The Golden Melody Awards, one of the most prestigious entertainment events in the Chinese-speaking world, late on Saturday celebrated the nation’s linguistic diversity with big wins for artists who primarily sing in Mandarin, but also recognition of those who sing in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and indigenous languages.
Taiwanese singer A-lin (黃麗玲) prevailed against five other nominees to take home Best Mandarin Female Singer for her album LINK.
It was the 39-year-old A-lin’s first win in the category, after being nominated for the fifth time.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
“I am sorry I might have to take up some of the audience’s time because I have rehearsed this walk for 16 years,” she said in her acceptance speech. “This is a written statement I have prepared all these years for the six times [including a nomination for Best New Artist] I’ve been nominated.”
“I thank myself for being able to sing as me because no matter if I was tall, short, chubby or skinny, I am me,” she said.
Taiwanese singer-songwriter Hush beat out five other nominees to take home Best Mandarin Male Singer for his album Pleasing Myself (娛樂自己).
Photo: EPA
Hush is the stage name of Taiwanese singer-songwriter and lyricist Chen Pin-he (陳品赫).
“We musicians are like chefs, in charge of mixing the sweet, the bitter, the sour and some spice — such as my hot self on the red carpet this evening,” he said in his acceptance speech.
Veteran star Julia Peng (彭佳慧) was named Best Singer in Hakka, despite never recording an album in the language before, while Enno Cheng (鄭宜農) won Best Female Singer in Hoklo and Best Hoklo Album, a language she does not speak.
Photo: EPA
Cheng, speaking in Mandarin in her acceptance speech, thanked the Hoklo language for “teaching me how to bow my head and slow down.”
In the indigenous language category, Paiwan singers Kasiwa and Matzka rapped and sang in their native tongue, with Kasiwa winning the prestigious jury award.
Rapper Kumachan (熊仔) won Best Mandarin Album for PRO, while singer-songwriter Wu Qing-feng (吳青峰), the front man for the band Sodagreen, took home Album of the Year for his third solo album, Mallarme’s Tuesdays (馬拉美的星期二).
Photo: AFP
Disco queen Ouyang Fei Fei (歐陽菲菲) and late lyricist and record producer Eric Lin (林秋離) were honored with the Special Contribution Award.
Ouyang, who was famous for having hair as big as her voice, broke through in Japan in the 1970s singing in Japanese.
“Singing and performing have always been my dream. If I can, I will continue to sing and never give up,” Ouyang, now 73, told the audience.
Photo: AFP
Lin’s posthumous Special Contribution Award was received by his widow and fellow musician Hsiung Mei-ling (熊美玲).
Lin’s life was dedicated to music, putting words to many songs such as Mandopop queen A-mei’s (張惠妹) hit ballad Listen to the Sea (聽海).
Most notably, while serving as the chairman of Ocean Butterflies Music in Singapore, Lin discovered Singaporean singing talents A-do (阿杜) and JJ Lin (林俊傑).
Photo: AFP
Eric Lin passed away on Dec. 11 last year at the age of 62.
JJ Lin, who viewed Eric Lin as a mentor, performed a tribute to the lyricist.
While Taiwan has only 23 million people, its music scene has an outsized influence in the Chinese-speaking world, in part due to creativity unhindered by censorship.
Photo: EPA
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wrote on Facebook and Instagram that the love of music at the show had “eliminated language boundaries between different ethnic groups.”
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
RSS