The 32nd edition of the Golden Melody Awards, Taiwan’s premier music awards show, took place last August 21. The 2021 edition of the awards saw Puyuma singer-songwriter Sangpuy (桑布伊) win the coveted Album of the Year award for his third album “Pulu’em”.
This is the second such award for Sangpuy (Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw), who won the same award in 2017 for “Yaangad.” Sangpuy, who sings in his native Puyuma language, said in his acceptance speech: “I hope the different ethnic groups in Taiwan will support, encourage, and appreciate each other, so that Taiwan can become a more beautiful and better place.”
Sangpuy also won his third Best Indigenous Singer award, which he previously won in 2017 and 2012.
Rapper Soft Lipa (蛋堡/杜振熙) was also a double award winner at the ceremony, taking home the Best Mandarin Album and Best Male Singer (Mandarin) for his album “Home Cookin”. In his acceptance speech, the rapper read out a message that his mother had prepared:
“Soft Lipa is responsible for supporting a family of five people, one cat and a dog, and he does so without complaint. Everyone, please take care of him at work. Thank you!”
Hebe Tien (田馥甄) won the Best Female Singer (Mandarin) award for her album “Time Will Tell.” Lyricist David Ke (葛大為) and producer George Chen (陳建騏) also won Best Lyricist and Best Album Producer respectively for their work on Tien’s album.
“These are difficult times, and everyone is facing hardships in life,” she said in her acceptance speech. “I hope each of you can find an outlet like this, and you can be safe and sound.”
Olivia Tsao (曹雅雯) rounds up our coverage of the big winners at the 32nd Golden Melody Awards. Tsao, who sings in the Taiwanese language, won the Best Taiwanese Album and Best Taiwanese Singer awards for her album “tsu-pun”.
Tsao was also involved in Baby C’s (鍾興民) Best Arranger award, which he won for Tsao’s song “Flavor”.
The Song of the Year award went to Crowd Lu (盧廣仲) for his song “Your Name Engraved Herein”. The song featured in a 2020 Taiwanese film of the same name. The film, directed by Patrick Kuang-Hui Liu (柳广辉), tells the story of a same-sex romance between two male students in 1980s Taiwan.
It was nominated for five Golden Horse Awards and won Best Cinematography and Best Original Film Song. In his acceptance speech, Lu said “I hope the world can become a gentler place, a place where love of all shapes can be looked upon gently. Love wins.”
Indie band Sunset Rollercoaster (落日飛車) won the Best Band award for their third album, “Soft Storm.” Zim Ahmadi, writing for this website, praised the album as the band’s “most cohesive and directionally profound album yet.”
Other notable winners at Saturday’s event include Best New Artist ?te (壞特) and Beijing-based jazz-funk tentet The Spice Cabinet (五香放克樂團). The latter won Best Instrumental Album and Best Instrumental Album Recording for their sophomore release, “The Adventures of Pie Boy”.
The Taipei Music Center in Nangang District once again played host for this year’s Golden Melody Awards ceremony. The 171 nominations in 27 categories were whittled down from a list of 283 applicants, 1,499 albums/EPs, and 21,349 works. Check out the complete list of winners here.