CoCo Lee was born in Hong Kong to a Chinese Indonesian father and a Hong Kong Chinese mother. Her father died when she was young, and CoCo moved at age 10 with her mother, and her 2 sisters to California, United States. She went through school while trying out her singing voice and she followed her older sisters in entering many local singing contests. CoCo Lee went to high school in San Francisco, California. CoCo later went for a short time to the University of California, Irvine. CoCo is close to her mother, who has at times managed her career.
After Lee's high school graduation in 1993, she went on holiday in Hong Kong, probably seeing her two sisters Carol and Nancy Lee take part in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, and while there, she became runner-up in the 12th Annual New Talent Singing Awards. The following day, the local record label Capital artists Records contacted her.
CoCo Lee appeared in some compilations with other singers with Capital artists. Then, in 1994 she worked with Fancy Pie Records and recorded four albums with them. She later signed with another record company in 1996 by Sony Music, who has continued to represent her until 2008. After that, she changed her record company and decided to work with Warner Music (Taiwan).
CoCo sang the song "A Love Before Time" for the action-drama movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. People around the world could see her when she sang this song live at the 2001 Academy Awards ceremony.
In 2002, CoCo was the star singer at a Houston Rockets basketball game. She became the first East Asian singer to ever sing the American National Anthem at a major world sporting event.
Aside from her fame in singing Mandarin music, CoCo's English-language songs have also become famous. Her love song "Before I Fall In Love" was included in the soundtrack of the romance movie Runaway Bride.
Walt Disney Pictures also hired her to sing the title 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 at the 2005 opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland with Lea Salonga. A "Reflections" PV was also filmed. She also sang an English version which appears on her maxi single "Take a chance on love".
CoCo has been getting into acting part-time. She co-starred in the Chinese comedy movie "Master of Everything (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".
In the world of fashion, CoCo was an Omega Global Ambassador in 2004, and Chanel named CoCo its first "Asian-Pacific Celebrity Ambassadress" in 2001. She got her nickname "CoCo" from being an admirer of CoCo Chanel.
In June 2005, CoCo's engagement to Canadian millionaire businessman Bruce Rockowitz was made public, although it seems to have happened some months earlier. Even though Rockowitz is 18 years older than she, her mother approved the marriage.
CoCo returned to the San Francisco bay area in 2007 for a live concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre on 22 September 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.
On July 17 2009, she had a solo concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. She's the first Chinese singer to ever performed 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. The main hit singles are "Party time", "Beautiful theme song" and "Turn". It also contains the cover of Jay Sean's "Maybe" called "Love now" and "BYOB", a song to encourage people to bring and recycle their own shopping bags to save the environment.
She recorded the song "Smile Shanghai" (微笑上海) with other artists including JJ Lin, Andy Lau, Jam Hsiao or Jane Zhang for Shanghai World Expo 2010.
On March, 27 2010, Lee began her "East2West" World Tour Concert in Taipei at Taipei Arena. She pursued at the Encore Theatre in Wynn Casino in Las Vegas on July 3 and 4, then in Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore on October 2 and in Nanning on December 16.
CoCo Lee's voice has been favourably compared with that of Mariah Carey and other western artistes, due to her tonality, strength and vocal range. Her voice is classified as a mezzo-soprano, with a vocal range of three octaves. Her lowest recorded note is an E3 and highest recorded note is E6. Her highest chest voice note is F6 in the song Before I Fall in Love.
In March 2011, Lee was one of many artists participating in the recording of "Artists 311 Love Beyond Borders" (愛心無國界311燭光晚會) official theme song called "Succomb not to sorrow" (不要輸給心痛) in Cantonese version.
On April 7, 2011, her song "Dreams on oriental seas" (梦在东方的海上) featuring Sun Nan was broadcasted. It has been named as he theme for the 14th FINA world championships, that will take place in Shanghai on July 2011.
On June 8, 2011, Lee announced that she recently set up her own studio. That way, she's more free to write and produce music that she loves. Her new album is planned for Summer 2011.
On June 25, her song "Four seas alliance" (四海盟約), the theme song for the 2011 China television drama "Water Margin" (水滸傳), was broadcasted.
"Not exhaustive"
Daniel Schneidermann
Daniel Schneidermann (born April 5, 1958 in Paris) is a French journalist. He mainly reports about televised media. He is most active in weekly columns. Schneidermann has written in "Le Monde" and is presently in "Libération". He also can be seen on the television program "Arrêt sur images" ("Freeze-frame"), broadcast by the public television channel France 5.
Pound (mass)
A pound (usually abbreviated as lb, plural lbs) is a unit used to measure the mass of something. It is used in the imperial system and the United States customary system. There are a number of different definitions. The most commonly used definitions band today is the international avoirdupois pound. This is equal to , and is divided into 16 avoirdupois ounces.
The avoirdupois pound (abbreviation lb., plural lbs.) is the most common unit. This type is used for all purposes except the uses of the troy pound. Most people from the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Liberia and Burma use this as their standard measure of their personal mass.
The troy pound (abbreviation t lb., plural t lbs.) is generally not used anymore. It was used in England by apothecaries and jewellers. A troy pound contains 12 troy ounces. The troy ounce is still used to measure the mass of precious metals and gems.
In some European countries, a metric pound is an informal term for half a kilogram (500 grams). In the Netherlands, however, the metric pound () is equal to one kilogram.
Eastern Armenia
Eastern Armenia was a part of Ottoman Armenia and Persian that was merged with the Russian empire.
The Eastern Armenian dialect of the Armenian language is spoken mostly in the Caucasus region (including Armenia) and in Iran and Russia.
Western Armenia
Western Armenia (), also referred to as Byzantine Armenia, later Turkish Armenia, or Ottoman Armenia is a term coined following the division of Greater Armenia between Byzantine Empire ("Western Armenia") and Persia ("Eastern Armenia") in 387 AC.
After the death of Armenian king "Arshak III", in 390 AC, the Western Armenia was governed by Greek generals. In the 7th century Western Armenia was one of the centers of "Pavlikian" Christian popular sect. Since 9th century the most part of Western Armenia included Vaspurakan and Taron was under the rule of Bagratid dynasty of Armenia. Then the Zakarid Armenia of 13-14th centuries included some parts of Western Armenia.