005[]

From her next album Sunny day, "Colors of the World" was used for the opening of the Football World Cup, and the song The answer (答案) for the Chinese movie Bishonen. Walt Disney Pictures hired her to sing the theme song "Reflection" (自己) and be the voice of the heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan. On August 1998, Coco performed in Taiwan to a concert audience of more than 30,000 fans, the second largest concert audience in Taiwan (a feat that only Michael Jackson has claimed in the past).[citation needed] She also performed in Michael Jackson's "Michael Jackson and friends" charity concert.[citation needed] In 1999, under 550 Music, Lee made her debut Just No Other Way which included the smashing hit, Do You Want My Love. 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 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. Back in Asia, she released a Mandarin album You & me. By 2000 she had released 20 albums in Asia and had sold 7.5 million copies of her albums in that continent.[9] In 2001, Lee sang the song A Love Before Time for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Her album, Promise Coco released in October 2001. In 2002, Lee released her remix album D. Is Coco (Dance is Coco). She sang a song against tobacco called From the beginning til' the end (煙絲萬縷) with singer Jacky Cheung. She 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. 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. In 2004, as the Youth AIDS ambassador, she attended the global AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand as the representative of the Asian artists to meet various youth groups discussing what she can do to educate them about AIDS.

Second English album and Warner Music: 2005–2011[]

Lee (on the left), performing "Hip Hop Tonight"

In 2005, Sony BMG released her second English album, Exposed. The album was banned in Mainland China for sexy lyrics in a few songs such as Touch or So good.[citation needed] Lee's next Mandarin album, Just Want You (要定你) was released on 22 September 2006. In 2008, Lee was chosen to sing one of the Olympic songs, "Forever Friends", opposite Sun Nan.[10] She changed her record company to work with Warner Music Group (Taiwan) from Music Nation. On 14 August, she released her new Mandarin album East to west (CoCo的東西) with Warner Music Group. It contains the songs "Party time", "Turn" (流轉) which is the soundtrack of the movie "The Legend of Silkboy" (世博总动员-湖丝仔) for the Shanghai World Expo 2010 and "BYOB" ("Bring Your Own Bag") a song to encourage people to bring and recycle their own shopping bags to save the environment. She recorded the song "Smile Shanghai" (微笑上海) with other artists including JJ Lin, Andy Lau, Jam Hsiao or Jane Zhang for Shanghai World Expo 2010. On 27 March 2010, Lee began her "East2West" World Tour Concert in Taipei at Taipei Arena. She performed at the Encore Theatre in Wynn Casino in Las Vegas on 3 and 4 July, then in Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore on 2 October[11] and in Nanning on 16 December. In March 2011, Lee was one of many artists participating in the recording of "Artists 311 Love Beyond Borders" (愛心無國界311燭光晚會) official theme song called Succumb not to sorrow (不要輸給心痛) in 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, that took place in Shanghai on 16 July 2011.[12][13]

New album: 2011–present[]

On 8 June 2011, Lee announced that she set up her own studio. On 25 June, her song Four seas alliance (四海盟約), the theme song for the 2011 China television drama All men are brothers (水滸傳), was broadcast. On 17 December 2011, she performed at "Booey Lehoo Concert" in Beijing with will.i.am and apl.de.ap from The Black Eyed Peas, John Legend and Shunza. On 9 February 2012, she performed at "I AM WILL / I AM ANGEL Benefit Concert" at Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles with will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo from The Black Eyed Peas.[14]

Her new album Illuminate (盛開) was released on 31 May 2013 with Universal Music.

