CoCo lee is ripping her way through the 4 Non Blondes’ standard What’s Up, dressed in semi-military garb, on Hunan Television’s I Am a Singer. “I say hey, what’s going on?” It’s kinetic entertainment at its best, a compelling display, full of soulful intent and sensational performing skills. It’s kick-arse CoCo – just what you’d expect from the natural performer that she is. That was in Changsha in April. It is little wonder that the chanteuse went on to become the first contestant not born in the mainland to win one of the most popular, buzziest shows on air.
李玟（CoCo）身穿军装外套，在湖南卫视《我是歌手》中用美国摇滚乐队4 Non Blondes的歌曲 What’s Up 进行厮杀，其中有句歌词是 “I say hey, what’s going on?” (我说嘿，这是怎么了？)整首歌曲，动感十足，扣人心弦，嗨翻全场，饱含激情的同时也表现出李玟极具表现力的演唱功底，她就如观众所期待的那样展现出最真实的自己。决赛是今年四月在长沙举行的，最终，艳光四射的CoCo李玟，作为首位非内地歌手，在当今最流行，积聚最高人气的真人秀节目中荣登冠军宝座，令人出乎意料的同时也是合乎情理。
Lee is no stranger to big crowds and huge television audiences. Viewers around the world watched her embellish the Academy Awards night in 2001 by singing A Love Before Time from Ang Lee’s Oscar Award-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She rivalled the agility of any of the martial arts performers in the movie by sure-footedly descending a flight of steps in vertiginous five-inch heels, wearing a blazing red Versace dress, betraying no sign that she was worried as much about where she might land as about how she sounded. All the while she sang with aplomb and pizzazz, pouring on the glitz like a Las Vegas headliner. She didn’t win an Oscar but, man, she nailed that ballad.
大众对于李玟已非常熟悉，早在2001年的她在美国奥斯卡颁奖典礼上演唱了《月光爱人》英文版，赢得全球无数瞩目，这首歌正是李安导演的巨制《卧虎藏龙》的主题曲。在舞台上配舞演员以舞姿模仿类似电影里高手的招式。李玟在奥斯卡舞台上踩着6英寸的高跟鞋，身着范思哲红色旗袍，从容地从楼梯上缓步而下，完全感受不到她当时对摔跤的担心。只要她拿着话筒唱歌时，永远能像拉斯维加斯的巨星一样，泰然自若而又充满活力，魅力无限。
Her rendition of the same song won her the I Am a Singer contest. “For the finals, I decided to do the same song that I did 15 years ago at the Academy Awards and to wear the exact same red couture Versace dress,” Lee says. I Am a Singer is the most-watched programme of its type in mainland China. Each week, seven artists perform before a studio audience of about 500 guests and the finals are broadcast live. One singer is eliminated each week, after 45 minutes of adoration and assassination in equal measure.
在《我是歌手》的总决赛上，她穿上了15年前在奥斯卡奖上的Versace红色旗袍，选择了和当时同一首歌《月光爱人》，获得掌声无数，赢得冠军。《我是歌手》现已成为在中国同类节目中，收视率最高的节目。每周都有7位歌手在500名观众评审团面前进行表演，总决选更是采用了现场直播的方式。在45分钟的视听盛会之后进行投票，每周都会淘汰一名竞选歌手。
I Am a Singer is unlike its reality television counterparts in other parts of the world in that the singers are already mainstream performers with well-established careers. Lee’s competitors in the fourth season of I Am a Singer were Hong Kong’s Joey Yung and Hacken Lee; Jeff Chang, Lala Hsu and Chao Chuan from Taiwan; South Korea’s Hwang Chi Yeol; and Inner Mongolia’s Haya Band. “This show has these top singers from all over Asia, bringing their ‘A’ game week after week, and one major criteria, you’ve got to be a phenomenal live performer,” says Lee.
《我是歌手》和其他同类型节目最大的不同就是，参选的歌手都已经是有一定地位和影响力的。李玟在第四季中的竞争对手有香港歌手容祖儿、李克勤，台湾歌手张信哲、徐佳莹和赵传，韩国歌手黄致列以及内蒙的哈雅乐团，等等实力歌手。李玟说，“这个节目邀请的都是亚洲非常顶级的歌手，连着数周都在展现各自最棒的表演，有个很重要的条件就是，你必须具备极强的现场感染力。”
Lee is certainly a phenomenal live performer, but appearing on the show was an experience she found alternately a joy and an agony. Performing was a joy. “I wanted to challenge myself,” she says. “I’m a big fan of the show. It’s a great show with some of the very best musicians and crew from all over the world. It’s an incredible platform for singers to really showcase their craft.”
