Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga, KLD (born February 22, 1971), known as Lea Salonga (), is a Filipina singer and actress best known for her roles in musical theatre, for supplying the singing voices of two Disney Princesses, and as a recording artist and television performer. At age 18, she originated the lead role of Kim in the musical Miss Saigon, first in the West End and then on Broadway, winning the Olivier and Theatre World Awards, and becoming the first Asian woman to win a Tony Award. Salonga is the first Filipino artist to sign with an international record label (Atlantic Records in 1993). She is also the first Philippine-based artist to have received a major album release and distribution deal in the United States, and one of the best-selling Filipino artists of all time, having sold over 19 million copies of her albums worldwide.

Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga was born at Medical Center Manila in Ermita, Manila, to Feliciano Genuino Salonga, a naval Rear admiral and shipping company owner (1929-2016), and his wife, Maria Ligaya Alcantara, nee Imutan. She spent the first six years of her childhood in Angeles City before moving to Manila. Her brother, Gerard Salonga, is a conductor.  She made her professional debut in 1978 at the age of seven in the musical The King and I with Repertory Philippines. She played the title role in Annie in 1980 and appeared in other productions such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, The Rose T, The Goodbye Girl (1982), Paper Moon (1983) and The Fantasticks (1988). In 1981, she recorded her first album, Small Voice, which was certified gold in the Philippines. In 1985, she and her brother took part in the eighth Metro Manila Popular Music Festival as the interpreters for the song entry titled "Musika, Lata, Sipol at La La La" which was composed by Tess Concepcion.  During the 1980s, Salonga also had several television projects through GMA Radio Television Arts where she worked as a child actor and teen idol. After the success of her first album, from 1983 to 1985, she hosted her own musical television show, Love, Lea, and was a member of the cast of German Moreno's teen variety show That's Entertainment. She acted in films, which included the family-oriented Tropang Bulilit, Like Father, Like Son, Ninja Kids, Captain Barbell and Pik Pak Boom. As a young performer, Salonga received a Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) award nomination for Best Child Actress, and three Aliw Awards for best child performer in 1980, 1981 and 1982. She released her second album, Lea, in 1988.  She also opened for, and performed with, international acts such as Menudo and Stevie Wonder in their concerts in Manila in 1985 and in 1988, respectively.  She finished her secondary education in 1988 at the O. B. Montessori Center in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila, where she was a Bergamo 1 Student and an active participant in school productions. She also attended the University of the Philippines College of Music's extension program aimed at training musically talented children in music and stage movement. A college freshman studying biology at the Ateneo de Manila University when she auditioned for Miss Saigon, she intended to have a medical career. Later, in between jobs in New York, she took two courses at Fordham University's Lincoln Center.

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