Lea Salonga

Lea Salonga is a Filipino singer and theatre performer from Pampanga, Philippines, known for work in pop, ballad, contemporary R&B and OPM. She gains international recognition for her stage roles and for singing the voices of several Disney characters.

Theatre

She becomes widely known for playing Kim in the original Broadway production of Miss Saigon in 1991. For that performance she wins a Tony Award for Outstanding Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical, and also receives the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Laurence Olivier Award. Her stage roles also include Eponine in Les Misérables, the Witch in Into the Woods, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Fantine in the 2006 revival of Les Misérables, and a role in the Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song, for which she receives another Tony nomination. Other theatre credits listed for her include The Goodbye Girl, They’re Playing Our Song, Grease, The Fantasticks, Paper Moon, The Bad Seed, The Sound of Music and Annie.

Disney and soundtrack work

Salonga is the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin and of Mulan in Mulan and Mulan 2. She appears on the soundtrack recordings of Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song, The King and I with Julie Andrews and Ben Kingsley, The Nutcracker, Hey, Mr. Producer! and the Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Concert.

Recordings and concerts

She records more than a dozen solo albums, including Lea Salonga, Lea…In Love, By Heart, Songs from the Screen, Songs From Home, Lea…Live!, Lea Salonga: The Broadway Concert and Inspired. Her live work includes a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in 2005, followed by her first major U.S. city concert tour, which includes dates in San Francisco, Atlantic City, Honolulu, Maui, Chicago, Norfolk, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles and earns over one million dollars in ticket sales. She also releases the international album The Journey So Far.

Television and other appearances

Salonga appears on television in ER, As the World Turns, Hey, Mr. Producer and Russell Watson: The Voice for PBS, and in the PBS special on the Les Misérables 10th Anniversary Concert.

Background

Born in 1971, she continues to maintain residences in New York, Los Angeles and Manila. She also has a daughter, Nicole.