李玟已经拥有很优秀的现场感染力，可是这个节目跟她以往参加的不一样，这次她是要比赛的。李玟说，“我想挑战自己，加上我自己本来就很喜欢这个节目，可以跟这些来自世界各地最棒的乐手和团队一起工作真的觉得很幸运。对于歌手而言，这是能展现实力的绝佳平台。”
The contestants are allowed to perform any songs they choose, in any style, and create their arrangements accordingly. That was another joy for Lee. “It gave us singers a chance to be really creative, to show who we are as artists while allowing the audience to see what we are like behind the scenes through the reality bits of the show. People saw how hard I worked and how dedicated I was,” she says.
竞选歌手们可以任意选择和编排自己想要表演的歌曲，对于李玟来说这别有一番趣味，“歌手们可以有机会天马行空，就像艺术家一样。观众们同时还能看到我们的幕后真实的样子。观众可以看见我的努力，我的真诚。”
“I do love singing covers. Funny thing is, I have always preferred singing other people’s songs and making them my own. That’s why this show is perfect for me.”
她还说到，“其实，我真的很喜欢翻唱别人歌曲同时尝试不一样的味道，这也是我来参加这个节目其中的原因。”
Yet the preparations were an agony. “You have such a short amount of time to prepare for the next week because you never know if you’re going to make it to the next round,” she says. “You have to be prepared to have the director reject your songs and to come up with something else within a few hours all while under tremendous pressure.”
然而准备的过程其实非常困难的，你必须在很短的时间内去准备，因为你不知道能不能过关，也有可能你选的歌会被导演组拒绝。在巨大的压力下，你只有几个小时准备临时换的歌曲。
“And I’m a very hands-on person. I choose every song, come up with the music direction, spend hours editing the music, styling the clothes, hair and make-up. No detail is too minor. I wanted every performance to truly represent who I am as an artist. Contrary to what people might think, I only have a small team and thankfully they were there for me through the highs and the lows.”
“我的团队都笑我是个工作自虐狂因为我喜欢亲力亲为，亲自挑选每首歌，去想概念，花数小时去编曲，做服装造型，发型还有妆容，就是事无巨细。我真的很希望每一场表演大家都能看到我的用心同时看到我最棒的表演。我团队的人很少，幸好有他们一直在我身边，非常感谢他们陪我走过整个赛季的起起落落。”
And despite the time she has spent on stage, competing remains an agony. “It’s a competition. You’re nervous. There’s the pressure and stress from being away from family for so long. I don’t like stress, really. I hate stress, in fact. What if I get voted off?” She says friends had tried to talk her out of taking part. “People were telling me the pressure was nothing like anything you’ve experienced before. But I felt if I was going to be afraid of the consequences I would never make a breakthrough. After all, it’s the same as breaking through in the United States. If I had been afraid of failure, I would never have taken that step. Sometimes in life you have to be brave and challenge yourself to do something that is so out of the ordinary and out of your comfort zone. Sometimes you have to be a little bit crazy to do this.”
除了舞台上的时间，比赛也影响到了平时的生活。比赛让人变得紧张，而且长时间的和家人分离也让人产生压力。李玟自己说，其实她并不喜欢压力，甚至可以说讨厌。她更加担心如果自己被淘汰要怎么样去面对。家人和朋友曾经建议她退赛，因为压力太大了。但是她自己却认为，如果一味担心，害怕失败，那么将永远不能有所突破。而这，就有点像她之前在美国，如果害怕失败，那么就永远停留在了原地。在漫长的生命中，必须拿出勇气去挑战自己，做一些离开舒适区的事。有时候生活是需要一些疯狂的！
Lee can’t decide if singing at the Academy Awards or in the final round of I Am a Singer was most nerve-racking. “Both were pretty much, like, major scary,” she says. “The Oscars? I was pretty much having a heart attack on stage. To be the first Chinese pop artist ever to perform, that’s being watched by millions of people around the world – you know, the pressure to not let the Chinese people down – I had to put myself in the zone. For I Am a Singer, I was really nervous at the beginning. I had to keep talking to myself to control my nerves. It’s a very different stage. When you have 500 people in front of you, you can see everyone’s face and into their eyes. It can be intimidating.” A thought strikes the singer. “I’ve actually built up a little bit of stage fright,” she says. “These days, if I do karaoke with people I barely know, I get so nervous. Strangely, I’m very comfortable performing in front of 80,000 people at a concert.”
