CoCo Lee is the stage name of Ferren Lee-Kelly (李美林 Pinyin: Lǐ Měilín; also 李玟 Lǐ wen)
(born January 17, 1975). She is a Chinese pop singer, Urban contemporary and Dance-pop star, popular in the 1990s, who has also recorded albums in English, contributed to several movies
and represented internationally-known products to the Asian market.
Biography
CoCo Lee was born in Hong Kong with ancestry from Harbin,
China. Her father died when she was young, and CoCo moved at age 10 with her mother, step-father
and sisters to California. She went through school while experimenting with
her singing voice, and followed her older sisters in entering several local singing contests.CoCo Lee attended Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco. Coco later had a brief enrollment at the University of California at Irvine.
CoCo is close to her mother, who has at times managed her career.
After Lee's high school graduation in 1993, she took a holiday in Hong Kong, probably seeing her
two sisters' (Carol Lee and Nancy Lee) participation of Miss Hong Kong Pageant,
and while there she came runner-up in the 12th Annual New Talent Singing
Awards. The following day, she was approached by local record label Fancy Pie Records.
Record Companies
CoCo Lee was represented by Fancy Pie Records from 1994 to 1995, recording four albums with them. She later signed with
another record company in 1996 by Sony Music, who
has continued to represent her ever since.
Worldwide Recognition
CoCo sang the song "A Love Before Time" for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She received worldwide exposure when she performed
the song live at the 2001 Academy Awards ceremony. Critics commented that she hit the high
C6s right on, and delivered solid vocals.
In 2002, CoCo 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 addition to her status in the Mandarin music market, Lee's English-language
performance has also received recognition. Her love song Before I Fall In Love was
included in the soundtrack of the movie Runaway Bride.
She was invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to perform Phantom of the Opera in China.
Also, Walt Disney Pictures hired her to sing the title song and be the voice of
the heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin Chinese version of Mulan. She recorded the song
"Reflections", which she also sang at the 2005 opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland A "Reflections" Chinese music video was also filmed. While the Lea
Salonga version of the English version is more widely known, CoCo did also sing the English version, including one which
she sang together with Lea.
CoCo has been getting into acting part-time. She co-starred in the Chinese movie comedy Master of Everything (aka
Bamboo Shoot) with John Lone, which won the Best Foreign Film award at the 2005
Beverly Hills Film Festival. While in character within the movie, she sings
one of her own songs, "Di-Da-Di", which was a cover of Maria Montell's "And So The Story
Goes."
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 early 2005,CoCo visited countries all over Asia to promote her latest album "Exposed".During her visit in the
Philippines,she guested in SOP and performed the songs Do you want my love and I will
survive with Asia's Songbird,Regine Velasquez.It was remembered that CoCo Lee
introduced Velasquez as the "Diva of all Divas" during the MTV Asia Awards back in
2003.CoCo together with pop singer Shaggy hosted the show while Velasquez won
the trophy for the second time in a row as the Philippine's favorte artist.
In June 2005 CoCo's engagement to millionaire Canadian businessman Bruce Rockowitz was made
public, apparently having taken place some months earlier. Despite Rockowitz being 18 years her senior, CoCo's mother approved
the marriage.
Current career
Coco Lee, September 16, 2006.
Coco Lee (third from left) performs "Hip Hop Tonight" at a street concert in Taipei, Taiwan, September 16, 2006.
As of 2007, CoCo Lee has yet to break the U.S. market with a big smash hit single. Although both her English albums have sold
modestly, regular airplay and recurrent airplay by radio programmers is still lacking. This is the main reason she has not been
as successful with her English language output. Her moderate hit single, "Do You Want My Love",
remains popular at discotheques and various internet radio stations. Her most recent English single aimed at the North American
market is titled "No Doubt," the lead single from the album "Exposed." Once again because of lax
programming on radio station playlists, this single was ignored by radio. The singles have become chart and video television hits
in Hong Kong and Taiwan among other places. The second single
from "Exposed" is the song "So Good" whose music video is increasingly run on Hong Kong and Taiwanese MTV. Coco's follow up album to her C-Pop hit album "Promise", titled "Just Want You," features the hit single
"Hip-Hop Tonight" which follows in the same vein as "No Doubt." The album "Just Want You" was released on September 22, 2006. The
second single from the album was "The Ninth Night", followed by the third single "Love You At 85°C" and the final single,
"Dangerous Lover".
Coco is currently working on a new album, which she plans to release in the autumn 2007. Coco Lee will return to the San
Francisco bay area for a live concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre on September 22, 2007 with special guest Alex To. It will be
her first live performance in her hometown in several years.
Discography
Albums
- [1994.06.xx] Love From Now On
- [1994.12.xx] Promise Me
- [1995.06.xx] Brave Enough To Love
- [1995.09.xx] Woman In Love
- [1996.06.xx] CoCo (Past Love)
- [1996.11.xx] CoCo's Party
- [1997.06.xx] Everytime I Think of You
- [1997.12.xx] CoCo Cantonese album
- [1998.01.xx] DiDaDi (HMV Music Chart: #1)
- [1998.06.25] Sunny Day
- [1999.05.25] Today Until Forever
- [1999.10.27] Just No Other Way English debut album (HMV Music Chart: #1)
- [2000.08.24] True Lover, You and Me
- [2001.10.12] Promise
- [2002.06.18] D.IS.CoCo
- [2005.03.25] Exposed English second album (HMV Music Chart: #1)
- [2006.09.22] Just Want You (HMV Music Chart: #1)
Singles
Compilations
References
- http://www.cocolee.com
- http://www.cocofans.com
- http://www.cocolee.net/profile/biography-e.html
- http://www.cocolee.net/profile/achievement-e.html
- http://www.allmusic.com
External links
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