In 1999, a decision was made to take a reigning female Chinese pop singer and bring her stateside. CoCo Lee, born Li Wen in 1975, is a Chinese Malaysian-American originally born in Hong Kong. After her father died, Lee's mother moved her and her siblings to California. After high school, she went on to study at UC Irvine. While visiting relatives in Hong Kong, Miss Lee's participation in a local singing contest earned her a record deal with Capital Artists. In 1994, she released her first album under Fancy Pie Records. She would move to Sony Music in 1996 and Warner Music in 2009. Despite her popularity throughout Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, CoCo's first international English album was a whopping flop. Poor campaigning was a huge factor, but the writing staff behind Just No Other Way was most likely the cause of its end. Sony's 550 label supposedly had songs made by Mandy Moore's writers. Which might have been okay if CoCo wasn't twenty-four years old at the time of the album's original release. Her target audience was vague - teens or young adults? - and her image was clearly inspired by Jennifer Lopez's recent music fame. CoCo was lost, and the music wasn't strong enough to save her. The first single "Do You Want My Love?" did okay on the dance charts, but everyone knows those don't really count in terms of sales and longevity. The ballad "Before I Fall in Love" was meekly promoted on the soundtrack for Julia Roberts' film Runaway Bride, and the single "Wherever You Go" did well in Australia of all places. It didn't even chart in the United States. CoCo was an executive producer on the album, so one has to wonder what her thoughts were before the final release was pressed. Despite the negativity, the album isn't the worst thing to hit shelves. If you realize the environment it was created in - Britney and Christina were at the top of their games - it's a passable pop effort. "Wherever You Go" could have been a Celine Dion song, and I mean that in a positive way (yes, it's possible). It's very European, catchy and bubbly. Back in Asia, Lee struggled to regain her prominence and she's been figuratively replaced by many younger girls. Although none of them will ever have her voice. She's held her own, and still relatively sells well. I just wholeheartedly believe that her best songs are far behind her.
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