The 19th Golden Melody Awards, arguably the most prestigious recognition in Mandarin music industry, were presented in Taipei on July 5.
Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou was the biggest winner, bagging five awards, including song of the year and best composer awards.
Malaysian Gary Chau and Singaporean Tanya Chua claimed the best male/female Mandarin singers title respectively (pic); Tanya also bagged the best producer award.
Taiwanese band Sodagreen won the best group/band award; while Hong Kong star Karen Mok produced the biggest surprise of the night by winning album of the year award.
The awards presentation was shown live at my TV channel… but it was so so boring. The red carpet sucked, the hostesses sucked and the performers talked too much.
The funniest thing is seeing the celebrities pretending to be interested with what was happening on stage when most of them were probably bored to the max.
chinese music is going down in last few years. no new style, not enough talents. its overcommercialized bringing up singers that looks good but can’t sing.
Ya, kinda felt the same thing, with the exception of China; but mainland Chinese are not really trying to advance overseas… in terms of Chinese music, their market is the biggest at the moment… in fact most other artists are trying hard to get into China instead.
well, this award ceremony is based on the mandarin music industry.
i think mandarin music still stand some chance. there have been more and more singers from both taiwan and china that composes their own music. and the winners who were mentioned in the article aren’t the ones who have the best looks. jay chou is popular, but some people might think he’ve been a bit over-rated. i personally like his and gary cao’s music. and they’re both great composers. yes, it’s true that chinese music is degrading more than improving these years, and looks is important. but it’s not that bad. maybe hk is the worst. hk focuses on cantonese music, which is less popular than mandarin music (i think). and they have even less talents. many of their newcomers in these years are just garbage.
Off course there are still chances… mainland Chinese artists have always emphasised on composing their own music, or else they would need to be really good to excel in the industry. As for the others, all they need is to change their mindset and give more emphasis on the music itself.
HK is indeed falling behind when it comes to music making, it’s the same old people running the show. Taiwan is probably on a better track, but it ain’t looking too good for me… take away Jay Chou and there would be an obvious ‘hole’ in Taiwanese music scene. There are still a few others that are credible, but at the end of the day… popularity dictates the market, not quality.
The Malaysians and Singaporeans are doing well in recent years in these awards and album sales… it’s a good thing for Chinese music in general, but it’s also showing worrying signs in HK and Taiwan music.
The event organiser of Taiwan golden melody is really outdated. No sparks or creativity. Why invite some non-singing japanese singer to present awards or American singer to sing 3 songs? 4 woman presenter is a bad move…
Ya, the organisers seemed to be losing directions for the past few years… the ratings are dropping and they are obviously trying to revive the show. Problem is, they are focusing on the wrong thing… all the audiences need are good host, good performance and less rubbish.
Jay Chou is overrated for what he’s worth. But I guess the market needs someone to be worshipped so until that person(s) comes along Jay Chou dominates the market.
Good thing that a lot of underground bands and singers could still survive without going mainstream in Taiwan.
Good point Sally. Jay is probably not as popular and creative as he used to, but there are no people to take over his status in Taiwan at the moment.
I totally agree with wat sally!! Jay is TOO overrated…. I much perfer Rynn Lin whom I feel should never have made his music mainstream in e 1st place…
^ Really? I don’t think so. Why exactly do you think jay is overrated. Fahrenheit is overrated. So is Lollipop. But jay has credible talent, his songs are great, and he’s always looking to improve himself. Thats why i don’t think he’s overrated at all.