Veterans' fight at 2017 Golden Melody Awards: Wu Bai, Grasshopper, Power Station
The list of nominees for the 28th Golden Melody Awards (GMAs) this year has both rookie and veteran musicians vying for awards at the most important music awards ceremony in the Chinese music industry, equivalent to the Grammys. The awards ceremony takes place this Saturday (24 June) in Taiwan.
Over the past year, many talented artistes have churned out releases that challenge their musical style, including perennial winners Wu Bai, Power Station, Grasshopper, among others.
The GMAs jury have agreed that the standard of releases featured in the nominations list have been showing much more creativity and international appeal, making the competition tougher each year.
It remains to see if the veterans will snag more awards, but here is a look at three of the most famous past GMA winners.
Wu Bai
Dubbed the “King of rock” in the Chinese music realm, Wu Bai’s name comes up frequently in the list of GMA nominees.
His 1998 release “Lonely Tree, Lonely Bird” won an award for album of the year. Not long afterwards, his 2005 release “Two Faced Man” won him the best Taiwanese/dialect male singer award.
In 2016, together with his band, Wu Bai & China Blue, he released his third studio album that was recorded entirely in Taiwanese, “Ding Zi Hua”, which gained attention for the heavy usage of African dance melodies in the songs.
For the 28th GMAs this year, Wu Bai & China Blue have been nominated for best Taiwanese/dialect album, album of the year, song of the year, lyricist of the year, arranger of the year and best Taiwanese/dialect male singer.
Wu Bai & China Blue will be performing in Singapore on 7 October for a one-night-only concert at Resorts World Sentosa. Tickets from the event can be purchased via Sistic.
Grasshopper
Hong Kong Cantopop trio Grasshopper is well-known among ’80s babies for their hit songs from the ’90s, “Baby I’m Sorry”, “Broken Heart Club” and “Ban Dian Xin”.
They have picked up several awards from not just the GMAs but also the Singapore Hit Awards, including best group.
They will be competing against Power Station, AstroBunny, Mr Miss, Guess What and RADIO MARS for the best group award at this year’s GMAs.
The 20th GMAs in 2009 were particularly notable for both the singers and audience in Taiwan alike, as Grasshopper showed up to perform a slew of their most popular hits.
The trio will be coming to Singapore for their “Grasshopper Music Walker Concert” on 22 July for a one-night-only concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Power Station
With over 20 years in the industry, the Taiwanese duo have been nominated seven times for the prestigious GMAs. In 2005, they bagged the best group award, not long after releasing their tenth album “The Red Light Record”.
After that, the pair went their separate ways and only made their return in 2013 to stage a concert. But it wasn’t until 2016 that they released another album together (titled “20 New Duets”) to commemorate their 20th anniversary in the music business.
Speaking about their nomination for the best group award at this year’s GMAs, they said, “We didn’t think much about winning awards last time, but this year, we hope to win an award, because it’s our 20th anniversary.”
This story originally appeared on Yahoo Taiwan.
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