Lea Salonga, a famous Filipina singer who has made a mark on Broadway and London's West End, said she has received an early Christmas gift this year, a month before her wedding next January.

The Broadway cast album of Flower Drum Song, which starred her in the lead role, has been nominated for best musical show album in the 46th Grammy Awards. Rap and other artists dominated the Grammy nominees.

Their names were announced at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on Thursday. From October 2002 to March 2003, Salonga starred in Flower Drum Song on Broadway and she was also in the musical's soundtrack album.

She portrayed Mei-Li, a young girl from Communist China who finds her way to San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950s. She recorded songs in the musical such as I Am Going to Like It Here, A Hundred Million Miracles, Love Look Away and You Are Beautiful, a duet with Jose Llana, another Filipino singer who was her partner in the musical. The album is distributed in Manila by BMG Records Pilipinas, her recording studio for seven years. The award will not necessarily honour Salonga, but the album producer, lyricist and composer.

Music of the classic musical was written by Richard Rodgers and the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical, based on the novel by C.Y. Lee, was written by award winning playwright David Henry Hwang.

Salonga was the first Filipino artist to portray Kim in the West End production of Miss Saigon, a role which she played again on Broadway.

Her other international theatre recordings include the original sound track of Miss Saigon.