Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, OL, (/ˈleɪə səˈlɒŋɡə/; born February 22, 1971) is a

Filipina singer and actress, best known for her roles in musical theatre, for supplying the singing
voices of two Disney Princesses (Jasmine and Mulan), and as a recording artist and television
performer.

At age 18, she originated the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, first in the West End
and then on Broadway,[3] winning the Olivier and Theatre World Awards, and becoming the first
Asian woman to win a Tony Award.[4] Salonga is the first Filipino artist to sign with an
international record label (Atlantic Records in 1993).

Salonga was the first actress of Asian descent to play the roles of Éponine and Fantine in the
musical Les Misérables on Broadway.[5][6] She also portrayed Éponine and Fantine, respectively,
in the musical's 10th and 25th anniversary concerts in London. She provided the singing voices
of two official Disney Princesses: Jasmine in Aladdin (1992) and Fa Mulan in Mulan (1998). She
was named a Disney Legend in 2011 for her work with The Walt Disney Company.[7] Salonga
starred as Mei-li in the 2002 Broadway version of Flower Drum Song. She has played numerous
other stage, film and TV roles in the US, the Philippines and elsewhere. She has toured widely in
the theatre roles and as a concert artist. From 2015 to 2016, she returned to Broadway in
Allegiance, and from 2017 to 2019 she appeared in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island.

1971–1989: Early life and career

Salonga was born in Ermita, Manila, to Feliciano Genuino Salonga, a naval rear admiral and
shipping company owner (1929–2016),[8] and his wife, María Ligaya Alcantara, née Imutan.[2]
She spent the first six years of her childhood in Angeles City before moving to Manila.[9] Her
brother, Gerard Salonga, is a conductor.[10]

She made her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven in the musical The King and I with
Repertory Philippines.[11] She played the title role in Annie in 1980 and appeared in other
productions such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, The Rose
T, The Goodbye Girl (1982), Paper Moon (1983) and The Fantasticks (1988).[10] In 1981, she
recorded her first album, Small Voice, which was certified gold in the Philippines.[12] In 1985, she
and her brother took part in the eighth Metro Manila Popular Music Festival as the interpreters
for the song entry titled "Musika, Lata, Sipol at La La La" which was composed by Tess
Concepcion.

During the 1980s, Salonga also had several television projects through GMA Radio Television
Arts where she worked as a child actor. After the success of her first album, from 1983 to 1985,
she hosted her own musical television show, Love, Lea,[9] and was a member of the cast of
German Moreno's teen variety show That's Entertainment. She acted in films, which included the
family-oriented Tropang Bulilit, Like Father, Like Son, Ninja Kids, Captain Barbell and Pik Pak
Boom. As a young performer, Salonga received a Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences
(FAMAS) award nomination for Best Child Actress and three Aliw Awards for best child
performer in 1980, 1981 and 1982.[9][10] She released her second album, Lea, in 1988.[12]
She also opened for, and performed with, international acts such as Menudo and Stevie Wonder
in their concerts in Manila in 1985 and in 1988, respectively.[13]

She finished her secondary education in 1988 at the O. B. Montessori Center in Greenhills, San
Juan, Metro Manila.[14] She also attended the University of the Philippines College of Music's
extension program aimed at training musically talented children in music and stage movement.
[citation needed]
A college freshman studying biology at the Ateneo de Manila University when she
auditioned for Miss Saigon, she intended to have a medical career. Later, in between jobs in New
York, she took two courses at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus

1989–1992: Miss Saigon and Aladdin

In 1989 Salonga was selected to play Kim in the debut production of the musical Miss Saigon in
London.[3] Unable to find a strong enough East Asian actress/singer in the United Kingdom, the
producers scoured many countries looking for the lead.[15] For her audition, the then 17-year-old
Salonga chose to sing Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg's "On My Own" from Les
Misérables and was later asked to sing "Sun and Moon", impressing the audition panel.[16]
Salonga has sometimes credited "On My Own" as the starting point of her international career.[17]
[18]
She competed for the role with childhood friend and fellow Repertory Philippines performer
Monique Wilson.[16][19] Salonga won the lead role, while Wilson was named her understudy and
given the role of the bar girl Mimi.[16][20][21]

For her performance as Kim, Salonga won the 1990 Laurence Olivier Award for Best
Performance by an Actress in a Musical. When Miss Saigon opened on Broadway in 1991, she
again played the role of Kim,[22] winning the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre
World Awards[3] and becoming the first woman of Asian descent to win a Tony Award.[4][23] In
1993 and 1996, she returned to play Kim on Broadway.[5] In 1999, she was invited back to
London to close the West End production, and in 2001, at the age of 29 and after finishing the
Manila run of the musical,[24] Salonga returned to Broadway to close that production.[25]

