Jolin Tsai leads Golden Melody Award nominations with 9 nods

Taipei, May 13 (CNA) Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) led the nominations for this year's Golden Melody Awards (GMA), with her album "Pleasure" earning nine nods from the jury on Wednesday.

Tsai, a leading figure in Mandarin pop music, was nominated for Best Female Mandarin Singer, Best Mandarin Album, Song of the Year for the title track of the album "Pleasure" and six other categories, according to the jury.

Jolin Tsai's album shows a significant upgrade in overall production scale and aligns with world-class production standards, Kay Huang (黃韻玲), who heads the jury, said at the nomination announcement event held in Taipei.

"Thank you to the Golden Melody Awards jury for today's dose of dopamine," Jolin Tsai said through her record label. "I hope these songs have, at times, helped you get closer to your sense of joy. I will continue to create with liveliness and honesty."

For Best Female Mandarin Singer, Tsai is nominated alongside Hung Pei-yu (洪佩瑜), Chen Hsien-ching (陳嫺靜), Julia Peng (彭佳慧), Erika Liu (劉艾立) and Shan Yichun (單依純).

The nominees for Best Male Mandarin Singer are Ayal Komod (張震嶽), better known by his stage name A-Yue or Chang Chen-yue, Crowd Lu (盧廣仲), Nick Chou (周湯豪), Gummy B (黃立堯) and Jude Chiu (裘德).

Nominations for Best Mandarin Album include Hung Pei-yu's "Still moving," MJ116's "OGS," Ayal Komod's "Go with the Flow," Jolin Tsai's "Pleasure," Jude Chiu's "Silver Wasteland," and Shan Yichun's "Lil Sis."

Ricky Hsiao (蕭煌奇), a five-time winner of GMA's Best Male Taiwanese Singer, is nominated in the category once again, where he is up against Wu Yung-ji (吳永吉), Kuljelje Salevelev (曾瑋中), Since Chou (周自從), and CJ MiT.

The Best Female Taiwanese Singer category includes 70-year-old veteran entertainer Pai Bing-bing (白冰冰), marking her second Golden Melody Awards nomination since 1998, when she was shortlisted for Best Dialect Female Singer in a category that then also covered other non-Mandarin-language performances.

Pai Bing-bing will compete against Enno Cheng (鄭宜農), Anita Chen (陳怡婷), Showlen Maya (秀蘭瑪雅), and PiA Wu (吳蓓雅) in the Best Female Taiwanese Singer category.

In a press release, Pai expressed excitement at being nominated, and offered her gratitude for the blessings of Mazu, the sea goddess.

Meanwhile, 23 albums across the Mandarin, Hakka, Taiwanese, and Indigenous-language categories have been shortlisted for Album of the Year, along with "Same Stories, Different Narratives" by The Crane and "Quit Quietly" by Sunset Rollercoaster.

The jury also named veteran lyricist Lin Huang-kun (林煌坤) and late arranger Max Tu (屠穎) as recipients of the Special Contribution Award.

Lin, who comes from film and TV production, brings a screenwriting sensibility to his lyrics, creating simple yet vivid works across film, TV, and music that has become shared memories for generations, the jury said.

Tu, a leading arranger in the 1990s who died late last year, will be honored posthumously for his distinctive style, which helped define the sound of an era, elevated arrangement into the soul of a work, and inspired later generations, the jury said.

Now in its 37th year, the Golden Melody Awards, hosted by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture, remains the most prestigious music awards event in the Mandarin-speaking world. The ceremony will be held on June 27 at Taipei Arena.