Ferren Lee-Kelly (born January 17, 1976), 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 own rendition of 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
Born in Hong Kong with ancestry from Harbin, China, Coco is the youngest of three children. She has two elder sisters, Nancy, who was her manager before, and Carol. Her father died when she was young, and Coco moved at the age of ten with her mother and sisters to San Francisco, California. She went through school while experimenting with her singing voice, and followed her elder sisters in entering several local singing contests. She attended Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco. Later on, Coco had a brief enrollment at the University of California Irvine. Coco is close to her mother, who managed her career before.
After CoCo’s high school graduation in 1992, she took a vacation in Hong Kong, to see her two sisters’ (Carol Lee and Nancy Lee) participation in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, and while there, she came first runner-up in the 12th Annual New Talent Singing Awards. The following day, she was approached by the record label Capital Artists.