Lea Salonga, The Inspirational Pinay

Lea Salonga is a mezzo-soprano singer and actress. She is also a renowned Filipina. Well known for originally playing the lead role of Kim in the musical “Miss Saigon”. She has won many awards like The Olivier, Drama desk, Tony, Theatre World & Outer Critics. As a Filipina, She was the first Asian to play the roles of Eponine & Fantine in the broadway musical, Les Miserables. She was also the voices of two official Disney Princesses, Princess Jasmine and Princess Fa Mulan. She is now considered a Disney Legend this 2011 for her Job well done with the company.

Salonga at the age of seven made her professional debut in 1978 on the stage performing in the musical, The King and I by Repertory Philippines. She started becoming lead roles in many different musicals, such as Annie, Cat on the Hot Tin Roof, Fidler on the Roof and many many more. She started her recording profession at the age of 10 with her first album called, Small Voice which received a Gold Certification, One of the songs on the album was called “Happiness” was her first duet with her brother, Gerard Salonga who later on became Lea’s Musical or Creative Director during her musicals, plays or concerts. Lea Salonga evolved into an aspiring performer at a very young age. She started to opening up for international acts that would perform here in the Philippines, like Stevie wonder and etc. She also started acting in movies like tropang bulilit & Like Father, Like Son. As young as she was when she started performing professionally, she got a Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Award Nomination which is the Filipino Equivalent of an Oscar. She got the nominated as the best child actress and three more awards from “aliw” an award which means entertainment. She won them for Best Child Performer. Later on in the 90’s Salonga was selected to play the role of Kim in the musical “ Miss Saigon” She was only 17 years old when she took this role. With the songs she chose and the Panel of Judges gave her to test the ability of her voices. The Panel was in complete awe of the young girl standing before them. She competed against a childhood friend and Repertory peer, Monique Wilson. They competed hard for the role of Kim. Lea Salonga was offered the role and Wilson was placed as the understudy of Salonga.

In her performance as the role of Kim, She won the Olivier Award for the Best performance by an Actress in a musical for the season of 1989- 1990. Miss Saigon moved to broadway, and Ms Salonga was asked to play the role Kim, Multiple times to boost ticket sales. She was later on invited again after doing the Manila run of the musical, this time she was invited to play the role of Kim for one Last time to close the productions. Later on, in 1990, She performed a homecoming concert in Manila entitled “A miss called Lea” She received a Presidential Award of Merit from the President of the time, Ms Corazon Aquino.

She kept up with her being a young professional entertainer and performer. She started to become one of the columnists of the Philippine Daily Inquirer with her column called “back story” in the Entertainment section of the newspaper. In the years of 2008 until present, she became a very busy lady. She was asked to participate in very important parts of history. She was invited to sing at 95^th anniversary of Iglesia Ni Cristo. On August 5, 2009, she performed the song “Bayan ko” as the final song before President Corazon Aquino was brought out of the Manila Cathedral. Salonga also celebrated 20 years of Miss Saigon by performing a concert ‘Lea Salonga..Your songs” at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) The concert had special guests such as Richard Poon, Ai Ai Delas Alas, and the popular Dance group, Philippine All stars. The concert was directed by her brother, Gerard Salonga alongside the FILharmoniKA. She was also asked to become one of the Judges during the 60^th Ms Universe 2011 pageant at Brazil last September 12, 2011. She also became a lot more famous for her question to Ms Angola, Leila Lopes who won Ms Universe.

She is married to Robert Charles Chan Chien, A Chinese- Japanese managing director of an entertainment software company in Los Angeles, California. They have a daughter named Nicole Beverly, named after Lea’s mother in law, Beverly. In October 2010, Lea was nominated a Goodwill Ambassador of the food and agricultural organization of the United Nations.

Being Lea Salonga, She has accomplished many things in life; she has followed her dreams and ended up very happy and successful with her life. She is a very inspirational person. To everyone has a dream, always follow them. You might just end up doing in what you believe that makes you very happy. Everyone hopes that their dreams come true, look at Lea Salonga, She worked hard for her future, Look at where she is now, a very aspiring adult, a good mother, A Filipino. So follow your dreams, so you end up doing what you want to end up doing in life, you end up happy with your profession, you end up with a good career like lea. She is a very good inspiration that you should never quit. A Filipina doesn’t quit. I am very proud to say that I am a Filipina. In the end I’m hoping that I become as successful and as great like Lea. Happy with what I do, Happy with what I have and Happy with the people around me that support my dreams and future.