Dick Lee
Richard "Dick" Lee Peng Boon is a Singaporean singer-songwriter, playwright and film director.
Early life
He was born to a Peranakan father, Lee Kip Lee,, and Elizabeth Tan. He was the eldest child in the family of five, with three brothers and a deceased younger sister. He received his early education at St. Michael's School and his secondary education at St. Joseph's Institution.Career
Early years
Dick Lee started his career in 1971 when, at the age of fifteen, participated in various talent contests with the group, Harmony, and Dick and the Gang. His first album, Life Story, featuring his compositions, was released in 1974.Throughout the 70s and 80s, Lee championed the acceptance of Asian elements in pop music. His pioneering album, Life in the Lion City, won acclaim. But the album that shot him to regional prominence was his 1989 release, The Mad Chinaman. Lee has also won several awards in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. In 1983, he co-produced Zircon Lounge's debut album Regal Vigour.
The 90s
In 1990, Lee moved to Japan where he continued to develop the new Asian identity through his solo work, as well as collaborations with top Asian artistes such as Tracy Huang, Sandy Lam and Japanese group Zoo. He has to date, written numerous songs for top singing talents in Asia.Transit Lounge, released by Sony, won both critical and general music lovers' praises during the same time when he was also the regional vice-president of Artiste and Repertoire for Sony Music Asia, based in Hong Kong from 1998 to 2000. Everything, released in November 2000 also by Sony Music, features a collection of his works written since the 1970s. In December 2001, Lee and his friend Leonard T contributed a song to a charity CD – Love Is The Answer For Kids With Aids, KK Outreach for Kids Fund. The song "It All Begins With Love" is aired frequently on Singapore's radio stations.
Plays and musicals
Lee has also written many staged musicals including Beauty World, Fried Rice Paradise, Kampong Amber, Sing to the Dawn, Hotpants, Jacky Cheung's acclaimed Snow.Wolf.Lake, Nagraland, Puteri Gunung Ledang and P. Ramlee. Since 1998, Lee has been the Associate Artiste Director of the Singapore Repertory Theatre.In 2000, Lee composed the songs to the musical of Phua Chu Kang, a highly popular sitcom, for the Singapore President's Star Charity Drive. Produced and broadcast by Television Corporation of Singapore, the musical raised over a record-setting $2 million.
In 2002, he wrote and co-directed his first dance musical re:MIX for Singapore Repertory Theatre Young Company, as well as a specially commissioned work, , one of the highlights of Singapore's prestigious new cultural centre, The Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay opening festival in October that year and a popular re-run in September 2003, and again in 2006. It was directed by Steven Dexter and will go on a world tour in 2008, with the first stop being London's West End.
2000s
Lee was appointed the Creative Director for Singapore's 2002 National Day Parade. Coincidentally, his song "We Will Get There" was selected to be 2002 theme song for the parade. Stefanie Sun performed the song and also included it in her own top-selling album. This was his second National Day theme song, having written "Home", performed by Kit Chan, in 1998.In 2003, he penned the English lyrics of "Treasure The World", the image song of J-ASEAN campaign by The Japan Foundation. Artistes from Japan and 10 ASEAN countries recorded this song for the campaign in English and their respective native languages. In July 2003, Lee was awarded the Fukuoka Arts and Culture Prize, an award by the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize committee to recognise an individual's substantial contributions to the arts scene in Asia.
Lee wrote an autobiography, The Adventures of the Mad Chinaman, in 2004.
In 2004, he joined Singapore Idol as a judge alongside fellow Singaporeans Florence Lian and Ken Lim. He also returned as a judge for Singapore Idol for the second and third seasons in 2006 and 2009 respectively.
On 17 and 18 December 2004, Lee held a 30th anniversary concert, titled Life Stories at the Kallang Theatre. Guest stars included Singapore Idol winner Taufik Batisah and runner up Sylvester Sim, Kumar, ex-wife Jacintha, Koh Chieng Mun, Hossan Leong, and others.
In 2009, he penned the theme song for the APEC Singapore 2009 summit which was performed in front of world leaders such as Barack Obama by Kit Chan during the Singapore Evening at the APEC Singapore 2009 summit on 14 November 2009 at the Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay. He was also the director of the 30-minute musical extravaganza involving 376 Singaporean artistes in a concert extravaganza enhanced by multimedia projections.
In 2010, Lee was the Creative Director of Singapore's 44th National Day Parade.
In 2011, Lee returned with The Adventures of the Mad China man, a concert, and Beauty Kings, an original comedy play.
In 2012, Lee opened MAD in Singapore. It is a 5-way partnership with 4 other homegrown local companies namely Tung Lok group, Bakerzin, Bar Stories and Top Wines. Lee also performed — and was a character — in TheatreWorks’ National Broadway Company production for the Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay's 10th anniversary celebrations.
In 2013, Lee returned to musicals by composing the 90-minute LightSeeker, which premiered at Resorts World Sentosa. He was also named a Steinway Artist and became Creative Director of the revamped Rediffusion Singapore radio station.
In 2014, Lee held a concert, Dick Lee: Celebrating 40 Years In Music, at the Drama Centre. In the same year, a revamped version of his 1997 musical Hotpants was restaged. After his third stint as National Day Parade's Creative Director, Lee will return to helm 2015's golden jubilee show; and he has been tasked to write the next big National Day song.
In 2015, Lee was the creative director of Singapore 50th National Day Parade, where he composed the NDP theme song "Our Singapore", performed by JJ Lin.
In 2017, Lee made his directorial debut with the autobiographical musical film, Wonder Boy.
Fashion
Having studied fashion design at Harrow School of Art in London, Lee's interest in fashion began at 16 when he designed for his mother's boutique Midteen.He designed his own labels for his boutique Ping Pong, as well as for Hemispheres, the first young designer store he set up with a partner.
Other forays in the fashion world include Display Director for Tangs departmental store in 1984, fashion editor of Female magazine in 1986 and one of the founders of the Society of Designing Arts, which spearheaded the introduction of Singapore designers to the local fashion market.
From 1982 to 1990, Lee also ran his own event company Runway Productions, which specialised in fashion and tourism events. His company also had a hand in the creation of the Boom Boom Room, a cabaret featuring drag comedian Kumar.
Lee chaired the 2011 Audi Fashion Festival, and in 2014, he was named brand ambassador for Audi Singapore.