Before all these artists started trying to cross over to the US after huge success in their home countries (BoA, Se7en, Wonder Girls, Utada Hikaru, etc), CoCo Lee tried to do it 10 years ago.
Although she tried to channel her best 90′s inner J.Lo with her album ‘Just No Other Way’, major success never happened for her. A couple years later the western audience got another dose when she sang the theme for the hit film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In my opinion she had two huge detractors that resulted in her non-start of a career in the US.
1) Her label was too hesitant in giving her proper backing. The music and presentation is too generic and the marketing push was nearly non-existent. The only thing that made her stood out and it was the fact that she was asian… which leads me to the next point.
2) She was asian. A lot can happen in 10 years, and while the yellow community is still facing the same struggles, I imagine some of the tensions and predicaments with trying to break cultural barriers have eased somewhat.
Regardless, Ms Lee deserves her props for making the effort… and although she’s active only in Asia now, today’s stars with similar aspirations can learn from her journey.
