TAIPEI – Taiwanese singers Hush and A-Lin took home the top vocalist prizes at the Golden Melody Awards, held at the Taipei Arena last Saturday.

Hush, who was nominated for Best Male Singer (Mandarin) for the first time, won for his album Pleasing Myself.

A-Lin bagged Best Female Singer (Mandarin) for her 10th album Link, her first win after losing in that category four times in previous years.

Known as Taiwan’s equivalent of the Grammy Awards, the Golden Melody Awards has been held since 1990 and was live-streamed this year for the first time.

Album of the Year went to Mallarme’s Tuesdays by Wu Ching-feng, while Song of the Year was won by indie singer-songwriter Anpu’s A Flash And How It Lasts.

The song beat Mandopop king Jay Chou’s Greatest Works Of Art – his only nomination this year – as well as Like A Star by Lala Hsu, Silver Lining by Hung Pei-yu, Daughters by Enno Cheng featuring Chunho, and Semane Sepi by indigenous singer Kasiwa.

Hung and her works led the awards with eight nominations and she took home the Best New Artist prize, befitting her nickname “monster rookie”. Her song, Anything But, also won Best Composer for Hsu.

Two Special Contribution Awards were also handed out – one to veteran Taiwanese-Japanese singer Ouyang Fei Fei and one to the late lyricist Eric Lin, who died in December 2022 after a liver transplant at the age of 62.

Singaporean singer JJ Lin, who regards Eric Lin as his mentor, performed some of his best-loved songs at the awards show.

The touching medley – which included A-mei’s Listen To The Sea, Tracy Huang’s Crying Sand, Kit Chan’s Heartache and JJ Lin’s Twilight – left Eric Lin’s widow, singer-songwriter Hsiung Mei-ling, in tears in the audience.

She and their two sons later went on stage with a framed portrait of the influential and beloved lyricist to receive the award on his behalf.

Hsiung, who was Eric Lin’s long-time collaborator, spoke about him, referring to him by his Chinese name: “Qiuli wrote a lot of very good songs which were also commercial successes. Today, Teacher Qiuli is being given this award, which I believe is recognition for his hard work and contribution to the music scene over the past 40 years.”