CoCo Lee

Ferren Lee-Kelly (born January 17 1975), popularly known as Coco Lee, is a Chinese singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. 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.

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". 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.

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.
Coco also provided the voice of Mulan in the Mandarin version of Disney's animated feature of the same name.

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

. It has also been rumored that Sony hired top lawyers to ensure that Coco's move to Sony was seamless. In 1998, 550 Music represented Coco with her stateside debut album, Just No Other Way and in 2005, Epic released her second English album, Exposed. Since then, Sony Music Entertainment continue in handling her career.{{cite web |url= www.cocolee.com/bio.html

Worldwide fame

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 73rd 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 theme song and be the voice of the heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan. She recorded the song "Reflections", which she also sang in the 2005 opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland. A "Reflections" Mandarin music video was also filmed. While the Lea Salonga English version is widely known, Coco also sang the English version, including one which she performed together with Lea.

The success of her concert in Taiwan 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.

Coco on the billboard of Pure Yoga in Hong Kong
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", which was the 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 Regine Velasquez. 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 favorite artist.

In June 2005, CoCo's engagement with Canadian businessman Bruce Rockowitz was made public, apparently having taken place some months earlier. Despite their 18 years gap, Coco's mother approved the marriage. Before her relationship with Bruce Rockowitz, Coco has been rumored with the Taiwanese singer Wang Leehom.

Current career

Coco (third from left), performing "Hip Hop Tonight"
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
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. 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 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 Nan.

In 2009, Coco Lee was chosen to produce a music video of a pro-environment chinese song "Bring Your Own Bag" for the National Geographic Channel. The song encourages 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."{{cite web |url= www.allmovieportal.com/c/cocolee.html

"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 Taiwan used to sing really conservatively – they sing to the melody and that's it. The music 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){{cite web |url= www.allmovieportal.com/c/cocolee.html

"When I work, I work. I don't think about anything else. I just wanna get the work done. And I'm a perfectionist."{{cite web |url= www.allmovieportal.com/c/cocolee.html

"They cannot imagine what I'll sound like. But always when I'm done singing, people are very surprised."{{cite web |url= www.allmovieportal.com/c/cocolee.html

Discography

Studio albums

Fancy Pie Records releases

June 1994: Love from Now On
December 1994: Promise Me
June 1995: Brave Enough to Love
September 1995: Woman in Love

Sony Music releases

March 1996: CoCo ??
November 1996: ''CoCo's Party
June 1997: Everytime I Think of You
November 1997: CoCo (Cantonese album)
January 1998: DiDaDi (HMV Music Chart: #1)
July 1998: Sunny Day
May 1999: Today Until Forever

550 Music release

November 1999: Just No Other Way (HMV Music Chart: #1)

Sony Music releases

August 2000: True Lover, You and Me
October 2001: Promise

Sony BMG releases

March 2005: Exposed (HMV Music Chart: #1)
September 2006: Just Want You (HMV Music Chart: #1)

Asian Chart-topping hits and singles

"Di Da Di"
"Take a Chance on Love"
"Do You Want My Love" Hot Dance Music/Club Play: #49
"Before I Fall in Love"
"Can't Get Over" feat. Kelly Price
"Wherever You Go"
"A Love Before Time"
"Reflection"
"No Doubt" feat. Blaaze
"Love at 85 °C"
"All Around the World"
"So Good"
"Hip-Hop Tonight"
"Brave Enough to Love"
"Another Sad Love Song" (Dance Version)
"The Ninth Night"
"Dangerous Lover"
"A Love Before Time" (English and Mandarin for the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
"I Have a Dream" (2008 Single)
"Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB)" (2009 New Single/Recycling Jingle)

Best Of albums

2000 : The Best of My Love
2002 : D. IS CoCo
2008 : 1994–2008 Best Compilation

Live albums

1995 : You are in my heart concert
December 1998 : Concert in Taipei 98

Industry Music Artists

Worldwide fame

Current career

Quotations