The red carpet rolls out for Golden Melody Awards

Sales of popular music are down more than 60 percent since hitting a high mark in 1998, leading to a few appeals during the night for people not to buy pirated goods.

In the evening's most sentimental moment, the late comedian Ni Min-jan (倪敏然) and his 10-year-old son Ni Jia-shen (倪嘉升) won the award for best theatrical album in the classical portion of the awards.

Judy Chiang (江蕙), the undisputed reigning queen of Taiwanese-language music, proved her mettle again this year, taking the Best Taiwanese-language Album. Chiang is such a dominant force in the Golden Melody Awards that this year she only submitted material for the best album category, leaving others to compete in the Best Taiwanese-language Female Singer category. This year's was her seventh award.

The three-piece pop-rock band F.I.R won the Best Newcomer Award.

Outspoken singer Lotayu (羅大佑) took the night's award for best composer, for his album Beautisland (美麗島). The award surprised some some people because he has been scathing of the current administration. When asked if he had any more sharp words for the government after receiving the award he chose to hold his tongue. "Everything there is to say I've said in the album," he said.

Winning the Taiwanese Female Singer Award was Sun Shu-mei (孫淑媚), who told reporters backstage that the night for her was filled with irony. "My father didn't want to come because he said every time he comes I lose. And this time I really won. Thanks Dad for not coming."

American new-age musician Matthew Lien took an award in the world music category for his album A Journey of Water, which traces metaphorically through music the flow of water from the mountains of Ilan County to the Pacific Ocean.

The alternative songstress Sandee Chen, who had three nominations and on the red carpet dismissed off-hand the notion that she might be nervous about getting an award, received the Best Producer Award. The Aborignal pop rock group Power Station took top honors in the hotly contested Best Duet Group category, beating out the poular group S.H.E and Stanley Huang with Machi.

This year marked the third time that the Golden Melody Awards were held in the southern city of Kaohsiung.