Lea Salonga Becomes First Filipina To Receive Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

Filipina superstar Lea Salonga has been honoured on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She became the first Filipina to be feted with the honour.

“When I began my career, I didn’t see very many people who looked like me doing the things I dreamed of doing on the world’s biggest stages and screens. There wasn’t an obvious road,” Salonga said during her acceptance speech in front of the Pantages Theatre. “I was incredibly fortunate that there were people who opened doors for me. Who took chances on me and who saw what I might be capable of.”

Lea Salonga Honoured With Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

On receiving the star, Lea also added, “Most of my work is in musical theater. So even though musical theater does reach Los Angeles and Hollywood, it’s not something that I thought would actually happen. It’s not like the kind of Hollywood career that, say, somebody like Bette Davis or Katharine Hepburn or any of those icons of the screen or television have had. This is something that I did not foresee.”

Guest speakers at the ceremony included Cinderella actress Brandy, Mulan star Ming-Na Wen, and Darren Criss. “It centers on my culture. It centers Philippine myth and folklore. We get to share our mythological creatures with the bigger world. I don’t think it’s something that I ever thought I would have seen," Salonga also insisted.

Lea Salonga's Career Triumphs

“Lea Salonga’s voice has never been only a voice. It has been a doorway, a mirror, a home,” raved Brandy, who recently sang “A Whole New World” with the Tony winner for Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration. “There are singers who reach notes. Lea reaches hearts and souls. Through Jasmine and Mulan, she did more than give princesses their songs. She gave children who had been waiting outside the fairy tale a way inside.”

Salonga, who was born in the Philippines, emerged the first Asian woman to land a Tony Award in 1991 with Miss Saigon. She became inseparable from 1992’s Aladdin when she performed “A Whole New World” for the classic film. In 1998, Salonga featured as the singing voice of the heroic title character in Disney’s Mulan.

“Her history is filled with firsts, but first is not the deepest word in her story. The deepest word is after,” said Brandy. “Who could dream after her? Who could enter after her? Who could walk through because she left the doorway open.”