Golden Melody Moments

 "Winning here and now does not mean you'll always win. Losing here does not mean you'll be a loser for life. So don't give up! After all, there's always a chance every year. I've experienced not winning too."--- Jay Chou before presenting the award for Best Female Mandarin Singer at the 23rd Golden Melody Awards on 23rd June 2012  (More on the event further down this post)


Sage words from His Royal DIAOness who has had his share of disappointments at the Golden Melody Awards (GMAs) over the course of his illustrious career, most notably for his third album, The Eight Dimensions.
The GMAs are probably THE most prestigious awards in the Mandopop industry, equivalent to the Grammy Awards in Western pop music.
Here's a Wikipedia link about them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Melody_Awards


I decided to write about the GMAs tonight as I was pretty impressed by Jay's little speech and bantering with the audience as a presenter last night. He was really cool, relaxed and managed to throw in an apt reference to his own song, Healing Rice Dumplings in a very charmingly cute and natural manner, as it was, coincidentally also the day of the Dumpling Festival. :)

AND the winner in this category was none other than our very own Tanya Chua, for whom this was her third time! *applause*
Gotta feel for the other five, especially Hebe Tien, who had many nominations but went home empty-handed....hopefully, she would find solace in Jay's song, as he suggested. ;)

Jay was up for three awards last night (actually only two, 'cos one was for Best Album Packaging); they were Best Arranger and Best Male Mandarin Singer (which he won last year, together with Best Album).
He did not win either but I don't think he was too bothered.
But the fans (like myself) were, 'cos he had earlier promised to show-off his new-look abs if he won anything. :(

Here's the vid of his pre-event interview, showing off his impressive arm muscles, as he had already said he would wear a sleeveless top to the GMAs...and Jay is a man of his word:

But as you can see from the first vid of his presentation, in the interest of decorum, he dutifully put on that leopard-print long-sleeved top for the event proper, and removed the shades. ;)


Anyway, I wanted to put together some of the more significant GMAs he won or performed at for this post as it'as always nice to see how he looked and behaved in his early years all the way to the present.

Where to start?
Of course it has to be the very first time he won Best Album, which was at the 12th GMAs in 2001and it was for his debut album, no less!
How much more affirmation could a newcomer get??

Here's a vid of him performing Lovable Woman at that event, in his inimitable way:

And the presentation ceremony...the run-up takes a while as the presenters banter but keep watching for Jay's jumping onto the stage in his youthful exuberance! He spoke quite a lot here, actually and thanked his parents for giving birth to him. It was also really funny when Jacky Wu and the guys tried to push him into the pool (why is there a pool in the middle of the stage anyway???) and he just stumbled in finally. :))

The next year, he won Best Album again for Fantasy: (the first three minutes are the presenters joking around and the lady really knew how to stoke the fans' fervour!). Jay was gawky and soooo cute!!!

Fantasy propelled him to great heights and he had high hopes when the next GMAs came around, for his third album, The Eight Dimensions.
However, that was the year he would be disappointed and brought down to earth when he went home, empty-handed. What made it worse for him was that he had brought his beloved grandma to the event and he felt that he had let her down in some way when he did not win anything.
It was not for lack of effort nor quality of the album.
But awards ceremonies can be unpredictable as judges' decisions can never be fully understood sometimes.
That was a lesson for Jay and he subsequently decided that he was not going to let something like that get to him so deeply again.
He did express his feelings about this in a song dedicated to his grandma on his fifth album,Common Jasmine Orange.

Here's the vid of his red carpet walk and performance there:

But the following year at the 15th GMAs, he did win Best Album again, for Ye Hui Mei, titled after his Mum's name. :)

Awesome double piano performance with Yuhao at 16th GMAs (no wins here, I think):

From what I gather, Jay did not attend some of the subsequent GMAs, despite winning awards, including Best Singer for Capricorn, as he was occupied with other concerts or events.

He did however, have a presenting stint at the 21st GMAs, with A-mei, who's a good friend of his. Very comfortable and speaking quite well, having gotten experience hosting Mr J Channel, methinks!

He attended and won the two biggies eventually at the 22nd GMAs in 2011, for Best Singer and Best Album (The Era).

Red carpet walk...what a cool look!

Pre-event interview with his band of brothers:

Award for Best Singer, with Jacky Wu being funny and presented by David Tao:

And for Best Album, where he and Jody Chiang presented...lol!
Really funny when Jody asked him who was sexier, she or Patty Hou (Jay's ex and one of the main hosts!) and Jay rebutted her about whether he looked better or Hong Ronghong...which made Jody change the subject immediately. :D
Jody and Jay are of course, good friends from waaay back, when Jay wrote songs for her.
Very entertaining and befitting for the biggest and final award of the night!

As can be seen, Jay has come a long way from those innocent days when he debuted.
He's so much more confident but still has that hint of self-deprecation and embarrassment, which is so endearing!

"I want to thank my fans. I will continue to be your Superman."--- when he won the Best Singer award in 2011.

GO JAY!!!!