Taipei City Government and MTV joined hands yesterday to distribute awards to the best Mando-pop artists of the year in anticipation of the Taipei Pop Music Festival set to take place tomorrow in front of City Hall.
Six awards were given out with the categories ranging from the predictable: artist of the year, best new artist, to the quirky: most adorable artist and Taipei City Honor award.
PHOTO: WEI CHIA-CHI, TAIPEI TIMES
"The popular music festival is one of many performance events organized by the city government aimed at creating a vibrant, healthy and artistic city," Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
This year is the second annual music awards and festival hosted by the city government. Last year's event attracted over 20,000 and organizers expect even more this year to jam the square in front of City Hall, where a massive stage has already been set up.
At yesterday's ceremony, several hundred die-hard fans, as well as civil servants taking a long coffee break, crowded the building's entrance hoping to catch a glimpse of the handful of stars that showed up to collect their awards and promote tomorrow's concert.
In a repeat of the Golden Melody Awards in early May, Jay Chou (
Harlem Yu's (
With the exception of Jay Chou, all the artists who received awards will hit the stage tomorrow night in front of City Hall for a full evening of pop music, choreographed dance routines and pyrotechnics.
Also showing up for performances will be Karen Mok, Eason Chan (
The music kicks off at 7pm, but the crowd is likely to begin gathering several hours earlier. The area directly in front of the stage will be roped off for people with tickets. Tickets are free but obtaining them entails either collecting three labels from Daily C drink bottles and exchanging them for tickets at MTV's offices at 3F, 87 Kuangfu N. Rd., Taipei (
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