对于李玟来说，很难说得清楚到底是奥斯卡典礼还是《我是歌手》的决赛让她更加紧张，毕竟两者都给她很大的压力。在奥斯卡的舞台上，她觉得心跳快到像要爆炸。作为登上国际舞台的首位华人歌手来说，不能给中国人丢脸，为此她承受着无法想象的压力。在《我是歌手》中，刚开始的几期，她非常紧张以至于需要时刻叮咛自己冷静。这个舞台非常不一样，你可以看到现场那500位的每个人的表情和眼神，喜欢你的马上看得出来，可是不喜欢你的就会让你加倍紧张。李玟还说因为长期没有表演她有一点舞台恐惧症，那段时间如果她和不熟的人去KTV唱歌，她会很紧张。但是以前，在八万人的演唱会上她可以非常自如的驾驭舞台。
Lee was born in Hong Kong. She never knew her father, who was an ethnic Chinese Indonesian. When she was nine, Lee, her Hong Kong Chinese mother and her two elder sisters moved to California. There she absorbed the influences of Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Whitney Houston, Madonna and Michael Jackson. Those influences counted when, like her sisters before her, she entered singing contests.
出生在香港的李玟，因为自己的印尼华人父亲在她出生之前巳过世了， 所以对他知之甚少。在她九岁的时候，她的妈妈就带着她还有两个姐姐一起移居到加利福尼亚。在那里，她深受史提夫汪达（Stevie Wonder），莱昂纳尔里奇（Lionel Richie）、惠特妮休斯顿（Whitney Houston）、麦当娜（Madonna）和迈克尔杰克逊（Michael Jackson）的影响。同时还有姐姐们的影响，她因此参加了歌唱比赛。
On a trip to Hong Kong in 1993, Lee sang Houston’s Run to You in a talent show and was offered a Capital Artists recording contract the next day. Her good fortune continued when Lee gravitated from Hong Kong to Taiwan, where she recorded her first album. It won the Best New Artist Award in 1994. She hit pay dirt in 1996 with Sony Music and the album Coco Lee, which became Asia’s best-selling album of that year.
1993年李玟来到了香港，在一个选秀节目中唱了惠特妮休斯顿的 Run To You，获得第二名的她被直接签到香港华星唱片公司抛来的橄榄枝。之后她机缘巧合地从香港转到台湾发展，出了她的第一张个人唱片，让她获得了1994年的最佳新人奖。在1996年，索尼音乐公司视她为宝藏一般，发行了《李玟CoCo》同名国语专辑，同年成为亚洲最畅销唱片。
“I’m not afraid. I’m fearless. I dare to do things that people don’t expect me to do,” is the explanation Lee offers for her early successes. “Even before I became well known, I was this Chinese singer, singing ballads in Taiwan, wearing shorts and looking like one of the Spice Girls. I was different from everybody else. That was 1994. All the women singers were elegant, wearing dresses and speaking softly, whereas I was quirky and had a crazy loud laugh. I wasn’t afraid to be different and just be me.”
对于早期的成功，李玟会说，“当时的我还蛮勇敢的，敢于尝试一些非主流的事情。在我成名之前，作为在台湾发展的华语歌手，穿的是类似辣妹团员中的那种热裤唱著抒情歌。有点古灵精怪。当时是1994年，同期发展的所有女歌手都是走玉女路线，打扮优雅，身穿礼服，说话温柔，而我完全是相反，喜欢大声笑，活蹦乱跳，喜欢搞笑。那时候真的不知道大家能不能接受我，可是我只想做我自己，去创造自己的路。
Lee’s success burgeoned. She sang one of the theme songs in the movie Runaway Bride. Walt Disney hired her to be the voice of heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Mulan. She performed with The Black Eyed Peas at a pre-Grammy charity concert in Los Angeles and was the first Chinese artist to perform at an NBA game. As her achievements mounted, Lee found herself in a category of her own: she was a Chinese-American singer with an African-American fan base, a pop starlet in hip-hop guise. Lee concocted a sound the world had never heard and the singularity of her effort won the respect of the musical brotherhood.
