The highlight of last night's event came when award presenters Wu Bai and Gigi Leung (
The Best Band category saw the emergence of underground and alternative acts such as the Hohak Band (
With little surprise, the better known Chairman (董事長) took the award for best band, squeezing out other nominees Nature Q, Sodagreen, Won Fu, LTK Commune and Hohak Band, which was awarded the Best Hakka Album award for Hohak Carnival.
The absence of heavyweight teen idols such as the Double J pair Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) and the dominant presence of Kimbo had generated considerable speculation about a shift in the Golden Melody Awards from big-ticket pop acts to smaller and more intimate singer/song writers. But in fact Penny Tai, Cheer Chen and songstress Tanya Tsai (蔡健雅), who were all nominated for Best Mandarin Female Singer this year are no strangers to the Golden Melodies, and Jolin Tsai has never been a jury favorite. A bias toward the alternative scene announced itself back in 2000 with Faith Yang (楊乃文) beating out Faye Wang (王菲) and A-mei (張惠妹) to walk away with Best Mandarin Female Singer title.
More recently, last year's award ceremony saw the alt-music songstress Sandy Chen (陳珊妮) take top honors in Best Album and Best Producer categories whereas the favorite Golden Melody winner Jay Chou walked away empty handed despite nominations in six categories.
Hakka and Aboriginal sounds have also risen to prominence at the Golden Melody in recent years. Last year Hakka band Sheng Xiang and Water 3 (生祥與瓦窯3) had seven nominations, winning Best Lyricist, Best Hakka Album and Best Band. Beinan musician Chen Chian-nien (陳建年) also took the best male singer title away from other high-profile contenders such as Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) and Jackie Cheung (張學友).
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