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The 17th Golden Melody Awards, the Chinese-language Grammys, commenced successfully last night at the Taipei National Stadium.
American-born Taiwanese singer-songwriter Leehom Wang and Singapore's singer-songwriter Tanya Chua took home the "Best Male Vocalist" and "Best Female Vocalist" awards respectively. This was a redeeming moment for Leehom Wang after last year's embarrassing name-mispronunciation fiasco. However, last year's moment was not to be forgotten, as just before the "Best Male Vocalist" award was presented, it was replayed on the big screens of Taipei Stadium. But the good-natured Leehom was not perturbed and kept a smile on through the entire otherwise cringing clip.
Top Honors of the Night
"I want to thank all my fans and friends. I am always inspired when singing to you," Wang said at the ceremony in the Taipei Arena after receiving the award for Best Mandarin Male Singer.
"I think I wasn't very good at singing before but I am determined to practice every day and practice makes perfect...I will continue the hard work," he said.
Wang's top-selling album "Heroes of Earth" was entirely produced, composed, and arranged by himself. It features his unique blend of hip-hop beats infused with hints of Peking Chinese opera and has received wide acclaim.
The Best Mandarin Female Singer prize went to the versatile Chua.
"I am really proud because there are so many talented and creative singers this year," said an emotional Chua as she accepted the prize from fellow Singaporean Stefanie Sun.
Chua beat Sun, Malaysia's Jasmine Leong, Peeny Tai as well as Taiwan's Fanfan Fan and Cheer Chen with her latest work "Amphibian" -- a passionate tale of a love triangle.
The Other Winners
Producer-singer David Tao, who led the pack with six nominations, took home the prize for Best Mandarin Pop Album for his album entitled "The Great Leap 2005."
Taiwan's Hu Defu, also known as Kimbo, who is referred to as "the Father of Aboriginal Folk Songs" , , won two awards -- Song of the Year and Best Lyrics -- for "Pacific Wind."
Though losing the best songstress award to Tanya Chua, Malaysia's Tai made a comeback by winning the Best Composer award for her latest album "Crazy Love."
Cheer Chen's won the Best Producer and Best Music Video Director awards for her song "A Fabulous Adventure."
The Best Newcomer award went to Malaysian singer Lim Yee Chung with his debut record "1st."
Artists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia attended this event to compete in 31 categories.
The Performances: Leehom, Jin, Amei, Kangta&Vanness, Se7en
There were many memorable performances that night. The start of the show was headlined by Leehom Wang and rapper Jin. This is the first time American star Jin has performed at a Chinese Award show. They performed their song Gai Shi Ying Xiong, but Leehom rearranged the tune and changed the lyrics to fit it into the theme of the award show. The song was retitled "Heros of the Golden Melody Awards." Leehom played the drum, performed a flag stunt, and had a Kung-Fu fight with his dancers. Another commendable performance was the Taiwanese Diva Amei. After a few years of hiatus, she came back with a loud bang. Her amazing voice and dance moves reminded the entire crowd why she is known as a Diva in Taiwan.
Other memorable performers of the night included Korean heartthrob Se7en and newly formed band of former F4 member Vanness and Korean superstar and former member of H.O.T Kangta.
credit: ent.tom.com, sohu.com, sina.com
Congrats to all the winners this year! I was dissapointed that DAvid only got 1 award even though he was nominated in 6 categories. And I felt bad that Leehom had to REWATCH the incident hahaha.
