Lea Salonga: Pride of the Philippines

Multiple Tony award-winning actress and singer, Lea Salonga is the epitome of power, pure talent, and poise. A native of the Philippines, she was the first Asian woman to win a Tony Award (1991), the first Filipina to sign with an international record label (1993), and is one of the best-selling Filipino artists of all time. 

Renowned across the world for her powerful voice and perfect pitch, Lea Salonga has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Awards, in the field of musical theatre. Also an international recording artist with album sales in the tens of millions, she is known as the “Disney Legend”, as she supplied the singing voices for Disney Princesses Jasmine and Mulan. 

Born Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga in Manila, and raised in Manila and Los Angeles City, Salonga made her stage debut in 1978 with her role as Tuptim in The King and I. She followed that with a steady career on-stage, appearing in musicals such as Annie and The Sound of Music before recording her first solo album, Small Voice (1981), at the age of ten. The album was certified gold in the Philippines, and Salonga went on to host her own musical TV series, Love, Lea. Continuing to take roles in musical theater throughout her teens, she released her second album, Lea Salonga, in 1988. It became a multi-platinum hit in Asia.

Lea Salonga is well-known for her performances on Broadway and musical theater. Premiered on the West End’s Drury Lane in September 1989, Miss Saigon allowed Salonga to have her intercontinental breakthrough when she was cast as Vietnamese peasant Kim. She co-starred in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island in 2017 and landed in the Top 20 of the Billboard Classical Albums chart with 2019’s The Story of My Life: Live from Manila. 

In 1992, she was heard by generations of filmgoers worldwide as the singing voice of Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin. By this, her popularity and fame began to grow and spread on a global scale, Salonga’s performance of “A Whole New World,” named her the 1993 Academy Award winner for Best Original Song. Later that year, her third LP, titled Lea Salonga, was released to an international audience by Atlantic Records, in which it reached number 25 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. 

Not only does her talent and passion for entertainment and visual arts reign, but also her love and appreciation for her Philippine culture, society, and environment. Salonga is strongly involved in supporting social and environmental causes and has performed in a number of fund-raising concerts and supported local and international charities, such as the World Vision Organization and the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. 

In 2010, Lea accepted the call to join the battle against hunger and supported the 1billionhungry project. In her capacity as a FAO Goodwill Ambassador, she also met with Bolivian farmers in Tarlac, La Paz, as part of a FAO-EC project on small-scale irrigation and educational training. 

Lea is also very dedicated to working with children, families and their communities. She is the World Vision Ambassador for Child Sponsorship, advocating for children and youth to reach their full potential by addressing the causes of poverty and injustice. As a YUNGA Ambassador she is committed to raising awareness among youth about social and environmental related issues. Lea Salonga is the representation of all that is women empowerment and represents the cultural values that her culture possesses.