In 2016, she competed in the fourth season of the Chinese reality show I Am A Singer, but she admitted she faded out as a singer since 2014 due to bronchitis. However, she recovered from it and participate, and eventually gone on to win the competition, making her the first non-mainland Chinese singer to win the series.[15][16] Lee later returned as guest singers for two more seasons (which now rebranded with the new title Singer), on the fifth season during the biennial concert, and on the sixth season as with a guest performer for Jessie J, the eventual winner for that season.[17]

Personal life[]

Lee married Bruce Rockowitz (born 24 October 1958),[18] a Jewish-Canadian businessman and former CEO of Li & Fung[citation needed] on 27 October 2011 in a lavish Jewish wedding ceremony in Hong Kong.[19][20] For her wedding, she registered the song "I just wanna marry u" (Chinese and English version), which was released on 24 October 2011. In 2016, she revealed that she has two adult step-daughters from her husband's previous marriage.[21]

Discography[]

Studio albums[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
Love From Now On (愛就要趁現在) 15 June 1994 Mandarin
Promise Me (答應我) 23 December 1994
Brave Enough to Love (勇敢去愛) 12 June 1995 English
Woman in Love (被愛的女人) 3 September 1995 Mandarin
CoCo Lee (CoCo李玟同名专辑) 14 June 1996 Sony Music Taiwan
CoCo's Party 25 November 1996 English
Everytime I Think Of You (每一次想你) 14 May 1997 Mandarin/Cantonese
Be Careful Next Time (CoCo Lee首張廣東專輯) 10 November 1997 Cantonese
Di Da Di Hints (DiDaDi暗示) 13 January 1998 Mandarin
Sunny Day 30 June 1998
From Today Until Forever (今天到永遠) 27 May 1999
Just No Other Way 2 November 1999 550 Music/Epic Records English
True Lover You & Me (真情人You & Me) 24 August 2000 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin
Promise CoCo 12 October 2001 Mandarin/Cantonese
Exposed 25 March 2005 Sony BMG English
Just Want You (要定你) 22 September 2006 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin
East To West (CoCo的東西) 14 August 2009 Warner Music Taiwan/
Illuminate (盛開) 31 May 2013 Universal Music Taiwan/ Mandarin/English

Live albums[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
You Are In My Heart Concert (你在我心上演唱会全纪录) December 1995 Mandarin/English/French/Spanish
Million Fans Concert (萬人迷演唱会精彩实录) 17 December 1998 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin/English/Cantonese/Spanish

Compilation albums[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
Beloved Collection (情人被愛精选集) 2 August 1996 Mandarin
The Best of My Love 28 January 2000 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin/Cantonese
1994–2008 Best Collection 16 May 2008 Mandarin/English
Ultimate Coco (最完美影音典藏精选) 2 March 2012 Mandarin
「You & I」25th Anniversary Collection (You & I 经典全纪录) 21 June 2019 Sony Music Taiwan/

Remix albums[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
Dance With The Wind (玟風起舞) May 1997 Mandarin/English
D.IS. CoCo (愛琴海新歌 + 電音精選) 18 June 2002 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin/Cantonese

Extended plays[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
Take A Chance On Love (碰碰看愛情) 14 August 1998 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin/English

Maxi Singles[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
Di da di Color Remix (5顔6色 Di Da Di) 2 April 1998 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin
Do You Want My Love 7 February 2000 550 Music/Epic Records English
Wherever You Go 21 September 2000

Digital Singles[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
I Have A Dream 1 May 2008 Mandarin
I Love Watching Movies (我愛看電影) 18 September 2008
BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) 17 April 2009
Four Seas (四海) 27 December 2010 Universal Music Taiwan/
I Just Wanna Marry U 24 October 2011 Mandarin/English
18 17 January 2017 Mandarin

Various artists compilation albums[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
Red Hot Hits 93' Autumn Edition (火熱動感93'勁秋版) October 1993 Capital Artists/ Cantonese
Red Hot Hits 94' Love Party (火熱動感94'戀愛Party) September 1994
Statement Of Love, Duet Songs (愛情宣言, 情歌對唱) November 1994
Merry Christmas (聖誕禮讚) December 1994

Videography[]

