New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Stars have lighten up Taipei
Arena last night (June 27) for The 26th Golden
Melody Awards, the most celebrated
Music Awards in Chinese Community globally. Hong Kong singer
Eason Chan won his second Best Mandarin Male Singer after 12 years, beating God of Songs Jacky Cheung, Khalil Fong,
William Wei and
Roger Yang. MandoPop Diva aMEI came home with the Best Mandarin Female Singer, outdid her competitors LaLa Hsu, Waa Wei,
Karen Mok and A-Ling.
Blind singer Ricky Hsiao won the Best Taiwanese Male Singer, whereas Angie Lee got the Best Taiwanese Female Singer. The highly-anticipated singer Jolin Tsai beat the other competitor and won the Best Mandarin Album with her album « Play ». Senior musician Chen Yang and Jody Chiang were honored with this year's Lifetime Contribution Award.
Randy Jackson - prominent American producer and the judge of American Idol - presented the Best Instrumental Album Producer jointly with Taiwanese artist
Janet Hsieh. Picking up some mandarin vocabulary during his stay, Randy said hey to the audience in mandarin and found out that the word "song" has actually the same pronunciation with "satisfaction" in Taiwanese.
The ceremony featured eight performances as A-list musicians took the stage. Hong Kong singer
Eason Chan gave the first performance - a string of 26 hits within 8 minutes - in order to pay tribute to classic Mandarin songs by Hong Kong singers in 1990s. Show Luo, named by his fans the Dancing King of Asia, moved the house with screams, beats and rhythm. Pop diva aMEI gave the last performance of the night, collaborating with Filipino dance group A-Team, which won gold at the World Hip Hop Dance Championship last year.
The Best New Artist 2015 went to Taiwan's aboriginal music band BOXING. While presenting the Song of the Year,
Karen Mok mentioned the Supreme Court's ruling to protect the rights of same-sex marriage. She said, "Best song is the song the can bring us with LOVE". 'Island Sunrise Re-mixed' by Fire EX. took Best Song with the meaning it represented and the strength of bounding Taiwan's society during Sunflower Movement last year.
Lee Hom Wang presented the last Award - the Best Mandarin Album to Jolin Tsai's « Play ». Her album Play won for Best Mandarin Album and Best Vocal Recording Album, and Lip Reading, a track off it, won for Best Single Producer. Leading with nine nominations going into the ceremony, she was still the night's biggest winner.
Golden
Melody has collaborated first time ever with Instagram(@GMA) and Facebook(@金曲GMA). The organizer set up a Golden
Melody Antigravity booth in which the
Red Carpet stars were invited to pose and take photos. Applying to the social media, fans and music-lovers could go on Facebook to like and vote for their favorite male and female singers. The event has gathered more than 3000 votes within just 90 minutes. Jolin Tsai was crowned with "Fans' Favorite GMA
Red Carpet Female Artist" and music band Magic Power won the title of "Fans' Favorite GMA
Red Carpet Male Artist".
