Lea Salonga

Multiple award-winning actress and singer Lea Salonga is renown across the world for her powerful voice and perfect pitch. She is best known for her Tony Award-winning role in Miss Saigon. In addition to a Tony Award, she has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Awards in the field of musical theater. She was also the first Asian to play Éponine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway and returned to the beloved show as Fantine in the 2006 revival. Many fans of all ages recognize Salonga as the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Fa Mulan for Mulan and Mulan II. For her portrayal of the beloved princesses, the Walt Disney Company bestowed her with the honor of “Disney Legend.”

Salonga stars in the first season of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (a reboot of the popular series) now available on Max and the critically-acclaimed Sony musical drama Yellow Rose. Salonga can also be heard in the Netflix animated series Centaurworld and in FX’s animated series Little Demon. In August 2021, she released her single “Dream Again,” and in November Lea Salonga: Live with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from Sydney Opera House aired as part of Great Performances on PBS. A live album of the performance was subsequently released by Broadway Records.

Salonga served as a judge on the Philippines’ hit version of The Voice, including the ratings juggernaut The Voice Kids. Mitnoy Yonting, a member of Team Lea, was named the first season winner.

Salonga’s 2022 Dream Again Tour and her 2019 The Human Heart Tour saw sold-out audiences and record-breaking sales across North America and the UK. On Broadway, Salonga most recently starred in the 2018 revival of Once on This Island as the Goddess of Love: Erzulie. The show’s return to the Broadway stage earned a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical and also garnered Salonga and the cast a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album.

In late 2017, Salonga released Bahaghari, an album of traditional Filipino songs. The album serves as a reflection of all the intricate and different languages found in the Philippines and aims to help preserve the island nation’s dynamic culture.

Salonga also released her electrifying live album Blurred Lines in the spring of 2017. The album was recorded during her sold-out run at Feinstein’s 54 Below the year before. The original six-date showcase was received with overwhelming accolades from fans and critics alike. It was so well received that Lea returned to the famed venue for a record-setting 15-show encore performance in the late spring of 2017.

In the fall of 2015, Salonga began her critically acclaimed run as Kei Kimura in the Broadway production of Allegiance. The musical, inspired and developed by legendary actor George Takei, tells the story of a Japanese American family forced into an internment camp during World War II. Salonga garnered a Craig Noel nomination for Outstanding Featured Performance in a Musical for her performance in the Old Globe production and can be heard on the show’s original cast album. Following this, Salonga made a guest appearance on the hit CW television show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

For much of 2014, Salonga performed with legendary popera quartet Il Divo, accompanying them in Asia, the US, Canada, Mexico, and all through Eastern and Western Europe on their A Musical Affair tour celebrating the band’s 10^th anniversary. She can be seen on their latest DVD and CD bearing the same name.

Salonga made her debut in the world of cabaret in 2010, performing a sold out, three-week engagement at the Café Carlyle in New York City. She returned in June 2011 to delight audiences in another multi-week engagement. She released a live version of her 2010 concert, Lea Salonga: The Journey So Far—her 26^th career CD—in August 2011. The CD rose to the No. 3 spot on iTunes Jazz Charts. In 2013, she did a third engagement titled Back to Before, which was lauded by The New York Times.

Salonga has toured all over the world, performing sold out concerts in locations such as the Sydney Opera House, O2 Arena, Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Singapore’s Esplanade, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok, and Carnegie Hall in New York. She was also the first artist to sell out two shows at Brigham Young University’s DeJong Concert Hall in Provo, Utah since The Kings Singers in 2009.

In 2010, she participated in the 25^th anniversary concert of Les Misérables to sold out crowds at the UK’s O2 arena having appeared as Éponone in the show’s 10^th Anniversary Concert. She also dazzled as the hauntingly tragic Grizabella in a limited run of CATS in her hometown of Manila. Salonga also teamed up with legendary Grammy winner Patti Austin to perform the concert series Heart and Soul at venues throughout the US.

Honored with an appointment as a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Goodwill Ambassador in October 2010, Salonga vowed to act as an advocate for the Youth and United Nations Global Alliance initiative led by the FAO. The same year, she also joined forces with Avon as a celebrity judge for Avon Voices—alongside artists such as Fergie, Natasha Beddingfield, and Diane Warren—in the first ever global, online singing talent search for women and songwriting competition for men and women.

In her 40-year career, Salonga has performed for six Philippine presidents (from Ferdinand Marcos to Benigno S. Aquino III); three American Presidents (George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush); and for Diana, Princess of Wales and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She began her career as a child star in the Philippines, making her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven in the musical The King and I. She went on to star in productions of Annie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof, The Rose Tattoo, The Sound of Music, The Goodbye Girl, Paper Moon, The Fantasticks, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song on Broadway.

An avid techie and gamer, Salonga divides her time between the Philippines with her family and the United States.