Lea Salonga, Actress

FOR FANS OF musical star Lea Salonga, there are few more highly-anticipated moments in her concerts than when she randomly selects a stranger from the audience to sing with her A Whole New World from Disney classic Aladdin. At first the man appears nondescript - though a few have been known to come in the entire get-up of Arabesque vest and baggy pants - but, after a few tentative notes, soars into a rich vibrato that gets whoops and cheers from the audience.

Make no mistake - these strangers come prepared. They don't want to mess up their all-important moment with Salonga, which they know are being recorded by fans in the auditorium to be uploaded online and commented on later. Search YouTube and you'll find dozens of such videos, with their collective views amounting to several millions. Come March, a couple more of such videos may appear when Salonga performs for four nights at the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore.

At 48, Salonga still reigns as musical theatre's most famous Asian star. She nabbed the lead role of Kim in Miss Saigon in 1989 when she was just 18, and became the first Asian woman to win a Tony award. She played a variety of iconic roles afterwards, including Eponine and Fantine in Les Miserables, and was the singing voice of not one but two Disney princesses (Jasmine and Mulan) - a claim no other singer can make.