她的事业也春花盛放般蓬勃发展起来，她为电影《落跑新娘》(Runaway Bride)献唱主题曲，为华特迪士尼的国语版《木兰》（Mulan）里的主角花木兰配音，在洛杉矶和黑眼豆豆一起在格莱美的慈善演唱会同台献唱，还成为了首位华人歌手在NBA赛场上表演 。当她事业如日中天时，她拥有很清晰的定位。作为一名美籍华人歌手，她拥有大量美国黑人的群众基础，同时还在嘻哈音乐里崭露头角。李玟特有的嗓音是得天独厚的，而她刻苦奋斗的精神也让她收获了许多音乐伙伴。
Macy Gray’s songwriter, Darryl Swann, told Lee at the turn of the century: “CoCo, you’ve got some soul.” Lee’s response: “Some?” Lionel Richie once told her: “Coming from a brother, if I say you’ve got soul, trust me girl, you’ve got soul”. Lee says Richie was a big influence on her then and is to this day. “I’d go to Lionel for a lot of advice. He was so supportive. He used to tell me: ‘CoCo, I never worried about you once. I always knew that you would kill it.’ He’s always been very sweet and supportive.”
Macy Gray的作曲人对李玟说：“你唱歌时，是有灵魂的。” 另外一位美国歌星莱昂纳尔里奇曾经说：“相信我姑娘，你的声音是有灵魂。” 直至今日，李玟都觉得里奇给了她很深远的影响。她会特地找里奇去问很多建议和帮助。里奇总是友善地支持着她并告诉我，“CoCo，我从来没有担心过你，因为我知道你会克服掉这些困难。”
Lee’s supporting cast is never far from her mind, most of all her mother. “She’s my role model, my idol, my legend. She taught me to be a strong, independent woman. I grew up watching how hard she worked. She made me realise that if you want something in this life you have to work hard at it. You’ve got to make the effort. Because of her I was never afraid of hardship. After witnessing all the hardship my mum had been through for us, I was more determined to make it so I could give her a better life.”
在李玟的脑里一直有一种精神支撑着她，而这种精神大多是来自她的母亲。“母亲就是我的榜样和偶像，教会我要做坚强又独立的女性。我是看着母亲每天拼命的努力工作，非常劳累，所以我从小就下定决心有一天我要给母亲更好的生活，不让妈妈受苦。是因为妈妈，我知道努力的重要性，所以我从来没有害怕困难。”
Nor is Lee afraid of hard work. As a contestant in I Am a Singer, she slept as little as two to three hours a night for five months. “If you YouTube the song Bad Romance, there’s a cape I wear when I first walk on stage. I only wear it for about 20 seconds but we spent weeks on that cape, making sure it was just right, making sure it would come off fluidly when I needed it to. I didn’t care how short or minor or whatever anything was. I was constantly working. Nothing was going to break my focus.”
在《我是歌手》持续四个月的比赛时间里，李玟总是很努力地工作，每天只睡2、3个小时。“如果你去看看‘Bad Romance’ 的视频网站， 我比赛穿著的那件斗篷只出现在银幕上短短20秒，可是我却用了数周去挑选布料，检查飘起来的效果，暗扣能不能够在正确的时间点顺利取下。我不在乎表演的时间长短，事情大小，对我来说一切都那麽重要，要用心去完成。我就是一直用这样的态度在工作，没有任何东西可以破坏我对工作的专注。”
Lee likes to look the way she wants, as she demonstrated at her photo shoot for #legend.
“For a fashion shoot, I always come up with ideas. I’ll share with the team what I’d love to explore. But it’s also important to let creative people have ideas, and the stylist might have an even better idea. But, in certain aspects, yes, I need to have my own make-up artist and my own hairdresser. But other than that, I’ll give suggestions and not be a control freak about it. I think, being an artist for all these years, I know what I like. I know my preferences. I know which angle I look good in, I know what type of clothes and the type of cut that looks good on me. But I always go into a shoot with an open mind to try anything.”
李玟一直以来都是对自己要求很高，就比如为我们#legend拍摄照片一样。“为了拍到一些我以往没有尝试过的东西，我会会做很多功课，然后和团队分享我的想法。可是很重要的是我一定会尊重创意人员的构思。而我唯一的坚持就是，化妆和发型需要有我习惯的专职人员。在这个行业那么多年，的确是很了解自己，知道自己什么角度好看，那种款式和裁切的衣最适合适我。可是我不会让这些影响我去接受新的尝试。”
She also knows what jewellery looks good on her. Lee has what she calls a “wonderful working relationship” with jeweller Sunfeel. She has been an ambassador and spokesman for the company for the past three years. “They make beautiful pieces,” she says. She wore Sunfeel’s lustrous jewellery throughout I Am a Singer to complement her outfits. “We are planning a CoCo line. It’s in the development stage. I’m going to be crossing over into being a designer, which I’m really looking forward to.”
