After winning in the 1993 New Talent Singing Awards, Coco was approached by Capital Artists and asked her to sign a contract with them. She made her debut on June 15, 1993, with her compilation album, 火熱動感 LaLaLa. A year later, she worked with Fancy Pie Records. In 1995, Coco signed a contract with Sony Music Entertainment. Rumors came out that her mother paid $350,000 to end Coco’s contract with Fancy Pie Records and transfer to Sony; however, Coco stated in an interview that Sony had bought out her contract. It has also been rumored that Sony hired top lawyers to ensure that Coco’s move to Sony was seamless. In 1998, 550 Music represented Coco with her stateside debut album, Just No Other Way and in 2005, Epic released her second English album, Exposed. Since then, Sony Music Entertainment continue in handling her career.

CoCo sang the song A Love Before Time for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She received worldwide exposure when she performed the song live at the 73rd Academy Awards ceremony. Critics commented that she hit the high C6s right on, and delivered solid vocals.

In 2002, CoCo 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 addition to her status in the Mandarin music market, Lee’s English-language performance has also received recognition. Her love song Before I Fall In Love was included in the soundtrack of the movie Runaway Bride.

She was invited by Andrew Lloyd Webber to perform Phantom of the Opera in China.

Also, Walt Disney Pictures hired her to sing the theme 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 in the 2005 opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland. A Reflections Mandarin music video was also filmed. While the Lea Salonga English version is widely known, Coco also sang the English version, including one which she performed together with Lea.

The success of her concert in Taiwan in 1998, second to Michael Jackson in terms of audience, with more than 30,000 people who watched, caught the attention of Sony Music United States and Tommy Mottola.

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. While in character within the movie, she sings one of her own songs, Di-Da-Di, which was the cover of Maria Montell’s And So The Story Goes.

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 early 2005, CoCo visited countries all over Asia to promote her latest album Exposed. During her visit in the Philippines, she guested in SOP and performed the songs Do You Want My Love and I Will Survive with Asia’s Songbird, Regine Velasquez. It was remembered that CoCo humbly introduced Velasquez as the “Diva of all Divas” during the MTV Asia Awards back in 2003. CoCo, together with pop singer Shaggy hosted the show while Velasquez won the trophy for the second time in a row as the Philippine’s favorite artist.