Coco Lee: Hong Kong pop singer never wanted to be a star, ‘I was shy’ — from the SCMP archive
- After Coco Lee’s tragic death at the age of 48, we revisit her first interview with the Post, published on November 21, 1997
- Lee said during an hour-long interview that she never wanted to be a star
By Kevin Kwong
Here are several facts about singer CoCo Lee that may make you goggle: she is a pre-medical student at the University of California, Irvine. Her lifelong goal is to become a surgeon - and her hair is dyed orange.
Apart from her brightly coloured mop, the 22-year-old’s aspirations to become a doctor hardly befit her current title of “pop queen”.
Lee is one of the three most successful female pop singers in Taiwan, her record sales second only to Sherry Cheng Huei-mei’s.
The self-confident Lee flew into Hong Kong last week to promote her debut Cantonese album CoCo.
Though her c.v. may suggest otherwise, Lee says during an hour-long interview that she never wanted to be a star.
(She was Miss Teenage Chinatown in 1991, came second in the TVB New Talent Singing Contest in 1993, and was voted Best New Artist in 1994, and Best Butt in 1995).
“I was shy and never thought about entering a pageant,” Lee said, recalling the first of these triumphs.
“I was a class president and my principal recommended me to represent my school. So I did. People liked me, they thought I was very charming and sweet. And I won.”
After winning the title, Lee did a lot of community work such as visiting the elderly and “signing autographs”.
“I was only 16. But still I never had that mentality of being a superstar because my goal in life is to become a doctor. It still is and always will be because my mother was a very successful doctor.”
Lee’s seventh solo album, Each Time I Think of You was an immediate commercial success when it was released in June, selling more than 300,000 copies in the first week.
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Her record company, Sony Music, plans to release her second English-language album, CoCo’s Party, globally at the end of this year. It was released in Taiwan last year.
Lee - who speaks English, Cantonese and Putonghua - has always had her eyes on the music market in the West, especially the United States where she now lives. “My goal in the singing business is not to stay in one place. My goal is to go beyond [Asia] to the US.
“That is why, for CoCo’s Party, I worked with Mariah Carey’s producer, Walter Afanasieff who wrote my first single, It’s a Party.
“He is very cool and down-to-earth. He said to me: ‘CoCo, your voice has no nationality . . . you have a great voice, so take care of it.’ He was the one who really helped me out with New York Sony.
“Hopefully, I will be the first Chinese to release an American album. If it is released, it will be in 1998 or 1999. It will be a while but it is very positive for us.”
Despite plans to conquer international music and the fact that she might be “taking some time off Asia”, Lee still regards this region as her home.
After graduating from high school in 1993, Lee visited Hong Kong and entered the TVB New Talent Singing Contest “just for fun”. Lee came second in the contest with her entry, Run to You, a hit for Whitney Houston. “I was 18 and supposed to go back to school. But I also had an opportunity to be a singer and I asked myself what I should do,” says Lee, whose two sisters work in Hong Kong.
Her mother told her: “‘If it’s no good and if you find this business terrible and the people horrible, then just go back to school.’ So I went along with it.”
What followed certainly took the young singer by surprise. She was given one line to sing in the hit song Hot Sensational La La La, also in 1993, and it was on the strength of this one line that a Taiwanese record company became interested.
“I felt very lucky that because of that one single line, the Taiwan audience liked me a lot, they thought I was very cute and had a very high voice. It was one of those things that remained in their minds for a long time,” she says. Lee’s first solo album, Love Now, was released in June 1994 and the single I Am Still Your Lover won her the accolade of Best New Artist: “I thought that was the biggest encouragement for me to try even harder in the business.”
Unlike most teenage idol singers, Lee has a powerful vocal and strong sense of rhythm. Also, what sets her apart is her ability to sing traditional Chinese songs in other styles such as R&B.
03:59
Hong Kong music icon Coco Lee dies aged 48 after suicide attempt, sisters say
“I used a lot of ad libs at the beginning, or I just changed some melodies when I was doing the chorus, which to [the local audience] was an irregular ... style and they liked it.”
The only possible thing Lee sees holding back her career is her inability to write music. She was not involved in any of the production or songwriting for the Cantonese album, “which is too bad because I have a lot of music in me I want to write. I guess they want to save it for later. A singer should save a lot of space for improvement.”
Speaking of her musical influences, Lee says she likes George Michael because his voice is sexy and full of feeling: “If I am doing my homework and I hear him, I’ll stop and listen.
Singer Coco Lee deserves official recognition in Hong Kong, sister says
“He has a very charismatic voice. Let’s say you don’t hear the words, but the voice itself is telling a story.”
A querulous pause greets the invitation to name any Hong Kong singing inspirations: “I am sure there are a lot of great ones but they are not my inspiration. Possibly some old ones like Jenny Tseng, Alan Tam Wing-lun and Elisa Chan Kit-ling. They know what singing is all about.”
Lee does not see herself as yet another teenage pop idol, another commercial product created by her record company. She believes she is an idol because young people warm to her healthy image.
“I want to be well rounded, I want to be able to do a lot of things, maybe starring in a movie or do a lot of commercials, which I did, and just be multi-talented.”
For now, Lee has to continue her studies as well as keep up with her music career.
“I don’t like to waste time. In Taiwan, an artist releases two albums a year and it is summer and winter for me. So for the rest of the time I have to do things.
“I can’t just sit around at home watching TV. I have to go back to school, to learn, to gain more knowledge and to get smart.
“I studied for a year and did very well, and now I had to take time off for the Cantonese album.
“But I am returning to college towards the end of next year.”
In her studies, Lee wants to specialise on finding a cure for cancer. She expects her medical training to take another decade before she becomes a fully qualified surgeon.
“I am a Capricorn and I don’t have many goals, but if I set goals I will fulfil them. I don’t care how long it will take me but I am quite determined in that way.”