Title Released Date Label Language Track Listing
Foot print 1995 Mandarin/English
You're In My Heart Concert 1995 Mandarin/English/French/Spanish
Coco's Workout Camp 1996 Sony Music Taiwan Mandarin/English
CoCo In Italy 1998
Di Da Di Mandarin
Sunny Day
Million Fans Concert 1999 Mandarin/English/Cantonese/Spanish
The Video Collection 2000 Mandarin/English/Cantonese
CoCo So Crazy 2002 Mandarin/Cantonese
All my Coco Mandarin/Cantonese/English

Filmography[]

Film[]

Title Year Director Role Notes
No Tobacco (无烟草) 2002 Stanley Kwan
Master Of Everything (自娱自乐) 2004 Lee Xin Lu Hua
Forever Young (栀子花开) 2015 He Jiong Teacher Han Cameo

Television[]

Title Year Original Network Role Notes
Chinese Idol (Season 1) (中国梦之声第一季) 19 May — 25 August 2013 DragonTV Judge 16 episodes
Hi 2014 (嗨!2014) 9 May 2014 CCTV 1 Guest No.5 episode
Dancing With the Stars China (与星共舞) 1 February 2015 DragonTV Judge No.7 episode
Super Idol (Season 1) (星动亚洲第一季) 17 July 2015 Anhui TV/MBC TV Judge/Coach No.2, 5, 9 episodes
7 August 2015
11 September 2015
Talented Singer(Season 1) (隐藏的歌手第一季) 25 October 2015 City TV/BTV/iQIYI Guest performance No.2 episode
I Am a Singer (Chinese season 4) (我是歌手第四季) 15 January – 15 April 2016 Hunan TV Contestant/Winner 13 episodes
Come Sing with Me(season 1) (我想和你唱第一季) 7 May 2016 Hunan TV Guest performance No.1 episode
The Jin Xing Show(金星秀) 26 April 2017 DragonTV Guest No.114 episode
Come Sing with Me(season 2) (我想和你唱第二季) 8 June 2017 Hunan TV Guest performance No.8 episode
Sing Out!(这!就是歌唱 对唱季) 21 September 2018 Youku Advisor No.9 episode
World's Got Talent (巅峰之夜) 19 April — 12 July 2019 Hunan TV Judge 13 episodes
Jungle Voice (Season 2) (声林之王第二季) 27 September 2019 ETtoday Advisor No.6, 7 episodes
4 October 2019

Concert Tours[]

Tours[]

Date Country/Region City Venue Guest Setlist
Million Fans Tour
2 August 1998  Taiwan Taipei Human Nature
15 August 1998 Kaohsiung City None
True Lover You & Me Asia Tour
17 September 2000  China Shenzhen None
25 September 2000 Wuhan Xinhualu Stadium
29 September 2000 Shanghai Shanghai Stadium
15 December 2000  Singapore Singapore
19 September 2001  China Chengdu Chengdu Sports Center
23 September 2001 Jinan
27 September 2001 Hangzhou Yellow Dragon Sports Center
29 September 2001 Nanjing
So Crazy China Tour
6 October 2003  China Beijing Workers' Stadium None
31 October 2003 Chongqing
East to West World Tour
27 March 2010  Taiwan Taipei Taipei Arena None
3 July 2010  United States Las Vegas Encore Las Vegas
4 July 2010
2 October 2010  Singapore Singapore Singapore Indoor Stadium
16 December 2010  China Nanning Guangxi Stadium
CoCo Lee 18 World Tour
6 May 2017  China Shenzhen Shenzhen Bay Sports Center Jam Hsiao
24 June 2017 Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena G.E.M.
8 July 2017 Beijing LeSports Center JJ Lin
22 July 2017 Guangzhou Guangzhou Gymnasium None
12 August 2017 Xi'an Jason Zhang
9 September 2017 Wuhan Stefanie Sun
23 September 2017 Hangzhou Yellow Dragon Sports Center Dimash Kudaibergen
18 November 2017 Nanjing Wutaishan Sports Center Yoga Lin
9 December 2017 Changsha MC Jin
24 March 2018 Chongqing None
「You & I」25 Anniversary World Tour
21 June 2019  Taiwan Taipei Taipei Arena Jolin Tsai
27 July 2019  China Chengdu None
17 August 2019 Foshan
26 October 2019  Macau Macao Cotai Arena
14 December 2019  China Nanjing TBC
22 December 2019  United States Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena
28 December 2019 Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena
28 March 2020  China Shenzhen Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre
11 April 2020 Fuzhou Haixia Olympic Sports Center
9 May 2020 Beijing TBC
2020 Nanning
Changsha
Guiyang
Xi'an
Yinchuan
Guangzhou
Dongguan
Shanghai
Kunming
 Hong Kong Hongkong
 Singapore Singapore
 Malaysia Malaysia
 Taiwan Kaohsiung City
Taipei

