‘Mulan’ Star and Singer CoCo Lee Dies at Age 48

Hong Kong-born American singer-songwriter Coco Lee attends the opening ceremony for WF CENTRAL shopping mall in Beijing, China, 29 May 2018. — Photo by ChinaImages/Deposit Photos

CoCo Lee, a Hong Kong-born singer and actress who voiced the role of heroine Mulan in the Mandarin-language version of Disney’s Mulan, has died. She was 48.

Lee’s sisters Carol and Nancy shared the news of her death in an Instagram post on Wednesday (July 5). The two sisters said Lee had been suffering from depression for “a few years” and tried to take her life on July 2.

She was hospitalized and slipped into a coma. The medical staff was unable to revive her and she died Wednesday.

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Lee had been performing for three decades and found international fame.

“In the past 29 years, she’s won countless international acclaims with top selling songs and has left audience with an astounding impression of her excellent live performances,” her sisters wrote. “CoCo is also known to have worked tirelessly to open up a new world for Chinese singers in the international music scene, and she went all out to shine for the Chinese. We are proud of her!”

Lee was born Jan. 17, 1975, in Hong Kong and grew up in San Francisco, according to her IMDb page.

She attended the University of California at Irvine. In 1993, while visiting Hong Kong, she auditioned for a local talent competition and won.

“I was thinking they would never pick me, I was this chubby little girl from San Francisco who could barely speak Cantonese,” Lee told Bloomberg in 2012. “The song that I was gonna sing was an English song, so I had a lot of disadvantages, but they gave me the callback. I was very proud.”

After finding success in Asia, she gained international acclaim for singing the ballad “A Love Before Time” in the award-winning 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

She also performed songs for the films Runaway Bride (1999) and Rush Hour 2 (2001).

Lee infused her performances with R&B, and previously said she was inspired by Whitney Houston, Madonna, Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey.

If you or a loved one is struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The nationwide three-digit “988” phone number connects directly to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.


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