Coco Lee: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon singer's journey from fame to depression
Coco Lee
Hong Kong pop singer Coco Lee has died by suicide at the age of 48. A music icon, Coco Lee is best known for her works in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Disney’s film Mulan. From singing at the Oscars to becoming an important Asian face at the world forum, Coco Lee is mourned by all.
Coco Lee: An icon in making
Coco Lee is a Hong Kong-born singer who moved to San Francisco as a child and got her first shot at fame in the year 1991. She was nine at the time when she moved to the United States. In 1991, she was crowned Miss Teen Chinatown San Francisco. After graduating from high school in 1993, she visited Hong Kong and “just for fun” entered the TVB New Talent Singing Contest. It was from there she rose to fame as she came in second in the contest. She sang Whitney Houston’s popular song “Run To You”. That’s how her singing career started.
It was at the Oscars that she truly blossomed. The world got to see her singing “A Love Before Time”, her song from Ang Lee’s hit movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The 73rd Academy Awards got a taste of her live singing. The song was nominated for best original song and her much-lauded performance at the event was the first time a Chinese-American had performed at the Oscars.
The Chinese version of the same song earned her the award for best original film song at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2001.
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Coco Lee also voiced Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of the 1998 Disney hit Mulan, for which she also sang the song “Reflection”.
In 2002, Lee sang the US national anthem at the National Basketball Association (NBA) debut of Chinese basketball superstar Yao Ming, who started his NBA career with the Houston Rockets. This marked the first time a Chinese-American singer sang the US national anthem at a major global sporting event.
Coco Lee's wedding was an affair to remember
Coco Lee then made headlines for marrying Canadian billionaire Bruce Rockowitz in an extravagant wedding at the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong that reportedly cost around US$20 million.
The wedding was so high-profile that it had guests like Bruno Mars and Alicia Keys in attendance. For the wedding, she released the song “I Just Wanna Marry You”.
Coco Lee suffered from depression
Out of the public eye for a while now, Coco Lee’s sisters claim that she had been suffering from depression which led her to die by suicide. Her sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, in a statement posted on social media, said that a suicide attempt left her in a coma, and ultimately led to her death.
"Although Coco sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her," the statement said.
"On 2 July, she committed suicide at home and was sent to the hospital. Despite the best efforts of the hospital team to rescue and treat her from her coma, she finally passed away on 5 July 2023," the statement said.
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