Famous for studio albums such as Lush Life, Tropicana, and Jacintha is Her Name, this Singaporean bossa nova and jazz vocalist is also notable for her work as a stage actress. In the mid-1980s, she helped found a performance company called TheatreWorks in her native Singapore.
After earning a bachelor's degree in English from the National University of Singapore, she undertook creative writing coursework at Harvard University. She began her music career after winning a televised Singaporean competition called Talentime.
She judged Season Two of Singapore Idol.
She grew up in Singapore as the daughter of a Sri-Lankan-born, award-winning guitarist father named Alex Abisheganaden and a Chinese pianist and singer mother. Her three marriages -- to American attorney David Scheffer, singer Dick Lee, and journalist Koh Boon Pin (with whom she had a child named Alexander) -- all ended in divorce.
In the late 1990s, she released a debut jazz recording titled Here's To Ben - A Vocal Tribute To Ben Webster.