THINGS didn't look promising even from the start. How does an industry have a unified awards presentation when it, in itself, is not unified? In January, Canto-pop king Jacky Cheung Hok-yau, bemoaning the fact that he had to attend seven awards ceremonies within a three-week span, said he had a dream: to be able to stand on stage next year and collect his singing awards at Hong Kong's first and only unified music awards, held collectively by Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Commercial Broadcasting (CR), TVB and Metro Radio.
This week, the answer was official: not this year, mate. At a press briefing, representatives Poon Kai-tik (TVB), Simon Ngai Ping-long (RTHK), Carrie Law Ka-wai (CR) and Winsome Tang Wai-sze (Metro) jointly announced that due to 'many technical problems that had yet to be ironed out', the working committee had come to the conclusion that a unified music awards scheme did not look possible by next January, when the next round of awards go out.
'This is a very meaningful aim that all four stations have been genuinely trying to achieve,' explained Mr Poon, controller of TVB's external affairs division.
'We were very democratic about it and everyone had their say - including the record companies. And we also sent out surveys to 24 record companies asking them for their official views and suggestions. But there have been a lot of technical difficulties.' Mr Ngai, RTHK Radio Two music director, said that while all four stations would probably continue with their individual presentation ceremonies in the coming year, they had not given up on that aim and would set up an official working committee to carry on discussions.
'We can't really name an earliest date but this year we will be taking the first step towards it,' Mr Poon said. 'There are some awards that can be recognised by all four stations and we are working out which these are.' Ms Law, senior public relations manager at Commercial Broadcasting, said: 'We really did not want to force ourselves into a certain date. If we are not ready, there is no point.
'But in looking at the awards given out in the past, we realised that some were being duplicated, such as the IFPI [International Federation of the Phonographic Industry] best-selling album award or the best composer or lyrics, and these could be unified. We have not worked out who will give out what yet.' After Cheung made his plea in January, RTHK was the first to respond, saying it was willing to go for it if everyone else was. CR came forward quickly, and was soon followed by Metro and TVB.