New Album EXPOSED Features Hip-hop Single 'No Doubt'

 

 

        Yes, No Doubt, it's for real this time. CoCo will be releasing her new English album, entitled EXPOSED, featuring the first hit single "No Doubt" this month. SonyBMG Hong Kong has alos revealed the album cover and the release date in Hong Kong is confirmed to be March 25th.

        It's been five years and five months since CoCo's last worldwide debut Just No Other Way in late 1999. The production of the new album EXPOSED takes three years and three months and costs nearly US $ 1 million. Definitely a product of passion and love of music.

        The first single "No Doubt" is written by CoCo and a new hot writer Eric and is produced by CoCo and Rick Wake. It's a hip-hop with a lot of oriental flavors. The music video is directed by Rage, who had worked with famous celebrities in Japan including David Beckham.

        Air play of "No Doubt" is scheduled to begin on March 7th simultaneously in Chinese speaking countries first.
8/29/04 - New English Single Decided

        The first single from CoCo\'s new English album is decided, and CoCo has chosen a professional and famous director to shoot the music video.

        The director couldn\'t believe that the song was sung by an Asian when listening to it at first. The director thinks CoCo\'s new single is amazingly great and the music is even better than most of the western tracks nowadays.

        The video will be shot in the near future. CoCo wants her fans to be a little more patient and she believes that all of you will surely love this album very much!
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8/5/04 - We are finally up and running! Sorry for the long delay of the site for the past couple of months. We are still working on the site's design and functionality. Hopefully we will be done soon. But please enjoy what we have to offer so far. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact us.

Chinese Star Girl From Hong Kong

      
       Coco Lee (Chinese: 李玟; pinyin: Lǐ​ Wén​), born on 17 January 1975, also known by her official English name as Ferren Lee, is a Hong Kong Chinese pop singer, songwriter, record producer and actress born to a Chinese Malaysian father and a Hong Kong Chinese mother.[4] She is the only Asian artist to have multiple top-three singles in the MTV Asia Hitlist. "Do You Want My Love" also entered the US music charts. Her first full-length English album was Just No Other Way. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese and English fluently.

       Lee is the first and only Chinese person to perform in the Oscars, singing the Academy Award nominee for Best Original Song, "A Love Before Time", from the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, in the 73rd Academy Awards in Los Angeles. She provided the voice of Mulan in the Mandarin version of Disney's animated feature of the same name.

In 2001, Asia Weekly magazine named Lee as one of the most powerful people in Asia on their Power 50 list.

Biography

Early life and discovery

       Born and raised in Hong Kong, Lee is the youngest of three children. She has two elder sisters, Nancy, who was her manager before, and Carol. Her father died when she was young. When she was 9 years old, her mother brought Lee and her sisters together to live in San Francisco.

       There, Lee went to Presidio Middle School. After secondary school where she was the volleyball team captain, she attended Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School in San Francisco, where she was student Council President for 4 years in a row. In 1991, she represented her high school for Miss Teen Chinatown Pageant winning first place, then she won first place in a local karaoke contest. She started medical (biology) studies at the University of California Irvine.

Career beginnings
       After Lee's high school graduation in 1992, she went back Hong Kong to see her two sisters' (Carol Lee and Nancy Lee) participation in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, and while there, she came first runner-up in the 12th Annual New Talent Singing Awards by singing Whitney Houston's Run to you. The following day, she was approached by Capital Artists and asked her to sign a contract with them.

       She made her debut by appearing in several compilation albums such as Red hot hits 93' Autumn edition (火熱動感93勁秋版). In 1994, she worked with Fancy Pie Records and released her first solo albums in Mandarin Love from now on (愛就要趁現在) and Promise me (答應我). In 1995, she released an English language cover album Brave enough to love as well as her third Mandarin album called Woman in love (被愛的女人).

Work with Sony
       In 1996, Lee signed a contract with Sony Music Entertainment. "Coco Lee" became the best-selling album of 1996 in Asia, notably with the song Yesterday's passion (往日情). Her second English cover album was "CoCo's Party". In 1997, she released the Mandarin album "Sincere" as well as a self-titled Cantonese album. In 1998, the Mandarin album Di Da Di was released and sold to 1 million copies in less than 3 months.

       For her next album Sunny day, Lee registered the song Colors of the world for the opening of the Football World Cup, and the song The answer (答案) for the Chinese movie Bishonen. Walt Disney Pictures hired her to sing the theme song "Reflection" (自已) and be the voice of the heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan. The English version of the song appears on her maxi single Take a chance on love (碰碰看愛情) as well as Missing you in 365 days (想你的365天), the soundtrack of the cartoon Lotus lantern.


       On August, 1998, Coco performed in Taiwan to a concert audience of more than 30,000 fans, the second largest concert audience in Taiwan (a feat that only Michael Jackson has claimed in the past).


       In 1999, Lee sang When you tell me that you love me with Julio Iglesias. This song appears on the Asian version of his album My life : The greatest hits. She sang Married you (你讓我有感覺), the theme song of the movie Notting Hill which appears on her Mandarin album Today til' forever (今天到永遠).


