Golden Melody Awards underlines music diversity in Taiwan

The Golden Melody Awards honor linguistic variety

One of the most esteemed entertainment events in the Chinese-speaking world, the Golden Melody Awards, honoured the nation's linguistic diversity late on Saturday with significant wins for artists who primarily sing in Mandarin as well as recognition of those who sing in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka, and indigenous languages.

A-lin (), a Taiwanese singer, beat out five other candidates to win Best Mandarin Female Singer for her album LINK.

After being nominated for the award five times, it was A-lin's first victory in the category at the age of 39.

In her acceptance speech, she apologised for perhaps taking up part of the audience's time because she had been practising this walk for 16 years. This is a written statement that I've been working on for years for the six nominations I've received, which includes one for Best New Artist.

"I thank myself for being able to sing as me because no matter if I was tall, short, chubby, or skinny, I am me," she remarked.

Hush, a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, won Best Mandarin Male Singer over five other finalists for his album Pleasing Myself

Chen Pin-he (), a singer-songwriter from Taiwan, goes by the stage name Hush.

In his acceptance speech, he remarked, "We musicians are like cooks, in charge of blending the sweet, the bitter, the sour, and some spice — such as my hot self on the red carpet this evening.

Despite never having released an album in the language, veteran performer Julia Peng () was selected Best Singer in Hakka, while Enno Cheng () won Best Female Singer and Best Hoklo Album despite not knowing the language.

In her winning speech, Cheng commended the Hoklo language for "teaching me how to bow my head and slow down." She was speaking in Mandarin.

Paiwan rappers Kasiwa and Matzka performed songs and rhymes in their native tongue for the indigenous language category, with Kasiwa taking home the esteemed jury prize.

Rapper Kumachan () won Best Mandarin Album for PRO, and front man of the band Sodagreen Wu Qing-feng () won Album of the Year for his third solo release, Mallarme's Tuesdays ().

The Special Contribution Award was given to late lyricist and record producer Eric Lin () as well as disco queen Ouyang Fei Fei ().

In the 1970s, Japanese singer Ouyang, known for having hair as large as her voice, made a name for herself in Japan.

My dream has always been to perform and sing. The 73-year-old Ouyang promised the audience, "If I can, I'll keep singing and never give up.

His widow, the musician Hsiung Mei-ling (), was presented with Lin's posthumous Special Contribution Award.

A-mei's () popular ballad, Listen to the Sea, was one of the many songs Lin wrote lyrics for during his entire life.

Most notably, Lin found Singaporean singing stars A-do and JJ Lin while serving as the chairman of Ocean Butterflies Music in Singapore.

Eric Lin died on Dec. 11 last year at 62 years old.

JJ Lin, who saw Eric Lin as a tutor, played out a recognition for the lyricist.

While Taiwan has just 23 million individuals, its music scene has an outsized impact in the Chinese-talking world, to some degree because of imagination unhindered by oversight.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) composed on Facebook and Instagram that the affection for music at the show had "killed language limits between various ethnic gatherings."