‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ singer CoCo Lee dies at 48
CoCo Lee, middle, performs throughout a ceremony marking the fifteenth anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong on June 30, 2012. Lee, a Hong Kong-born singer who had a extremely profitable profession in Asia and past, died on Wednesday. Kin Cheung/AP cover caption
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Kin Cheung/AP
CoCo Lee, middle, performs throughout a ceremony marking the fifteenth anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong, in Hong Kong on June 30, 2012. Lee, a Hong Kong-born singer who had a extremely profitable profession in Asia and past, died on Wednesday.
Kin Cheung/AP
In the event you or somebody you understand could also be contemplating suicide, contact the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline by calling or texting 9-8-8, or the Disaster Textual content Line by texting HOME to 741741.
Internationally famend singer and songwriter CoCo Lee — the Mandarin voice of the title character in Disney’s animated film Mulan and a hitmaker in three languages — died at a Hong Kong hospital on Wednesday on the age of 48. Her sisters Nancy and Carol Lee introduced on social media that she died following an tried suicide at her dwelling on Sunday.
Lee had been affected by melancholy for a number of years and that her situation deteriorated drastically in current months, her sisters famous.
The Hong Kong-born singer, who sang in Mandarin, Cantonese and English, was an enormous star in Asia. She recorded 18 studio albums and have become the primary individual of Chinese language descent to carry out on the Academy Awards together with her rendition of “A Love Earlier than Time” in 2001. The music, from the Ang Lee film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, acquired an Oscar nomination for greatest unique music.
“Music business-wise, there haven’t been profitable Asian artists and hopefully I will change that,” Lee mentioned throughout a crimson carpet interview.
“It is at all times robust for the primary one. However I consider via time we will do it.”
“A Love Earlier than Time” wasn’t her solely movie-related success. Lee sang the theme music “Reflection” for the Mandarin-language model of Mulan. She additionally carried out “Earlier than I Fall In Love” from the Julia Roberts and Richard Gere romantic comedy Runaway Bride.
Lee turned internationally identified for her English-language albums and singles, together with her dance monitor “Do You Need My Love” charting in each the U.S. and Australia. In 2001, Lee turned a Chanel model ambassador.
“She had a really distinctive voice,” says live performance promoter Terry Pan, who organized a live performance for Lee at Walt Disney Corridor in Los Angeles in 2009 and says Lee was significantly robust as an interpreter of R&B songs. “Instantly, you understand it is CoCo Lee.”
Born Ferren Lee, she moved to the U.S. as a baby together with her sisters and mom. She went to high school in San Francisco and was topped Miss Teen Chinatown in 1991.
“She got here from our neighborhood. She was our Chinatown lady,” says Rose Chung, a former magnificence pageant winner from San Francisco who knew Lee when she was younger. “We have been all followers.”
CoCo Lee poses on the crimson carpet on the 53rd Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, Taiwan, on Nov. 26, 2016. Billy Dai/AP cover caption
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Billy Dai/AP
CoCo Lee poses on the crimson carpet on the 53rd Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, Taiwan, on Nov. 26, 2016.
Billy Dai/AP
After putting excessive in a singing competitors in Hong Kong, Lee launched her first album in 1994, when she was 19.
In her last Instagram put up, in December 2022, Lee opened up about her struggles. “Life appeared insufferable at occasions however I tailored the perspective of a ‘feminine warrior’ to face them head on fearlessly however at all times had the most important smile and massive fats laughters!”
About her sister’s well being, Nancy Lee wrote: “Though CoCo sought skilled assist and did her greatest to struggle melancholy, sadly that demon inside her took the higher of her.”
Her sister wrote that the singer was in a coma when she was taken to the hospital, and the staff there couldn’t revive her.
“CoCo can be identified to have labored tirelessly to open up a brand new world for Chinese language singers within the worldwide music scene, and she or he went all out to shine for the Chinese language,” wrote Nancy Lee. “We’re happy with her!”
