CoCo Lee

Coco Lee (p=Li? Wén?), born on January 17, 1975, also known in America as Ferren Lee-Kelly, is a Chinese pop singer, songwriter, record producer and actress from Hong Kong. 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 speaks Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and 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". 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 in Los Angeles.
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

. for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She received worldwide exposure when she performed the song live at the 73rd Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. 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, Dao ma dan a duet with the singer Jay Chou and ''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.

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. Although Exposed was banned in Mainland China for sexy lyrics in a few songs such as Touch or So good, it was a great success throughout Asia.
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.

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 Nan. Later on, she changed her record company and decided to work with Warner Music (Taiwan).

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 names.

On July 17, she had a solo concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. She's the first Chinese singer to ever perform in this place. She notably sang 3 Michael Jackson's songs Gone too soon, Rock with you and The way you make me feel in homage to her idol.

On August 14, she released her new Mandarin album East to west with Warner Music. It contains "Party time", "Beautiful theme song", "Turn" but also 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.

Current career

"Coco's East to West World Tour Concert" will have its first stop at Taipei Arena on March 27, 2010. Then, she'll perform in all China, in Malaysia, in Australia (Sydney), in Canada (Toronto) and in the United States.
Late January, Coco let us find out her new song Hello C, which will be her concert overture.

Private life

In June 2005, CoCo's engagement with Canadian businessman Bruce Rockowitz was made public, apparently having taken place some months earlier.
Bruce was born in Los Angeles in 1959 and has been living in Hong Kong for 30 years. He is the President of the group Li & Fung since 2004. Bruce was also the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Colby International Limited, a large Hong Kong buying agent prior to the sale of Colby to Li & Fung in 2000. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Wharton's Jay H Baker Retailing Initiative, an industry center for retail at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his position at Li & Fung, Bruce is the Chairman of the Pure Group (fitness and yoga group + restaurants "Red" and "Red Soho") operating in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan and soon to be opening in mainland China.
He has two daughters Sarah and Rachel from a previous marriage.

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."'' (????93'???)

Capital Artists and Fancy Pie releases

September 1994 : ''Red hot hits 94' Love Party'' (????94'??Party)
November 1994 : Statement of love, duet songs (????, ????)
December 1994 : Merry Christmas (????)

1995 : ''I'm still your lover (best of Love from now on and Promise me)

Asian Chart-topping hits and singles

Not exhaustive

"Yesterday's passion"
"Di Da Di"
"Take a Chance on Love"
"Do You Want My Love" Hot Dance Music/Club Play: #49
"Before I Fall in Love"
"Wherever You Go"
"A Love Before Time" (English and Mandarin for the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
"Reflection"
"No Doubt" feat. Blaaze
"All Around the World"
"So Good"
"Hip-Hop Tonight"
"Brave Enough to Love"
"Another Sad Love Song" (Dance Version)
"The Ninth Night"
"Dangerous Lover"
"I Have a Dream" (2008 Single)
"Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB)" (Recycling Jingle)
"Party time"
"Turn"
"Beautiful theme song"

Videography

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

Fancy Pie releases

1995 : Foot print (VCD)
1995 : ''You're in my heart concert (VCD)

Sony Music releases

1996 : ''Coco's workout camp (VCD)
1998 : Coco in Italy (VCD + photo book)
1998 : Di da di (VCD)
1998 : Sunny day (VCD)
1999 : Million fans concert (VCD/DVD)

550 Music releases

2000 : Just no other way, The Video Collection (VCD)

Sony Music releases

2002 : Coco so crazy (VCD)
2002 : All my Coco (DVD)
2004 : Master of everything (DVD/VCD)