References[]

  1. ^ "MTV Style Awards China 2003 Winners". CoCo Lee. 29 November 2003. Archived from the original on 27 March 2009. Retrieved 11 March 2008.
  2. ^ "Lycra Style Awards". CRI Online. 27 November 2004. Retrieved 7 March 2008.
  3. ^ 軻貴妃 (21 June 2009). "為 Coco者". 副刊 (in Chinese). Apple Daily. Retrieved 13 April 2016. (Coco──原本叫李美琳的李玟)
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b 邱國強 (9 April 2016). "我是歌手4總決賽 李玟奪冠" (in Chinese). Beijing: CNA. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b 馮昭 (8 April 2016). "我是歌手4 首次非大陸歌手奪冠" (in Chinese). Shanghai: CNA. Archived from the original on 12 April 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  6. ^ "驚揭神秘家世·李玟原屬大馬籍". Sina (in Chinese). 11 December 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  7. ^ "Coco Lee Hits the Ground Running". Los Angeles Times. 17 February 2000.
  8. ^ Yung, Vanessa (26 September 2013). "Loco for Coco: Singer reveals the rocker inside". South China Morning Post.
  9. ^ Coco Lee hits the ground running
  10. ^ "Sun Nan and Coco Lee film 'Forever Friends' music video". The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. 30 November 2007. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 10 September 2011.
  11. ^ "CoCo Lee East2West World Tour Live in Singapore 2010". Singapore Indoor Stadium. Archived from the original on 26 March 2012.
  12. ^ "The theme song for the 14th FINA world championship". FINA World Championships Shanghai 2011 Organising Committee.
  13. ^ "14th FINA World Championships – Shanghai 2011". FINA. 1 August 2011. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  14. ^ "Backbeat: Stevie Wonder Brings the House Down @ Will.I.Am's Grammy Charity Concert". BillboardBiz. 10 February 2012. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  15. ^ "《我是歌手4》李玟夺歌王 结束后李玟想吃冰淇淋(图)". Archived from the original on 11 April 2016. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
  16. ^ "CoCo Lee wins I Am A Singer 4, Joey Yung is booted off amid cries of ballot rigging". Retrieved 10 April 2016.
  17. ^ "Jessie J wins China's equivalent of The X Factor". The Telegraph. 17 April 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2018.
  18. ^ Rockowitz parties in style
  19. ^ "CoCo Lee weds wealthy Canadian fiance, throws glitzy wedding bash". Channel NewsAsia. 31 October 2011. Archived from the original on 29 July 2012. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  20. ^ Yun, Tan Kee (31 October 2011). "Coco, you deserve only the best". The New Paper. Singapore. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  21. ^ MGTV Music Channel (23 February 2016). "我是歌手第4季抢鲜版 — 李玟金发碧眼俩女儿曝光 I AM A SINGER 4 【我是歌手官方频道】". Retrieved 14 July 2020 – via Youtube.
Preceded by
Han Hong
Winner of I Am a Singer
Season 4
2016
Succeeded by
Sandy Lam

External links[]

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