当然李玟也深知自己适合的珠宝款式。她叁年前成为国内珠宝品牌赛菲尔的形象大使和品牌代言人，她觉得这段工作关系是非常美好的。赛菲尔的珠宝都非常亮眼，优雅同时又很时尚。 因此李玟在整个《我是歌手》赛季都使用赛菲尔的珠宝去搭配服装。她已经开始准备投身珠宝设计工作，对于这份工作她充满期待，相应的产品系列也已经在筹备的过程中。
Lee is certainly versatile. Prior to I Am a Singer, she appeared on a similar sort of show, The Voice of China, as a mentor to young performers. “I feel very fortunate that I have gained so much experience performing all over the world and it’s great that I could give back by advising these young talents,” she says. “There are a lot of great singers out there. But it’s all about how you make yourself stand out and make yourself memorable.” She let the youngsters into some of her showbiz secrets. “These kids are the future of our music industry. It’s more meaningful to be able to play a part in shaping them into brilliant artists” she says.
李玟的触角已经延伸到到多个方面。在《我是歌手》之前，她还以导师身份参加了一个类似的真人秀《中国好声音》。她觉得自己很幸运，之前能在全球各地的表演中获得经验，而现在有机会让她把自己学到教给这些年青一代的歌手。李玟说，“现在有太多优秀的歌手了，如果要脱颖而出那必须有令人难忘的闪光点”，她甚至还会和年青一代们分享自己在舞台表演的的小秘诀，“这些年轻人就是音乐行业的未来和希望，希望我能帮助到他们成为未来的天王巨星。”
The singer was also a judge on Chinese Idol, yet another of the stable of such shows spawned by Britain’s Pop Idol. “People would tell me that I was the sweet and nice judge. I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings, so I was never brutal with my words,” Lee says. She lacked the killer instinct of Simon Cowell of Pop Idol and later American Idol. “I was very honest, but in a kind way. In being a judge, I would give them advice based on what I’d learned after all these years as a performer, and I would try to be a good role model by showing them my work ethic and by simply being a caring friend as I know how brutal this industry can be.”
李玟在《中国梦之声》中，她总是用友善的方式地评论每一位参赛歌手的表现，以免自己的言语伤害到别人。她不像《流行偶像》和后来的《美国偶像》里的评委西蒙(Simon Cowell)那样毒舌，而是用富有亲和力而又不乏诚实的方式去表达自己的想法。她会用多年的从艺经验来给歌手建议，还试着让这些歌手能够看到她自己工作的态度。李玟自己深知娱乐圈有多少腥风血雨，她就像朋友那样关心这些歌手。
Lee’s advice is valuable precisely because she has experienced the lows among the highs. She casts her mind back to the period between 2006 and 2010. “I developed a vocal issue from years of being overworked. All of a sudden I lost control of my voice and couldn’t sing,” she says. “I lost all of my confidence and developed stage fright. There were many nights I would cry myself to sleep. I was like a baseball pitcher who’d just lost an arm. I felt like my career was over.”
李玟也曾经历过人生低谷，因此使得她给出的建议更加值得借鉴。她回想起2006到2010的那段低潮时期，她因为常年工作过度劳累导致声带出现问题，因此唱不了歌。也就是因为这样，整个人失去了自信，还对舞台产生了恐惧感。晚上则是哭累了才能睡着。这就像一个击球选手失去双臂一样，她一度认为自己的职业生涯将画上句号。
The singer sought out Lady Gaga’s voice coach and explained how she couldn’t control her vocal chords anymore, how singing had gone from being an effortless pleasure to being a terrifying, soul-destroying chore. “Let it go, CoCo. Just let it go,” the coach told her. “Don’t over-think it. Just do it.” Lee’s mother stood beside her, offering encouragement. Together, day by day, little by little, they got results. “I’m happy to say my voice is better now than at any other time. It took a long time to get to where I am, and there were times that I wondered if it was really over for me, but I wasn’t going to give up without a fight. I realised how precious this gift is and it’s something you can’t ever take for granted.”
那时的她咨询Lady Gaga的发音教练，当时的她不能控制声带，曾经轻松愉悦的歌唱变得困难重重，精神几乎崩溃。教练告诉她：“不要害怕，不要想太多，你就像以前一样唱。”站在身后的妈妈给了李玟许多勇气。随着时间的推移，慢慢的，一步一步，一句一句，终于有了结果。“我很开心最后嗓音恢复的比以前更好。我用了很长时间才成就了现在的我，当时真的很担心我能不能克服声带问题，但是我是一个不轻言放弃的人。这也让我认识到嗓音是多么珍贵的礼物，你所拥有的一切都要好好去珍惜。”
A high was Lee’s marriage to her long-standing boyfriend, Canadian tycoon Bruce Rockowitz. The couple wed in Hong Kong in 2011 in appropriately glamorous style. “I have to say, Bruce is such an amazing human being and the most loving husband I could ask for. He has such a good heart and everyone loves him. I have so much respect for him and what he has accomplished in life. He is one of the hardest working men I know. Most important to me is that my husband has a good soul. I feel very blessed to have him in my life.”
