Big-name stars, serious musicians and the music glitterati gathered at Taipei Arena (台北巨蛋) last night to attend the 21st Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎).
Billed as the most important award in the Chinese-language music world, the annual event gives out music awards to professionals making music in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka and Taiwan’s Aboriginal languages.
This year, 124 nominees in a total of 24 categories were drawn from 10,464 entries by a 71-member panel of judges after three rounds of jury meetings.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A-MEI, A-MIT
A-mei’s (張惠妹) new A-Mit (阿密特) persona, A-MIT (阿密特 — 張惠妹意識專輯), garnered 10 nominations this year and picked up awards in the Best Lyricist and Best Composer categories early last night.
Amis musician Chalaw Karu and his band Passiwali walked away with Best Aboriginal-language Album for The Old Old Car (老老車), which draws musical elements from reggae, conga and bossa nova.
Visually impaired Taiwanese musician Ricky Hsiao (蕭煌奇) took his second trophy in the Best Taiwanese Male Singer category. Another two-time winner is Tseng Hsin-mei (曾心梅), who took the Best Taiwanese Female Singer award.
BEST SINGING GROUP
The Best Singing Group award went to three-piece hip-hop outfit Daximen (大囍門), that beat out contenders including acoustic singer-songwriter duo Katncandix2 (棉花糖) and veteran Aboriginal band Power Station (動力火車).
In the hotly contested Best Hakka Singer category, seasoned jazz songstress Emily Guan (官靈芝) was awarded for her highly acclaimed rendition of traditional Hakka tunes in The Swinging You (頭?p) album. Young songstress Yachun Asta Tzeng (曾雅君) beat out veteran Ayu Huang (黃連煜) and Hakka rapper Tai Shih-yao (戴士堯) to pick up the top honor in the Best Hakka Album category for her eponymous album.
Six-piece jazz ensemble SiZhuKong (絲竹空爵士樂團) took top honors in both Best Instrumental Album and Best Instrumental Album Producer categories for its Paper Eagle (紙鳶) album.
SPECIAL CONTRIBUTION
The recipient of this year’s Special Contribution Award was Taiwanese musician Hung Yi-feng (洪一峰), who died of pancreatic cancer in February at the age of 83. Known as the “king of Formosan song” (寶島歌王), the highly esteemed Hung sprang to superstardom in the 1960s after writing timeless Taiwanese ballads that included Memories of an Old Love (舊情綿綿), The One I’m Missing (思慕的人) and Twilight on the Tamsui River (淡水暮色).
Anticipated awards such as Best Mandarin Album, Best Mandarin Male and Female awards had yet to be announced as of press time.
For more coverage of the Golden Melody Awards, see Pop Stop on Page 13 of tomorrow’s edition of the Taipei Times tomorrow.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
RSS