Agnes Chan leads many lives: singer, actress, child-rights activist, academic, a mother of three. All of those roles come together in her U.S. debut album, Forget Yourself, a collection of songs inspired by children in Ethiopia, Iraq, and other war-torn societies - as well as her own..."I saw children die before my eyes," Chan said in Tokyo, recalling a visit to Ethiopia in 1984 that inspired One Step at a Time, a moving piece about two orphans in at a refugee camp. In Sorrow Lives in This Village...Chan takes on the voice of a child soldier whom she met in Sudan..."Through this album, I want to spread the message that these kids are real, and not just images on TV." The singer has also lobbied for women and children's rights in Japan, where her refusal to take time off after the birth of her first child in 1987 sparked the so-called "Agnes controversy" - a debate on whether it was appropriate for mothers to work...more...