2008 Taiwan Golden Melody Award 2

UPDATE

OK, the show got on with the 4 MCs flexing their comedic muscle to the max. I was particularly surprised at 侯佩岑 Hou Pei Chen's sporting nature. The short sketch on the warnings and to-do list before the award show started was funny. And even more funnier is the part where Matilda Tao 陶晶莹 imitated Machi's Big Bro, 大 S as Jolin Tsai 蔡依玲, 小 S as Jay Chou 周杰伦 (and a very convincing one!!!) and Hou as A-Mei 张惠妹(with her signature finger gesture).

Watching award show is always a risky business, given the gag of the MCs might be overdone and boring, the dull and uninspiring performances and the presenters unsuccessfully trying to be funny. However, this time around, I think it survived all the above a few notch higher than the usual standard.

The show kicked off with a high-octane power-fuelled performance from 阿密特 and surprise-surprise the formidable A-Mei is the lead singer. Theirs was a medley of powerful-jamming rock music complete with hard-rock-Gothic-punk attire and A-Mei had a white hair wig. The show started with a bang.

I forgot the flow of the show but I will write some highlights which I remembered.

They handed out the Best Song award quite early in the show and yeah, it kinda weird but I just reckon that it might be the organiser's decision to mix the show up. The combination of Gao Ling Fung 高凌风 and Kang Kang 康康 as presenters managed to squeezed some hearty laugh though they are a bit too long.

Yoga Lin You Jia 林宥嘉 and Aska Yang Zhong Wei's 杨综纬 performance were quite good, save for the 1st song by Yoga, a classic by Zhang Yu Sheng 张雨生 was a mess. He didn't quite get the note right, in my opinion. Zhang is well-known for its high-pitched number. The duo did a tribute to singers who passed away and they sang songs by Teresa Teng, Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui and Xue Yue 薛岳 besides Zhang. Aska's rendition of Du Shang Xi Lou 独上西楼 is very good, stirring my last trip to Taiwan where I heard a street performer sang it. The ending number originally by Xue Yue is good.

The Japanese kids performance was a display of showmanship-over-singing ability. The crowd shrieked all through their performance and I guess that explained why Japanese singers were invited every year.

The performance of Ji Xiao Jun 纪晓君 and Jia Jia 家家 was mesmerising. Both from the Puyuma tribes of Taiwan Aboriginal People, they were both winners in the previous award. Jia Jia is one-half of the winner of the Best Singing (Group) last year and I love their music. However, Jia Jia is not in her full element when she sing I Will Always Love You though her attire is definitely showing her full curve to the max. They ended their segment with a gospel-infused number in Puyuma language. After watching this, I definitely have to dig out Ji Xiao Jun's CD that I haven't listen for quite some time.

The best performance of course comes from the Godfathers of Taiwanese music. Notice the plural form as the set featured 3 of them, from Lo Jia You 罗家佑, Li Zhong Sheng 李宗盛 and Emil Chou 周华健. It's great to see the team up of them belting out classics such as 明天我要嫁给你, 恋曲 1980 and 我是一只小小鸟 . It's totally a sentimental and memory provoking set (sorry, young folks... not your era I presume...)

OK, the award pulak..... Jay Chou won the most I think, his song 青花瓷 snatched Best Composer and Best Lyrics and Best Song. Plus a few on the instrumental album category. Guess it's consolation prize for him for not being nominated in the Best Singer category. The song to me is his other effort of China-nized pop song which proved to be quite a hit after previous efforts such as 东风波.

Best Male Singer went to Gary Chou 曹格... yes the singer from Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia. I guess it's time he get that and since Eason 陈奕讯 got one before and his album this time is some sort like a clone of his Cantonese album (think....though Eason sings great but the album was not nominated in any other category), I think Eason got nothing to lose. Gary's win is deserved after breaking into Taiwanese music scene with his unique high pitched R&B vocals (though he's venturing less into R&B and moving more instead to pop commercial) and his composing talent writing lots of signature tunes to other singers (remember the repeated-to-death and A-Mei's hit duet with Jam Xiao 萧敬腾). Bravo. He beat Eason Chan, Yang Pei An 杨培安, Xin 信, Tank and Khalil Fong 方大同 (which in my opinion, if the jury are practising their unique taste like they did frequently previously, will win it.). OK, I might be biased here cox I am one big fans of Khalil but you can't deny his immense popularity there judging from the applause when his name was announced.

Best Female Singer was Tanya Chua 蔡建雅 !!!!!!!!!! I was so happy as I think she's one of the most talented female singer-songwriter around. Her album Goodbye & Hello is her work after her break-up and hence it's very therapeutic one. Nice albums with my favourite song being Darwin. I kinda expect Fish Leung 梁静茹 to win. Not to say that I like Fish very much but she's been nominated 4times already and the jury have an inclination to award singers after tonnes of nomination and often not for their best works or for their 1st ever nomination. So kind of expect Fish to snatch it. In addition, the others won before except for Chai Chun Jia 蔡淳佳. Tanya beat Karen Mok 莫文蔚, A-Mei, Stephanie Sun 孙燕姿, Chai Chun Jia 蔡淳佳 and Fish Leung 梁静茹.

My favourite Karen Mok 莫文蔚 created a big upset when she walked away with the Best Album award in her hand. Her album, "LIVE" was produced by herself and she's involved in all aspects of the album.

In conclusion, it's a good show worth watching. The MCs antics were funny too, including the short singing stint performing as The Beatles. That was very funny.

ORIGINAL

Tanya got the Best Female Singer. Her latest album Goodbye & Hello is a good album, therapeutic one.

I guess the biggest upset is Karen Mok's win in The Best Album category. Her album is not selling and she handled everything herself this time. And she's really surprised herself. And yeah!!!!!!!!!!! Karen rocks!!!!! Though I'm sure the news tomorrow will slam her win someway or rather especially Jay Chou didn't haha....

OK, I need to sleep.....