Lea Salonga

Born Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga on February 22, 1971, the Filipino singer known as Lea Salonga first jumped to fame as a child actress in her native Philippines and then went on to conquer stages all around the globe on a series of top-tier musicals. Hailing from Ermita, Manila, Lea Salonga made her debut in 1978 in the musical The King and I when she was just seven years old. Her studio debut Small Voice came out in 1981 and was certified gold in the Philippines. This success led to her own TV show, Love, Lea, which aired between 1983 and 1985. Her breakthrough moment arrived in 1989 with the musical Miss Saigon, in which she played the lead female role. First presented in London, the play garnered Lea Salonga worldwide recognition and was even staged on Broadway. In 1991, she became the first woman of Asian descent to ever win a Tony Award for her performance in Miss Saigon. Meanwhile, she continued to release albums as a solo artist such as her eponymous 1993 full-length, which featured the track “We Could Be In Love,” a duet with American singer Brad Kane. All of her subsequent albums—By Heart (1998), Lea... In Love (1999), and Lea Salonga Christmas Album (2001)— were certified multi-platinum in her native country. In the following years, Lea Salonga became a coach on the reality show The Voice of Philippines and continued to expand her already bulging resume by starring in the Broadway musicals Flower Drum Song (2002), Les Misérables (2007), Allegiance (2015), and Once on This Island (2017).