Lea Salonga Is Still Making History Four Decades Later

Lea Salonga began her career in Manila at the age of seven and has spent decades making history voicing two iconic Disney princess anthems and earning herself a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Filipina singer and actress Lea Salonga is the only person ever to provide the singing voices for two different official Disney princesses. But before she brought Mulan’s “Reflection” to life, her career began in Manila, where she would perform professionally at just seven years old in a production of The King and I. She went on to play the lead in Annie as well as several other stage productions, spending years perfecting her talent. It wasn’t until 1989 when the creators of stage musical, Miss Saigon, began searching worldwide for an actress to play Kim, a young Vietnamese lead. Solonga became their star at the age of 18, earning the Laurence Olivier Award, before bringing it to Broadway and winning the 1991 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. This win made Solonga the first Asian woman to win the award in that category. Salonga continued her career on Broadway when she became the first Asian actress to play Éponine in Les Misérables, and later as Fantine, proving her versatility early on. Then came Disney. Salonga gave the world Princess Jasmine’s singing voice in the 1992 animated classic Aladdin which included the Oscar-winning song “A Whole New World”. Six years later, Salonga became the singing voice of Mulan, executing the iconic, “Reflection”. She also returned for Mulan II and was inducted as a Disney Legend in 2011 for her contributions to the company and stealing the hearts of millions of Disney fans. Solanga just recently performed the two classics at Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration during World Princess Week in August 2026. Aside from Disney, Salonga has continued to celebrate Filipino talent, joining the first all-Filipino Broadway company Here Lies Love in 2023. Her influence has since been recognized far beyond theater as TIME honored her with a TIME100 Impact Award in 2022 and on September 4, 2026, she became the first Filipina to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Not only did Lea Salonga sing two of the most iconic Disney songs, she became a real-life role model for Asian performers, and now more than four decades after her first stage appearance, Salonga is still collecting career firsts.