Hong Kong-born singer and songwriter Coco Lee has died at age 48. She had a career that spanned 30 years and included providing the voice of the heroine Mulan in the Mandarin-language version of Disney’s “Mulan.”
Lee’s sisters, Carol and Nancy Lee, said in a statement on social media that Coco had attempted suicide at home on Sunday. She was in a coma since that point and died on Wednesday at Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital.
“With great sadness, we are here [to] break the most devastating news: Coco had been suffering from depression for a few years, but her condition deteriorated drastically over the last few months,” the sisters said.
“Although Coco sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her.”
Lee, who was educated in both Hong Kong and the U.S., enjoyed success in the 1990s in Hong Kong in the Mandopop (Mandarin-language pop) scene before expanding into Cantonese and English.
“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,” the sisters added.
Lee was one of the first Asian singers to shoot to fame on both sides of the Pacific.
Born Ferren Lee on January 17, 1975, in Hong Kong, she moved to the US with her family when she was a secondary school student. After graduating from a public high school in California, she returned to Hong Kong and then moved to Taiwan to launch her singing career.
She soon broke into the Mandopop scene in 1994 with two albums. Lee recorded 18 studio albums, two live albums, and five compilation albums.
Lee performed “A Love Before Time” from Ang Lee’s film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” at the Oscars in 2001, when the song was nominated for best original song.
The Chinese version of the same song earned her the award for best original film song at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2001.
The pop star appeared more frequently on mainland Chinese TV, notably as a judge or advisor on talent shows including the 2013 version of “Chinese Idol” and the 2015 version of “Dancing with the Stars.”
She appeared in three movies, “No Tobacco” by Stanley Kwan and Lee Xin’s “Master of Everything” as well as had a cameo in the 2015 movie “Forever Young”.
Lee was a powerful live performer and was rarely far from the headlines. In 2011, she married Bruce Rockowitz, a wealthy Canadian businessman in a lavish wedding that was a highlight of the year.
Rockowitz is the former CEO of the Hong Kong supply chain company Li & Fung. “While she had two stepdaughters from her marriage with Rockowitz, Lee didn’t have children of her own,” Radio Television Hong Kong explained.
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