在李玟生命中另一个转点就是和她的加拿大男友Bruce Rockowitz在2011年的喜结连理，结束了他们的八年恋爱长跑。她们选择了在香港举行了隆重而又甜蜜的婚礼。李玟很幸福地说，“Bruce是个很有魅力和爱心的人，每个人都喜欢他，他是我最深爱的人。他是我认识的人里面最努力工作的，对于他所得到的所有荣耀和成绩，都是因为他一直以来的坚持和努力。 我很崇拜和敬佩他。当然最重要的是，他对我来说就是我的灵魂伴侣。我很庆幸他出现在我的生命里。”
Rockowitz was a steadying influence for Lee while she worked in Changsha, flying in to watch a couple of her shows. “He was most concerned for my health when I agreed to do the show because he has seen how extreme I work, pushing my body to the limit,” Lee says.
“I don’t eat much or even rest when I’m focused on something. It’s quite crazy. He often has to remind me to rest and eat something. He’s been extremely supportive throughout the show and was always there to comfort me when I bawled my eyes out after a bad result. I couldn’t have done it without him.”
当李玟在长沙工作的时候，老公Bruce给了她很多精神上的支持，甚至飞去看她的表演。“当我答应参加比赛之后，他最担心的是我的健康，因为他知道我会面对巨大的压力而且我是个严重的工作狂，极其认真。”李玟还说，“我是一旦专注于一件事情之後，几乎就是忘我状态，不吃不睡，的确是有点疯狂。他会常常提醒我要多休息，吃东西。整场赛季，他都百分百支持我。每当我很难过因为比赛结果不是很好，我会回家在他怀里哭，他总是会安慰我。没有他，我可能撑不到最後。”
Lee narrowly escaped elimination on the show’s first episode. She has learned from the experience how to deal with the lows. “These days, I’ll need to cry and talk for, say, five minutes, either to my mum, my sisters or to Bruce, and then I’m over it,” she says. “I won’t allow it to get me down for too long in the way it would when I was younger. I’ve learned you have got to move on, pick yourself up and start again.”
李玟在《我是歌手》的第一期节目中差点惨遭淘汰，“那些日子，我是需要大哭一下或者抱怨5分钟，这样才能够得到发泄的，发洩完了就不会再想了。 我是个不会允许自己失落太久的人，我必须站起来，重新开始。”
Lee stands out as one of few artists with Chinese heritage to have attained global celebrity. In April, Teen Vogue bemoaned what it calls whitewashing in Hollywood, which stretches to casting Caucasian actors to play East Asians. “Sadly it’s true,” Lee says. “But it has gotten better – at least in television, if nothing else.”
李玟作为仅有的华人歌手之一参加了全球盛会，星光夺目。她已经是一名如此有成就的华人明星，但仍旧很关心中国人在好莱坞的发展。
She was alluding to starring appearances in American television programmes by actors of East Asian descent such as Lucy Liu in Elementary, Vincent Rodriguez in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Hudson Yang, Randall Park and Constance Wu in Fresh off the Boat. “I would love to see Chinese artists make it internationally in the music business,” Lee says. “One of my goals is to set up a management or entertainment company to nurture artists. I would absolutely love to do this,” she says.
“I want to give opportunities to showcase younger singers, every chance I get, which I started doing during my competition, I’m always looking for a great artist. I have a lot of visions in my head.” The would-be impresario has her eye on Dou Jingtong. “She’s got huge charisma,” Lee says. “She has such incredibly talented genes, the genes of Faye Wong and Dou Wei, but she really has her own style and edge. And she’s very talented. At such a young age, she is so freakin’ cool already, just like her mum and dad”.
李玟很希望能看到更多华人歌手在国际舞台上。她说，“我想开一间管理公司或者娱乐公司去培养新人。对于年轻歌手，我希望可以帮助他们透过我的平台去展现他们的实力。在我比赛的时候，我也抓住机会跟一些新一代的音乐人合作。” 她最近有关注到窦靖童，觉得她很有个人魅力。她从王菲和窦唯的基因中拥有了天赋，同时也很有自己的风格。在她小小年纪，她已经才华横溢，像她父母一样那麽的有个性，那麽的酷。
Lee has aspirations to be a film-maker, too. “I would like to do a movie about my mum,” she says. Her mother studied biochemistry at Peking University, having been accepted there aged 16. As a doctor in California, her mother treated AIDS and cancer patients with acupuncture and prescribed traditional Chinese medicines.
