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Dick Lee
李炳文
Lee in 2023
Born	Richard Lee Peng Boon (1956-08-24)24 August 1956 (age 68) Singapore
Alma mater	Harrow School of Art
Occupations	Singer-songwriter playwright film director
Years active	1971–present
Spouse	Jacintha Abisheganaden ​ ​ (m. 1992; div. 1997)​
Awards	Cultural Medallion
Musical career
Genres	Pop music,Cantopop, musical theatre
Instrument	Piano
Musical artist
Chinese name
Chinese	李炳文
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lǐ Bǐngwén Yue: Cantonese Jyutping lei5 di2 man4
Website	dickleeasia.com

Richard Lee Peng Boon^[1] (born 24 August 1956) is a Singaporean singer-songwriter, playwright and film director. Lee was awarded theCultural Medallion, Singapore's pinnacle arts award, for music in 2005.

Lee was born to aPeranakan father, Lee Kip Lee, (who wrote forThe Straits Times) and his wife, Elizabeth Tan.^[1] He was the eldest child in the family of five,^[1] with three brothers and a sister (now deceased). He received his early education at St. Michael's School (nowSJI Junior) and his secondary education atSt. Joseph's Institution.

Lee started his career in 1971 at the age of fifteen when he joined the group Harmony as a pianist and participated in several talent contests with the group.^[2] He soon left the group and formed his own group, Dick and the Gang, with his brothers.^[2] He would performed on stage both as a group or on his own.^[2] His first album,Life Story, featuring his own compositions, was released in 1974.^[2]

Throughout the 70s and 80s, Lee championed the use of Asian elements in pop music. His pioneering album,Life in the Lion City (1984), won acclaim. But the album that achieved regional prominence for him wasThe Mad Chinaman, released in 1989,

Lee won several awards in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan for these early artistic efforts.

In addition to his recordings, in 1983, he co-produced and contributed keyboards toZircon Lounge's debut albumRegal Vigour.^[3]

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 asTracy Huang,Sandy Lam and Japanese groupZoo. He has written numerous songs for top singing talents in Asia.

Transit Lounge, released bySony, won both critical and music lovers' praise during the same time that he was 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 bySony 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.

Lee has written many staged musicals includingBeauty World (1988),Fried Rice Paradise (1991),Kampong Amber (1994),Sing to the Dawn (1996),Hotpants (1997),Jacky Cheung's acclaimedSnow.Wolf.Lake (1997),Nagraland (1992),Puteri Gunung Ledang (2006) andP. Ramlee (2007). Since 1998, Lee has been the Associate Artiste Director of theSingapore Repertory Theatre.

In 2000, Lee composed the songs for the musical version of the sitcomPhua Chu Kang, produced for the Singapore President's Star Charity Drive and broadcast byTelevision Corporation of Singapore (TCS). The musical raised over a record-setting $2 million.

In 2002, he wrote and co-directed his first dance musicalre:MIX for the Singapore Repertory Theatre Young Company (SRT Young Company), and that same year wrote a commissioned work,Forbidden City: Portrait of An Empress, one of the highlights of the October opening festival of Singapore's prestigious new cultural centre,The Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay. The production was a popular re-run in September 2003 and again in 2006. It was directed bySteven Dexter and was scheduled to go on a world tour in 2008, with the first stop beingLondon's West End.

Lee was appointed the Creative Director for Singapore's 2002National Day Parade. Coincidentally, his song "We Will Get There" was selected to be 2002 theme song for the parade.^[4]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 byKit Chan, in 1998.

In 2003, he penned the English lyrics of "Treasure The World", the image song of J-ASEAN campaign byThe Japan Foundation. Artistes from Japan and 10ASEAN 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 theFukuoka 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 appeared onSingapore Idol as a judge alongside fellow Singaporeans Florence Lian andKen Lim. He returned as a judge for the second and third seasons in 2006 and 2009.

On 17 and 18 December 2004, Lee held a 30th anniversary concert, titledLife Stories at the Kallang Theatre. Guest stars included Singapore Idol winnerTaufik Batisah and runner upSylvester Sim, Kumar, ex-wife Jacintha,Koh Chieng Mun,Hossan Leong, and others.

In 2005, Lee was awarded theCultural Medallion for music.^[5]

In 2009, he penned the theme song for theAPEC Singapore 2009 summit which was performed in front of world leaders such asBarack Obama by Kit Chan during the Singapore Evening at the APEC Singapore 2009 summit on 14 November 2009 at theEsplanade – 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.^[6]

In 2010, Lee was the Creative Director of Singapore's 44th National Day Parade.

In 2011, Lee returned withThe Adventures of the Mad China man, a concert, andBeauty Kings, an original comedy play.^[7]

In 2012, Lee also performed — and was a character — inTheatreWorks’National Broadway Company production for theEsplanade - Theatres on the Bay's 10th anniversary celebrations.

In 2013, Lee returned to musicals by composing the 90-minuteLightSeeker, which premiered atResorts World Sentosa. He was also named aSteinway Artist and became Creative Director of the revampedRediffusion Singapore radio station.^[8]

In 2014, Lee held a concert,Dick Lee: Celebrating 40 Years In Music, at the Drama Centre.^[9] In the same year, a revamped version of his 1997 musicalHotpants was restaged.^[10] 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.^[11]

In 2015, Lee was the creative director of Singapore 50th National Day Parade, where he composed the NDP theme song "Our Singapore", performed byJJ Lin.

In 2017, Lee made his directorial debut with the autobiographical musical film,Wonder Boy.

Having studied fashion design atHarrow School of Art in London, Lee's interest in fashion began at 16 when he designed for his mother's boutiqueMidteen.

He designed his own labels for his boutiquePing Pong, as well as forHemispheres, the first young designer store he set up with a partner.^[12]

Other forays in the fashion world include Display Director forTangs departmental store in 1984, fashion editor ofFemale 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.^[13]

From 1982 to 1990, Lee also ran his own event company Runway Productions, which specialised in fashion and tourism events.

Lee chaired the 2011Audi Fashion Festival,^[13] and in 2014, he was named brand ambassador for Audi Singapore.^[14]

In 1991, Lee created the Boom Boom Room, a drag cabaret venue atBugis Street, featuring drag comedianKumar and otherdrag queens.^[15] In 2000, Boom Boom Room moved toFar East Square when Bugis Street underwent redevelopment.^[15] It closed eventually in 2004.^[15] In 2021, Lee recreated the Boom Boom Room for a limited run atMarina Bay Sands' Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore.^[15]

In 2012, Lee opened MAD (Modern Asian Diner) in Singapore. It is a 5-way partnership with 4 other homegrown local companies namely Tung Lok group, Bakerzin, Bar Stories and Top Wines atThe Grandstand located atBukit Timah, Singapore.^[16] It closed in March 2014.^[17] Lee opened pancake jointSlappy Cakes, another joint venture by Lee, in a portion of the original space used by MAD.^[17]

Lee is aCatholic. In 1992, Lee marriedjazz singerJacintha Abisheganaden.^[18] They divorced in 1997 .^[18]

• Official website
• Dick Lee atIMDb

• 1956 births
• Living people
• 20th-century Singaporean male singers
• 21st-century Singaporean male singers
• Singaporean composers
• Peranakan people in Singapore
• Singaporean people of Hokkien descent
• Singaporean Roman Catholics
• Singaporean television personalities
• Saint Joseph's Institution, Singapore alumni
• Recipients of the Cultural Medallion
• Theatre in Singapore

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