       She performed in Michael Jackson's "Michael Jackson and friends" charity concert.

International career

       In 1999, 550 Music represented Lee with her stateside debut album, Just No Other Way. Her love song Before I Fall In Love was included in the soundtrack of the movie Runaway Bride. She had a duet called Can't get over with singer Kelly Price. In 2000, she got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[9][unreliable source?] Lee recorded from The United States the Chinese songs "We meet the future" and "Hand in hand" for SARS[clarification needed] with other artists including Wang Lee Hom, Stephanie Sun, Elva Hsiao and Jolin Tsai.

       Back in China, she released a Mandarin album You & me. The track True lover (真情人) held n#1 spot for 13 weeks.[citation needed]

       In 2001, Lee sang the song A Love Before Time for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This song appears in English in the soundtrack album and in Mandarin (月光愛人) in her album named Promise Coco released in October 2001. It contains So crazy, Dao ma dan (刀馬旦) written by the singer Jay Chou, Baby I'm sorry (Baby對不起) a cover of A Puro Dolor by Son By Four, or I'm still in love, the theme song for the movie Serendipity.

       In 2002, Lee released her remix album D. Is Coco (Dance is Coco). She sang a song against tobacco called From the beginning til' the end (煙絲萬縷) with singer Jacky Cheung. She sang the anti racism song A dream of one with Korean singer Jin Young Park.


       In 2003, she performed with Shaggy at the "MTV Asia awards" in Singapore and also presented the show with him.


       Lee co-starred in the Chinese comedy movie Master of Everything (自娱自乐) with John Lone, which won the Best Foreign Film award in the 2005 Beverly Hills Film Festival. In 2004, as the YouthAIDS ambassador, she attended the global AIDS conference in Bangkok, Thailand as the representative of the Asian artists to meet various youth groups discussing what she can do to educate them about AIDS. In 2005, Sony BMG released her second English album, Exposed. This album contains the Korean soundtrack of Charlie's Angels 2 called All around the world and a duet called No doubt with Indian rapper Blaaze. The album was banned in Mainland China for sexy lyrics in a few songs such as Touch or So good.


       Lee's Just Want You (要定你) was released on 22 September 2006. It features the single "Hip-Hop Tonight" with Vanness Wu.


       On 22 September 2007, Lee returned to the United States for two live concerts, the first at Harrah's in San Diego and the second at the Shoreline Amphitheater in San Francisco, with special guest Alex To.


       In 2008, Lee was chosen to sing one of the Olympic songs, "Forever Friends", opposite Sun Nan. She changed her record company to work with Warner Music (Taiwan) from Music Nation.


       In 2009, Lee ranked No.15 on E! Entertainment's list of the world's 25 sexiest pop divas.


       On 14 August, she released her new Mandarin album East to west (CoCo的東西) with Warner Music. It contains the songs "Party time", "Turn" (流轉) which is the soundtrack of the movie "The Legend of Silkboy" (世博总动员-湖丝仔) for the Shanghai World Expo 2010, the cover of Jay Sean's "Maybe" called "Love now" (愛要現在), and "BYOB" ("Bring Your Own Bag") a song to encourage people to bring and recycle their own shopping bags to save the environment.


       She recorded the song "Smile Shanghai" (微笑上海) with other artists including JJ Lin, Andy Lau, Jam Hsiao or Jane Zhang for Shanghai World Expo 2010.


       A limited version of her album East to west was released on 17 March 2010. It contains 3 more songs : Hello C, a remix of Turn and Younger and longer (美夢) which is Barbie's 50th Anniversary song.


       On 27 March 2010, Lee began her "East2West" World Tour Concert in Taipei at Taipei Arena. She pursued at the Encore Theatre in Wynn Casino in Las Vegas on 3 and 4 July, then in Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore on 2 October and in Nanning on 16 December.

Current career

       In March 2011, Lee was one of many artists participating in the recording of "Artists 311 Love Beyond Borders" (愛心無國界311燭光晚會) official theme song called Succomb not to sorrow (不要輸給心痛) in Cantonese version.

       On 7 April 2011, her song Dreams on oriental seas (梦在东方的海上) featuring Sun Nan was broadcasted. It has been named as he theme for the 14th FINA world championships, that took place in Shanghai on July, 16, 2011.

       On 8 June 2011, Lee announced that she set up her own studio. That way, she's more free to write and produce music that she loves.

       On 25 June, her song Four seas alliance (四海盟約), the theme song for the 2011 China television drama All men are brothers (水滸傳), was broadcast.

       Coco is currently busy recording songs for the upcoming release of her new mini album, as well as planning the associated promotional activities. A new album is planned to be released next year.

Private life

       Lee is engaged to Canadian businessman Bruce Philip Rockowitz. The wedding is set for 28 October, in Hong Kong.