李玟还憧憬着做一名电影制片，拍一部关于她妈妈的电影。李玟的妈妈在16岁的时候就考进了北京大学之后进修生物化学。她的妈妈还曾在加利福尼亚，用针灸和中医治疗许多艾滋病和癌症患者。
Asked who would play her mother in the film adaptation of her life, Lee thinks for half a minute. “You know who would be good? Fan Bingbing or Zhou Xun because they are strong women. The story’s got romance. It’s got conflict. It’s got humour and lots of drama. It’s always been a little dream of mine to make the film. She’s been through so much and I learned from my mum that when you have the power to help and give back, you must.”
当被问及希望谁来饰演母亲时，李玟想了一会儿，“我会很希望是范冰冰或者周迅。电影里会有浪漫，也有冲突、当然少不了幽默和很多戏剧元素。这个是我一直以来的梦想。我从妈妈身上学到了太多太多⋯⋯其中就是当你有能力去帮助别人，回归社会的时候，你必须付诸于行动。”
It was a life lesson Lee recalled while I Am a Singer was filming in Changsha ahead of Chinese New Year. “I was told about this elderly man who had a very sad story,” says Lee. “He was a farmer selling oranges to make money to pay for his travel home for New Year. A cold snap meant no one was out on the street and he couldn’t sell his oranges. He was stranded. I bought all his oranges, there were hundreds, and bought him his train ticket to go home to be with his family. I wrapped up the fruit and passed them out to everyone on the show. It was wonderful to be able to help someone in need.”
李玟回忆起一件让她觉得特别温暖的事，就在农历新年前，在长沙录制《我是歌手》时候，李玟慢慢开始述说，“当时我看到电视新闻报道一个年迈的老人非常令人悲伤。他原本打算卖掉自己种的橘子，凑齐车费回家过年。但是突然下大雪，路上几乎没有行人去买橘子，因此他走投无路了。我买下了他所有的橘子，然後帮助他买回家的火车票，让他可以和家人团聚。最后我把买回来的几百个橘子分给所有的歌手门还有台里的工作人员。我很开心可以帮到这位老人。能够帮助真正需要帮助的人，是件非常美好的事情。”
The singer knows how to work and she knows how to play – and where. “The Maldives. I love the Maldives. It’s the most amazing place on earth, a real piece of heaven.” She loves the buzz of snorkelling. “It’s one of my most favourite things to do. I feel like I’m in a different world when I’m snorkelling. It’s just the best sensation. The crazy thing is I don’t know how to swim, but I sure love to snorkel. One day I will try diving, that’s my next goal.”
歌手通常知道如何工作，李玟还知道怎么玩，哪里玩。李玟说，“我最爱马尔代夫，觉得它是世界上最美的地方，人间天堂一样。我的爱好之一就是浮潜，因为感觉很自由，好像自己会飞一样，像去了另外一个世界，感觉真棒。最奇妙的是，其实我并不会游泳，但我仍然深深地喜欢浮潜。我的下一个目标，就是要去深潜。”
Lee would jump at the chance to experience the sensation of weightlessness on board a Virgin Galactic or SpaceX spacecraft. “Hell, yeah. You only live once. So why not? It would be an incredible experience. And, let’s face it, that’s what life is all about: experiences and remembering things we do together with people we love and like.”
李玟还想有机会尝试坐上维珍银河或者宇宙飞船，感受下外太空。“知道吗，人生只有这一次啊，当然要活得精彩！”李玟兴奋地说，“这会是一个让人难以想象的经历。就像生活一样，物质一点都不重要，最重要的反而是经历，能够和我喜欢和爱的人一起体验人生，这才是最珍贵的。”
Coldplay’s Adventure of a Lifetime is one of Lee’s obsessions. “That’s my happy song,” she says. “It’s music that has medicine about it and helps you have a certain type of energy. It’s a song that makes me happy straight away. I even took this song’s arrangement and merged it with a song in Mandarin for my performance on I Am a Singer. What can I say? I’m totally obsessed.”
