Yao Lee

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For the assassin in the Spring and Autumn Period, see Yao Li.

Yao Lee (Chinese: 姚莉; pinyin: Yáo Lì; born 姚秀雲 Yáo Xiùyún in 1921 or 1922; also credited as Yiu Lei and Miss Hue Lee) was a Chinese singer from the 1930s to the 1970s and sister of Yao Min.

1 Biography
2 Music
3 Notes
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Shanghai, Yao began performing with a radio appearance there in 1935 at the age of 13. She was signed to Pathé Records (EMI) and soon became one of the "seven great singing stars" of Republican Chinese Shanghai.

Following the Communist seizure of power in China in 1949, popular music was considered ideologically suspect^[1] and Yao fled to Hong Kong in 1950 to continued her singing career there. She stopped singing in 1967 with the death of her brother but took an executive position with EMI Music Hong Kong in 1969. In 1970, she returned to performing and traveled to Taiwan to perform there for the first time and sought unsuccessfully to sign Teresa Teng to EMI for the Hong Kong market. She retired in officially in 1975 but remained supportive of singers such as Wakin Chau.

[edit] Music

During her Shanghai era, Yao Lee's high, soft singing style was typical of Chinese popular music of the time. She performed numerous popular standards of her time, many such as "Wishing You Happiness and Prosperity" with her brother Yao Min. She is famous for her 1940 version of "Rose, Rose, I Love You," later recorded by Frankie Laine in the United States with English lyrics. (Her version was also released in the US and the United Kingdom credited to "Miss Hue Lee"). Yao was known as "the Silver Voice" alluding to fellow Shanghai singer Zhou Xuan who was known as "the Golden Voice."

With increasing Western influence in the region after World War II and her move to Hong Kong, Yao Lee's singing changed. She was introduced to more Western popular music and became an admirer of American singer Patti Page whom she emulated by lowering her voice and incorporating some vocal mannerisms. As a result, Yao is sometimes called "Hong Kong's Patti Page."

Yao was extremely prolific with over 400 gramophone records attributed to her.