CoCo Lee The Voice of Asian Americans

The road to becoming a solo artist, or at least one that can break through the American market, has always been a difficult one for Asian Americans. Throughout the 90’s, Asian American groups such as KAI, Devotion, and DnH gained recognition for their clean multiple part harmonies, but no single Asian American really broke through the mainstream as a solo artist until Coco Lee.

Coco Lee, Ferren-Lee Kelly at birth, was born in Hong Kong on January 17^th 1975. Although she was born in Hong Kong, Coco was raised in San Francisco by her mother and step-father. Like her two other sisters, Coco had a passion for singing at an early age and had the dream of becoming a singer. She was inspired by the divas of the time such as Madonna, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston. Coco’s mother, very traditional, was against her becoming a singer and wanted Coco and her sisters to devote themselves to more practical careers such as becoming nurses. Not fazed by her mother’s wishes, Coco followed in the footsteps of her sisters and entered local singing competitions. Surprisingly, Coco’s dreams were re-affirmed when she was able to win first place at the singing competitions and karaoke contests. It wasn’t until after high graduation however, that Coco received her first big break during a vacation trip back to Hong Kong with her family. She entered the annual “New Talent Singing Contest” that was hosted by a Hong Kong TV station and placed 2^nd out of the 10,000 contestants that participated. Noticeably, Coco was the only contestant to sing in English with her cover of Whitney Houston’s “Run to You.” The following day, she was contacted by a local record label and signed as an artist.

Between 1993 and 1996, Coco Lee was very active in building her career and released various Mandarin albums such as “La La La”, Christmas and duet compilation albums such as “Coco’s Party.” With her success in Asian, she was recognized through various awards such as “Best New Artist” and “Top 10 Most Popular Idol.” It was not until she signed with Sony Music Taiwan in 1995, and released her English debut album “Brave Enough to Love” that Coco Lee was able to transcend into the States and gain recognition and popularity. As Coco gained more international success, she made an appearance during the 98’ World Cup, launched her own concert in Taipei, and officially signed with the U.S. based record label Sony Epic. In 2000, she released another American based album titled “Just No Other Way” and sang the theme song for the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon titled “A Love Before Time” that was released to American and Chinese audiences. Her album “Just No Other Way” and it’s pop and R and B sound categorized Coco Lee as a mainstream artist in America, and she became one of the very first solo artist to be recognized in the States.