Taiwanese artists win top prizes at Asia’s answer to the Grammys – the Golden Melody Awards
- The awards for musicians from the Chinese-speaking world were dominated by Taiwanese artists including Wu Qingfeng, who won best male vocalist in Mandarin
- Waa Wei won the equivalent award for female vocalist, while Abao, a member of a minority tribe, won three awards for her album Kinakaian
Taiwanese artists took home many of the top prizes at the island’s annual Golden Melody Awards, which attracts celebrities and musicians from across the Chinese-speaking world and is the regional equivalent of the Grammy awards.
Wu Qingfeng, a Taiwanese singer, won the award for best male vocalist in Mandarin for his first solo album Spaceman.
Waa Wei, another Taiwanese singer, won the award for best female vocalist in Mandarin for her 2019 album Hidden Not Forgotten. She cried as she accepted her award, thanking her parents in “heaven”.
Taiwanese singer Abao, who had eight nominations, won three awards for her album Kinakaian (“Mother Tongue”), including album of the year. Abao, who is a member of a minority tribe in Taiwan, sings in a mixture of languages, including her tribe’s Paiwan language.
The award for best album in Mandarin went to Joanna Wang for Love is Calling Me.
Wang was born in Taiwan but who grew up in the United States. Hong Kong singer G.E.M. won the jury’s pick.
Fire Ex, a local Taiwanese band, won the award for best band. The rock band wrote a song that became the anthem for the island’s so-called sunflower movement, a student-led movement against closer economic ties between Taiwan and mainland China.
