The many winners at the 25th Golden Melody Awards in Taipei on Saturday did not bag multiple awards on a night when the honors were evenly distributed across artists and countries.
Malaysian-Chinese singer and songwriter Penny Tai (戴佩妮) and Taiwanese singer-songwriter and record producer Jonathan Lee (李宗盛) walked away with the biggest hauls from the ceremony, Taiwan’s largest music event.
Tai won the Best Mandarin Female Singer category for her album Unexpected and took Best Album Producer for her work on Chinese singer Koala Liu’s album Embrace.
Photo: AFP
Lee’s song Hills — also the title of his album — picked up Best Song of the Year, Best Lyricist and Best Album Packaging.
Meanwhile, the night’s most important award — Best Mandarin Album — went to Taiwanese rock musician Chang Chen-yue’s (張震嶽) I Am Ayal Komod.
Chang said the album reflected a return to his roots.
Singaporean singer and songwriter J.J. Lin (林俊傑) took home the award for Best Mandarin Male Singer for his album Stories Untold.
“Yes!! So this is how it feels to win the Best Male Singer award,” an excited Lin said, after receiving the prize from Taiwanese singer Jam Hsiao (蕭敬騰).
Lin had been nominated three times for the award, but had never won, though in 2004, he scooped the Golden Melody Best New Artist award.
Best New Artist went to Chinese singer-songwriter Li Ronghao (李榮浩) for his debut album Model. He has won praise for his soulful singing style, with his style compared to that of US artist John Mayer.
Taiwanese band Mixer won Best Band.
The Lifetime Contribution Award was given to late music producer Peng Kuo-hua (彭國華) in recognition of his contribution to Taiwan’s music scene.
Peng, who died of liver cancer in 2001 at 46, discovered aspiring singers during the 1980s and 1990s when he was president of UFO Records, the Golden Melody committee said.
Peng’s wife, TV show host Chang Hsiao-yen (張小燕), accepted the award in his honor.
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