...the Disney Legend

Lea Salonga is among this year's Disney Legends Award Honorees

By MAUREEN MARIE BELMONTE

August 16, 2011

Tony Award-winning singer Lea Salonga provided the singing voice of popular Disney characters Jasmine and Mulan

MANILA, Philippines – For her “extraordinary and integral” contribution to the “great Disney legacy,” international singer Lea Salonga will be honored at the Disney Legends Award this year.

Salonga provided the singing voice for two Disney characters: Jasmine in “Aladdin” (1992), and Fa Mulan in “Mulan” (1998) and “Mulan II” (2004).

According to the Aug. 15 feature posted on the Official Disney Fan Club’s website, joining Salonga as this year's recipients are 12 other Disney Legends including TV icon Regis Philbin and  “Muppets” creator Jim Henson.

Other actresses who lent their voices to other Disney characters including Jodi Benson (Ariel from “The Little Mermaid”), Paige O’Hara (Belle from “Beauty and the Beast”), and Linda Larkin (speaking voice of Jasmine from “Aladdin”) will also grace the event to be held on Aug. 19 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, and hosted by “Dancing With The Stars” host Tom Bergeron.

Each honoree will reportedly receive a two-foot-tall bronze Disney Legends sculpture that signifies “the imagination, creativity and magic they have brought to the Company.”

Furthermore, the feature also mentioned that the Disney Legends Award recipients will also participate in a handprint ceremony, and their bronzed prints will be displayed in the Disney Legends Plaza at Disney’s Burbank headquarters.

The Disney Legend Awards recipients were chosen by a selection committee, formerly appointed and chaired by the late Disney Legend Roy E. Disney, Walt Disney's nephew, former vice chairman and director emeritus of The Walt Disney Company. The committee consists of long-time Disney executives, historians and other authorities, as noted in the website.

Over 237 Disney Legends have already been honored since its establishment in 1987. Past Disney Legends awardees include Hollywood celebrities Tim Allen, Robin Williams, Julie Andrews and Barbara Walters.