Jay Chou challenges the fairness of Golden Melody Awards

Jay Chou, who is nominated for the most number of awards at the 20th Taiwan Golden Melody Awards, is said to be forgoing the ceremony for a commercial event. Chou expressed his views when he took on an interview in Taiwan.

He defended his intentions and said he could not pull out of the commercial event because a contract has been signed with the client. Chou added, "If the award is fair, I will win even if I do not attend."

Chou expressed that he has always taken the awards very seriously and would always be dressed in his best outfit for the event. The last time round, he even brought his grandmother, but did not expect to lose in all his nominations. While he was disappointed with the results, Chou also felt disappointed for having failed to bring pride to the elder lady. Later, he wrote a song titled "Grandmother" in memory of this incident.

Many years now, Chou claimed to have cast away the shadow of the unpleasant incident and does not insist on attending any awards ceremony anymore.

In comparison to Hong Kong's heavenly king Jacky Cheung who is still highly respected in the music industry despite having withdrawn from the music awards ceremony, Chou said he recognized the fact that he is still a far cry from where the former is standing.

Chou said, "I registered myself for the Golden Melody Awards this year. With this, I believe I am still concerned about winning or losing the awards. If I can arrive at Jacky Cheung's position in the music industry, I will probably be like him and just forget about registering and collecting the award."

The pop idol re-emphasized that the awards is just a game to him. "The award is definitely a great form of encouragement for singers. But even if I manage to win an award, it only means that I'm lucky for those few days. It doesn't mean I'm a winner forever. It's like a game; by winning one round would mean that I'm just achieved victory once, it doesn't mean I'll win every time. I've learnt to be humble about winning."

Jay Chou rules Golden Melody Awards nominations with 8 nods

The nominations for the 20th Golden Melody Awards were announced on May 15. A total of 101 works are up for 23 awards. Jay Chou has again wowed the music world garnering eight nominations for his album Capricorn, including Best Mandarin Album, Best Mandarin Male Singer, Best Album Producer, plus Best Song of the Year, Best Lyricist, Best Composer for his hit song Rice Fragrance, and Best MV Director for Mr. Magic.

Highly acclaimed newcomer Crowd Lu has proved to be the revelation of the year. His debut album 100 Ways For Living is the black horse fighting on five fronts: Best Newcomer, Best Song of the Year, Best Mandarin Album, Best Composer, and Best Arrangement. Singer-songwriter Khalil Fong's Orange Moon got four nominations, as did Taiwanese diva Jody Chiang's Holding You Tight.

Jay Chou faces fierce competition from Leehom Wang (Heart Beat), Xiao Huang Chi (I'm Xiao Huang Chi), Hong Kong singer Eason Chan (Don't Want to Let Go), and Khalil Fong for Best Mandarin Male Singer. Their Female counterparts are five-time nominee Fish Leong (Valentine's Today), the twice-crowned Tanya Chua (MY SPACE), Tsai Chin (Without Regrets), Sandee Chen (If There is One Thing That is Important), and A-Lin Huang (Diva). Mayday, The Chairman, 13 Band, The Hohak Band, and Natural Q vie for Best Band, while Best Group Vocal sees Da Mouth, Y2J, NyLas, and HoneyVoices in tight contention.

For Best Newcomer, singer-songwriters Crowd Lu, Joanna Wang (Start From Here), and Hsiao Hung Jen (Hsiao Hung Jen) are up against One Million Star graduates James Lin (Mystery), Jam Hsiao (Jam Hsiao), and Rachel Liang (Love Poem), but the fan-favorite OMS idol Aska Yang was surprisingly omitted.

Nominations for Best Mandarin Album go to the aforementioned Capricorn, 100 Ways For Living, plus Stanley Huang's We All Lay Down In The End, Sandee Chen's If There is One Thing That is Important, and Eason Chan's Don't Want to Let Go.

The Golden Melody Awards ceremony will be held June 27 at the Taipei Arena. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the biggest annual music award in Taiwan, there will be an online poll for the public to vote for the 20 most memorable songs of the last two decades.

* Jay's nominations:

Best Album = Capricorn
Best Producer = Jay Chou
Song of The Year = Dao Xiang
Best Composer = Jay Chou for Dao Xiang
Best Lyricist = Jay Chou for Dao Xiang
Best Male Singer = Jay Chou
Best MV = Mr. Magic
Best Music Arrangement = Mr. Magic