酷玩乐队的 Adventure of a Lifetime 是李玟的心头好之一，这首歌就像她的欢乐颂。李玟觉得音乐就像一种药，可以让人立刻快乐起来。在《我是歌手》中，她也尝试了把这首歌的编曲加入在林俊傑的「不潮不用花钱」，用了她的方式去表达，表现出她有多麽喜欢这首歌。
Lee is expanding her fan base. “The world is so different now with social media, which was non-existent when I started out. And doing the show, I can gain newer, younger fans,” she says. She tells an anecdote about a visit to Las Vegas. “We were walking around the Wynn Casino and there was a young family. A child, who we found out was only two years old, looked up and said ‘CoCo’. Bruce was, like, ‘My goodness. Who knew the power of the show?’”
李玟正在扩大她的粉丝群。“因为有了社交媒体的出现，现在的世界很不一样，我刚出道时根本没有社交媒体。通过参加电视真人秀，可以让更多年轻人接触我的音乐，让我们在网路上有交流。”李玟想起一件发在拉斯维加斯的趣事，“我和Bruce在永利附近散步的时候，遇到了一个年轻家庭。他们有个只有2岁的孩子突然抬起头，对着我叫了句CoCo。Bruce当时非常惊讶地说，‘这个真人秀的影响力真的不小啊！’”
Lee has older fans, too. Every year her mother chooses a place she would like to go, and Lee takes her there. Last year it was Vienna. “We went to the famous square and she became teary,” Lee says. “My mum said that after 60-something years her daughter had helped make her dream come true. When she was 10 she’d seen a book in China about Vienna and now here it was in front of her.”
她当然也有比较年长的粉丝。那就是李玟的妈妈。李玟也是个特别孝顺的女儿，每年都会带妈妈去一个妈妈想去的地方，比如去年是维也纳。李玟说，“我们去了维也纳广场，妈妈眼眶开始变得湿润，妈妈说没想到在她60多年後，我帮她圆了这个梦。原来妈妈十几岁的时候在中国看了一本关于维也纳的书，就一直很希望有一天可以来到这里，而现在书里的描述就真的在眼前了。”
And Lee is a dutiful daughter-in-law. “When I was very young, in fact not even born, my father passed away. Then, when I met Bruce, I became very close to his father, Murray, who was a great man. He was incredibly kind and everybody loved him. Murray passed away a year ago. I used to sing to him when he was very sick. He was very musical, loved music, and he followed my career very closely. I know how much he would have loved to be at the finals.”
李玟也是个贴心的媳妇。“在我还未出生的时候，父亲就过世了。认识了Bruce之后，和他的父亲Murray特别的亲近。他是个人见人爱的大好人，非常和善。他热爱音乐，所以我跟他特别有共鸣。他一直都很支持我，他喜欢听我唱歌。我每场演唱会他都有来。在他癌症末期的时候，我一直在他身边经常唱歌给他听。在他人生最后时光里，我感受到他是充满爱意离开的。”
The I Am a Singer final was on the late Rockowitz senior’s birthday. “I knew more than ever I had to give my best performance, as I knew he would be watching somewhere up above,” Lee says. “And I think he gave me the strength to win. That night was dedicated to my father-in-law and the whole season was dedicated to my mother, who, through the years, through thick and thin, supported and took care of us three girls on her own.
“She has gone through so much hardship but never complained. She’s the most loving and selfless mother a daughter can ask for. She lives for her daughters and we live for her. People say I’m 41 and still a mummy’s girl. I am. I’m proud of it. The trophy is sitting on the mantelpiece in her home.”
《我是歌手》的总决赛的那天正好是Bruce父亲的诞辰。“我特别想拿出自己最棒的表现，因为我知道他在天上看着我。”李玟感慨的说着，“我相信，那晚是他给了我力量我才有机会赢得冠军！决赛那天我献给公公，一整季的比赛是献给我妈妈。这么多年来，妈妈吃进了无数的苦就是为了给我们叁姐妹一个更好的环境。她经历了那么多困难，从来没有怨言，妈妈就是一位伟大的母亲。她做的一切都是为了我们。从小我就懂得一定要孝顺因为妈妈很辛苦的把我们养大。妈妈是我的一切。在我妈妈的眼中我还是像个长不大的小宝贝，即使我已经41岁了，我还是非常黏她。我很自豪地说冠军奖杯现在就端放在妈妈家里壁炉上。”
On cover photo: CoCo Lee wears jacket by Marc Jacobs, dress by Versus Versace, sunglasses by Thom Browne and jewellery by Sunfeel
Photography / Wei Lai
Creative Direction / Gordon Lam
Styling / Mix Wei
Make-up / Yousiqi
Hair / Mike Wong
Styling Assistants / Demo Zhao and Nan Li
Production / Tasha Ling
Location / The Peninsula Beijing