Lea Salonga: 1st Pinay on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — ‘Still quite stunned about it’

By Cristina DC Pastor

In a career spanning decades and continents, Tony Award-winning performer Lea Salonga has made a home in the hearts of Filipino theatergoers in the Philippines and around the world.

Two Filipina Americans describe what Lea meant to them growing up.

“Since I was a little girl,” reminisced artist Ann Constantino Beck,  “I have loved Lea Salonga’s rendition of ‘A Whole New World’ with Brad Kane.’ I continue to enjoy it today. She is an artist I greatly admire.”

Jessy Daing, a director at NYC’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, remembers Lea “since I was a kid” when she watched her film a Sanrio commercial in a Manila mall.

“I distinctly recall hearing her flawless, pitch perfect voice at such a young age, and I just knew then that this little girl was destined for greatness.”

Lea has made such stirring impact in the hearts of many young Filipina girls who grew up with her music and idolized her immeasurable talent.

This beloved artist who has conquered Broadway and Disney is set to receive one of the entertainment industry’s most iconic honors—a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Other luminaries have been there before her — namely Bruno Mars, apl.de.ap, and Rob Schneider – but to be the first Filipina?

“Kinda great to be the first Pinay to get it!,” she tells The FilAm in an email interview. “Truly an honor.”

“It’s one of those things you think about and dream about, but never really think it will come true. And yet here we are! It’s wonderful!” she continued.

She found out the big news on coming home from travel and still suffering from jet lag.

“I woke up very early that morning, around 5:46 a.m., and went on social media. There were already posts congratulating me for the star, but I didn’t believe them right away. It was when my manager sent a text saying, ‘Call me before you look at any social media, email or text’ that it really hit home that it was true! I mean, wow! I’m still quite stunned about it all, to be honest!”

On October 20, Lea will headline a concert called “Stage, Screen & Everything in Between,” at the Town Hall. In this show she has done in the UK and the Philippines, she will be singing the “familiar hits from the worlds of the stage and the movies.”

Musical theatre fans will experience stage and screen classics from “Miss Saigon,” “Les Misérables,” “Aladdin” and “Mulan,” plus new-found favorites from the critically acclaimed Broadway and West End hit “Old Friends,” Broadway blockbusters, pop classics, all from her celebrated career.

She added, “The format is familiar, but I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in a traditional concert setting. We put so much love into creating this set list, and there’s also so much love whenever we perform it. It’s not just a concert—it’s a love letter to musical storytelling, crafted with passion by Salonga and her team.”

To Lea, performing since the age of 7 on Philippine stage and television, has been “such a fun profession.” While others might consider her childhood unusual, she sees it differently.

“Normalcy is relative…I don’t know what it’s like to not be a performer, so as far as I’m concerned, what I’m doing is normal in my world,” she said.

The intrigues and pettiness in the industry, she has learned to mute and brush aside “those things (that) come from small people with smaller minds.” She is grateful for all the luck and goodwill that have come her way and to have worked with the “most incredible people” on and off stage.

“I honestly just have the best time. Acting and singing are fun! Getting to disappear into a character and play dress-up for a few hours brings me immeasurable joy, and I hope the audience sees that. I wouldn’t have lasted this long if it wasn’t fun,” she said.

Though her voice is one of the most recognizable in the world of musical theater, Salonga’s journey has experienced a rare vocal hurdle.

“While I was in “Miss Saigon” in London, there was a time when I didn’t actually know what was happening with my voice. It was failing me, and I wasn’t equipped to handle it.”

She took a break under medical advice and returned to singing only after intensive voice training. The experience reshaped her approach: “I learned how to sing properly, heal, get stronger, and keep going.”

If she was not a performing artist, what would she like to do?

At the age of 9, she had announced she “wanted to be a psychiatrist or in today’s parlance, a therapist. Perhaps I was just curious about what made human beings tick. Today, I’m an actor with that same curiosity. So perhaps in that way, I fulfilled my childhood ambitions.”