In 1990, Salonga performed in a homecoming concert in Manila entitled A Miss Called Lea.[26]
She also received a Presidential Award of Merit from President Corazon Aquino.[27] In 1991, she
was named as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.[28] In 1992, she performed the
singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Disney's animated film Aladdin.[7]

1993–1996: Les Misérables, films and other musicals

In 1993, Salonga played the role of Éponine in the Broadway production of Les Misérables.[29]
She performed the song "A Whole New World" from Aladdin with Brad Kane at the 65th
Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles,[30][31] where the song won an Oscar, having already
won a Golden Globe Award.[12] That same year, she released her self-titled international debut
album with Atlantic Records. In 1994, Salonga played in various musical theatre productions in
the Philippines and Singapore,[3][11] such as Sandy in Grease, Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and
the Witch in Into the Woods.[10]
Back in the US in 1995, Salonga played the role of Geri Riordan, an 18-year-old adopted
Vietnamese American child in the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie Redwood Curtain, which
starred John Lithgow and Jeff Daniels. She then flew back to the Philippines to star with Filipino
matinée idol Aga Muhlach in the critically acclaimed film Sana Maulit Muli, which gave her a
second Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) award nomination, this time for
Best Actress. She played the role of Éponine in the 10th anniversary production of Les Mis
called Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall.[5]

In 1996, Salonga was in Les Misérables once again as Éponine in the London production of the
musical, then continued on to perform the role in the musical's US national tour.[3] In the
Philippines in 1999, and again in 2000, she played Sonia Walsk in They're Playing Our Song.[32]

1997–2004: Recordings, concerts, TV and Flower Drum Song

From 1997 to 2000, Salonga did recordings and concerts in the Philippines and another
engagement in London, in addition to a few returns to Miss Saigon in London and on Broadway.
In 1997, she released I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing (recordings from her childhood days)
to gold sales in the Philippines.[33] That recording was followed by Lea... In Love in 1998[34] and
By Heart in 2000, with both albums reaching multiple platinum status in the Philippines.[13] In
1998, she again lent her voice to a major Disney animated film, singing the title character in
Mulan, also providing the character's singing voice in the 2004 sequel, Mulan II.[7] At the age of
28, Salonga moved to New York City, purchasing her own apartment (which she still owns up to
at least 2013).[35] She participated in the 1998 tribute concert to Sir Cameron Mackintosh in
London called "Hey Mr. Producer: The Musical World of Cameron MacKintosh", where she did
numbers from several of his musicals.[36][37][38] She also performed in four concerts: The
Homecoming Concert, The Millennium Concert, The Best of Manila and Songs from the Screen –
the last two being benefit shows.[26] Salonga returned to Manila in Miss Saigon, staged at the
Cultural Center of the Philippines at the end of 2000.[39]

After a last stint in Miss Saigon for its closing on Broadway in 2001, Salonga recreated the role
of Lien Hughes originally played by Ming-Na Wen in the soap opera As the World Turns. After
completing her contract that year, she was asked to return to the role in 2003.[40][41] She guested
on Russell Watson's The Voice concert, narrated for the television special My America: A Poetry
Atlas of the United States, and appeared on the Christmas episode of the TV medical drama ER,
playing a patient with lymphoma.[26]

In 2002, Salonga returned to Broadway to play the leading role of Mei-li, a Chinese immigrant in
a reinterpretation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song opposite Jose Llana. This
was after the reinvented musical had a run at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 2001 with
Salonga playing the role[42][43][44] and in 2002 winning Lead Actress in a Musical from the Los
Angeles theatre Ovation Awards.[45] The Salonga-led Broadway revival cast album was
nominated for a 2004 Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.[46] Salonga's performance
was received positively by theatre critics in New York, and she received a nomination for
Distinguished Performance from the Drama League, among other honors.[47] Between the 2001
Los Angeles and 2002 Broadway productions of Flower Drum Song, she performed in a non-
musical theatrical production for the first time, playing the role of Catherine in the stage play
Proof in Manila.[3] This was followed by a major concert, The Broadway Concert, at the
Philippine International Convention Center. She also sang at the 56th Tony Awards with Harry
Connick, Jr., Peter Gallagher and Michele Lee in a number paying tribute to Richard Rodgers.

In 2003 to 2004, Salonga did her first "all-Filipino" concerts in Manila called Songs from Home,
which later won her an Aliw Award as Entertainer of the Year.[48] In 2003, she performed in
several concerts at the Mohegan Sun hotel in Connecticut. This was followed by a Christmas
concert in the Philippines, called Home for Christmas, and performances at the Lenape Regional
Performing Arts Center in Marlton, New Jersey, in 2004.[49] Later in 2004, she played Lizzie in
the Manila production of the musical Baby, which earned her another nomination from the Aliw
Awards.[