MANILA, Philippines – Filipino singer and actress Lea Salonga is among the stars set to receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in the Class of 2025-2026, Billboard reported.
This year’s 35 awardees were announced at a live press conference from Ovation Hollywood on Wednesday, July 2.
Salonga and comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias are the only honorees in the Live Theatre/Live Performance category.
In her Instagram story, Salonga wrote ecstatically: “Just woke up to this amazing news! To the Manila International Film Fest, many thanks for nominating me to the part of the class of 2025–2026.”
Salonga is the first Filipina to be recognized on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in California since 1960. She joins other celebrities with Filipino roots like musician Apl.de.ap from Pampanga, a member of the Black Eyed Peas, who was part of the group when it was recognized under the Recording category in the 2021/2022 class. Comedian Rob Schneider’s inclusion was announced in 2011, and singer Bruno Mars in the 2016 class.
This year’s Walk of Fame honorees were chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce panel, sifting through “hundreds” of nominations starting June 20. The selections were ratified by the Chamber’s board of directors on June 25.
“These talented individuals have made significant contributions to the world of entertainment, and we are thrilled to honor them with this well-deserved recognition,” said Peter Roth, former CEO of Warner Bros. Television and chairman of the Walk of Fame selection committee.
The Class of 2026 consists of big names across music, television, film, live theater, and sports entertainment, including Miley Cyrus, Josh Groban, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Timothée Chalamet, Rami Malek, Marion Cotillard, Air Supply, Emily Blunt, Rachel McAdams, Gordon Ramsay, and Shaquille O’Neal, who is the only honoree in the Sports Entertainment category.
Salonga is known globally as an award-winning Broadway and theater icon, having won a Tony Award at 20 years old for her role as Kim in Miss Saigon at London’s West End in 1989. Lea Salonga became the first actress of Asian descent to win a Tony for a lead role, and one of the youngest winners of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.
She also won the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Awards for Miss Saigon.
According to a Tatler Asia report, she started performing on stage at age seven in 1978, performing for The King and I, Annie, and The Sound of Music. Her first album, Small Voice, came out in 1981, and she even had a television variety show called Love, Lea from 1983 to 1985 when she was a teenager.
She is also widely recognized as the singing voice of two Disney princesses: Jasmine in Aladdin and Fa Mulan in Mulan and Mulan 2, earning her the title of a Disney Legend in 2011.
In 2022, she was named one of TIME100 Impact Awardees.
Salonga has starred in multiple grand productions, like Les Misérables, Allegiance, and Once on This Island. Some of her recent shows include Broadway’s Here Lies Love in 2023, a musical about Imelda Marcos, where she played a guest role as Aurora Aquino.
She also starred alongside Dolly de Leon in 2024’s Request sa Radyo, a Filipino adaptation of Wunschkonzert/Request Program by Franz Xaver Kroetz.
Salonga is set to star as The Witch in the Philippine production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods, alongside her trans son Nic Chien, who is playing Jack. – Rappler.com