Elevation - Anggun

"Elévation" - Revolution of Her Voice

        In September 2007, Anggun involved in a documentary film entitled Un jour sur terre (Earth). She became the documentary narrator and released the soundtrack single "Un jour sur terre". She has been also appointed as "Marraine de l'environnement" (ambassador of Micro-environment) and awarded "Le Grand Couer de l'annee" from Filles TV, France for her contribution in some social and environmental events. In December 2007, she again received an invitation from the Vatican to perform in the Christmas concert in Verona, Italy, along with Michael Bolton. She performed her hit "Snow on the Sahara" at the concert, which took place at the Philharmonic Theater of the Arena.

       Anggun gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Kirana, on 8 November 2007 in Paris, a product of her relationship with French writer, Cyril Montana.

       In late 2008, Anggun released her fourth international studio album, Elevation. It was her second album to share the same title both in English and French. A departure from the style of her previous albums, Elevation experimented with Urban music and Hip hop as well as R&B. The album was produced by hip hop producer pair Tefa and Masta.[19] The album also featured several rappers, including Pras Michel, (The Fugees), Sinik, and Big Ali.[20] Anggun moved from major label Sony BMG to Warner Music. However, Sony BMG still holds the rights to distribute this album in the Asian market.
 

       The French version of Elevation was released in France on 20 October 2008. The album debuted at number 36 on the French Albums Chart, giving Anggun her second-highest debut on the chart. The album spawned its first single "Si tu l'avoues" which was chosen as "Song of the Year" by Radio France International. In Indonesia, Elevation was released in December 2008, with three additional songs recorded in Indonesian along with English songs. The first single released for Indonesia and Malaysia was "Jadi Milikmu". Anggun's appearances in Indonesia in late January 2009 also boosted up sales, giving the album a certification of Double Platinum two months after its release date.

       Anggun's four-year ambassadress contract with Audemars Piguet was subsequently extended. She was also chosen by international hair care brand, Pantene, and New Zealand-based dairy product, Anlene, as their ambassador. Anggun's songs which were used for the products' campaigns were "Shine" (available on the Indonesian edition of Elevation) for Pantene and "Stronger" for Anelene.
 

       On 9 November 2008, Anggun performed at the World Music Awards with Laurent Wolf. She lent vocals to Wolf's dance hit, "No Stress". Anggun's version of "No Stress" is available as a bonus track on the Indonesian edition of Elevation. The performance was so well-received by audiences that Wolf eventually added Anggun's version of the song onto the Deluxe Edition of his hit record Wash My World.
 

       On 16 October 2009, Anggun was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

       Recently, Anggun co-wrote and contributed vocals to two tracks ("Blind" and "Always You" – the latter track which also appears as a reprise) on the album Atemlos by Schiller, released in Germany on 12 March 2010.

Exodus (Hikaru Utada album)

       EXODUS  is the debut English language album by Japanese-American singer-songwriter Utada, released in 2004 by Island Records. It was released on September 9, 2004, in Japan, with a special booklet and housed in a cardboard slipcase. All of the Japanese translations were done by Hiroko Shintani (新谷洋子 Shintani Hirōko?), except for the song "Animato" which was translated by Utada herself. Utada stated that it had a certain feel to it that she wanted to bring across to her Japanese audience.

       Exodus was released in North America nearly a month after it was released in Japan, on October 5, 2004, two months later in Brazil, on November 17, 2004, and the UK version was released about a year after on September 26, 2005.

       The tracks "Opening" and "Crossover Interlude" contain exactly the same lyrics, but are mixed differently. Even though "Opening" has vocals in the song, the lyrics aren't provided in the lyric booklet. The Hong Kong and Taiwan versions of the album contains lyrics for "Opening" in Chinese.

       Only two Japanese words were used on the whole album: the words "konnichiwa" (こんにちは?) and "sayōnara" (さようなら?) are found in "Easy Breezy". Additionally, the words "Thank you for praying for my success" (成功祈ってくれてありがとう Seikou inotte kurete arigatou?) are written in the lyric booklet.

        Exodus was re-released on September 20, 2006 in Japan, under Universal International, parent company of Island Def Jam. This limited reissue retailed at ¥1470.

        "Devil Inside", "Exodus '04", "You Make Me Want to Be a Man" and "Easy Breezy" debuted on American radio in April 2004, while on Japanese radio in June 2005 and on British radio in May 2006.

       On February 23, 2005, Utada did a one-night-only showcase at the Skylight Studios, New York. There she sung a few songs from Exodus.

       The album sold a total of 1.5 million copies worldwide.

 

Reception
       Exodus is the largest debut selling foreign language album in Japanese history (debut with 523,761 units). It is the 247th best selling album of all time in Japan.

       Elton John stated that:
“In terms of surprises, there's an interesting girl, Utada, who's a pop star in Japan and who released an album late last year called Exodus [Island]. It's really interesting dance and pop music. She could be the first Japanese recording artist to really make it in the West.”

       However, the album was not that successful in the US, reaching #160 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and has sold in excess of 55,000 units in the territory according to Nielsen Soundscan. It did, however, have more success in Japan. On September 8, 2004, Universal Music Japan shipped 1 million copies of the album, breaking a record that was held by Mariah Carey (she had sold 500,000).