Richard "Dick" Lee Peng Boon (simplified Chinese: 李炳文; pinyin: Lǐ Bǐngwén; born 24 August 1956) is a Singaporean pop singer, composer and playwright. He is best known as a Singapore Idol judge, but often too as spokesperson for the New Asian generation. He was born to a Peranakan father, Lee Kip Lee, (who writes for The Straits Times), and a Chinese mother, Elizabeth Tan. He was the eldest child in the family of five, with three brothers and a deceased sister. He received his early education at St. Michael's School and his secondary education at St. Joseph's Institution. In 1992, he married jazz singer Jacintha Abisheganaden and divorced a few years later. He is a Roman Catholic. Dick Lee started his career 1971 when, at the age of fifteen, Dick participated in various talent contests with the group, Harmony, and Dick and the Gang (teaming with his siblings). His first album, Life Story, featuring his compositions, was released in 1974. Throughout the 70s and 80s, Dick championed the acceptance of Asian elements in pop music. His pioneering album, Life In The Lion City (1984), won acclaim for just that. But the album that shot him to regional prominence was his 1989 release, The Mad Chinaman. Dick has also won several awards in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. Dick is also passionate about musicals. He has written many staged musicals including Beauty World (1988), Fried Rice Paradise (1991), Kampong Amber (1994), Sing to the Dawn (1996), Hotpants (1997), and Jacky Cheung's acclaimed Snow.Wolf.Lake (1997). Apart from music, Dick’s other passion is for fashion, having studied fashion design at Harrow School of Art in London. His interest began at the early age of 16 when he designed for his mother’s boutique Midteen. His fashion career has taken him to Carrie Models, where he scouted and trained the top Singapore models, and designing his own labels for his boutique Ping Pong, as well as in Hemispheres, the first young designer store he set up with a partner. Other forays in the fashion world include Display Director for Tangs departmental store in 1984, fashion editor of Female 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. (Note: More information on the Wikipedia website). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.