overrated
-verb (used with object)
1. to rate or appraise too highly; overestimate
2. (Cowboy) Jay Chou
The 20th Annual Golden Melody Awards Nominations List
(Note: I skipped the Hokkien, Hakka, and Performance categories here; the full list is at the link in Chinese.)
Song of the Year:
“Hold You Tightly (甲你揽牢牢),” from Hold You Tightly, Jody Chiang
“The Next Dawn (下一个天亮),” from The Next Dawn, Claire Guo
“100 Ways of Living (100种生活),” from 100 Ways of Living, Crowd Lu
“You’re Not Truly Happy (你不是真正的快乐),” from Poetry of the Day After, Mayday
“South of the Border (国境之南), from the Cape No. 7 Soundtrack, Van Fan
“Fragrant Rice (稻香),” from Capricorn, Jay Chou
Album of the Year
If One Thing Is Important (如果有一件事是重要的), Sandee Chan
Don’t Want to Let Go (不想放手), Eason Chan
100 Ways of Living (100种生活), Crowd Lu
We All Lay Down in the End (最后只好躺下来), Stanley Huang
Capricorn (魔杰座), Jay Chou
Best Music Video
“Wind (风),” Good Man?! Abin, Abin
“The Happiest Thing (最幸褔的事),” Love’s Poetry, Rachel Liang
“Love’s Miracle Cure (爱情灵药),” ELASTIC ROCK, Josie Ho
“Spacebomb (太空弹),” Spacebomb, Wu Bai
“Black and White (黑白),” Orange Moon, Khalil Fong
“Morbid (病态),” Mystery, Yoga Lin
“Mr. Magic (魔术先生),” Capricorn, Cowboy Jay Chou
Best Composition
Crowd Lu, “100 Ways of Living (100种生活),” 100 Ways of Living
Khalil Fong, “Singalong Song,” Orange Moon
Jay Chou, “Fragrant Rice (稻香),” Capricorn
Li Quan, “Gaze (眼色),” Mystery
Chen Jiannian, “Memories of the Ancients (烙印祖灵),” Nanwan Sisters Self-Titled Album
Best Lyrics
Wu Yuxuan, “In the Trollycar (电车内面),” Hold You Tightly
Ashin, “The Yet Unbroken Part of My Heart (我心中尚未崩坏的地方),” Poetry of the Day After
Ashin, “Like Smoke (如烟),” Poetry of the Day After
Yan Yunnong, “South of the Border (国境之南),” Soundtrack from Cape No. 7
Jay Chou, “Fragrant Rice (稻香),” Capricorn
Best Arrangement
Zhong Chenghu, Chen Bozhou, Crowd Lu, “Good Morning, Beautiful Dawn! (早安，晨之美),” 100 Ways of Living
Wang Leehom, “No Reason to Pay Attention to You (我完全没有任何理由理你),” Heart Beat
Martin Tan, “As Love Begins to Mend,” Start from Here
Khalil Fong, “Singalong Song,” Orange Moon
Zhong Xingming, “Mr. Magic (魔术先生),” Capricorn
Best Produced Album
Chen Zihong, Judy Chiang, Hold You Tightly (甲你揽牢牢)
Sandee Chan, If One Thing Is Important (如果有一件事是重要的)
Stanley Huang, Jae Chong, We All Lay Down in the End (最后只好躺下来)
Jay Chou, Capricorn (魔杰座)
Chen Jiannian, Nanwan Sisters Self-Titled Album (南王姐妹花同名专辑)
Best Produced Single
Lu Shenfei, “South of the Border (国境之南),” Soundtrack of Cape No. 7
Lin Qiang, “Bosom (交心),” CABACA
Huang Yunling, “Hope for Love (对爱渴望)” Aska Yang’s Dove
Wang Zhiping, Guo Wenzhong “Gaze (眼色),” Mystery
Lin Shengyang, “Drying the Fields (晒谷场),” Sweet Burden – Wu Sheng’s Poems and Songs
Best Male Mandarin Artist
Eason Chan, Don’t Wanna Let Go
Ricky Hsiao, I’m Ricky Hsiao
Leehom Wang, Heart Beat
Khalil Fong, Orange Moon
Jay Chou, Capricorn
Best Female Mandarin Artist
Sandee Chen, If One Thing Is Most Important
Tsai Chin, No Regrets
Fish Leong, Today is Valentine’s Day
A-Lin, Natural-Born Songstress
Tanya Chua, My Space
Best Band
Natural Q, Breakthrough
30 Band, Horse-Faced Sailor’s Summer
Mayday, Poetry of the Day After
The Chairmen, Spent All His Money
The Hohak Band, Rice and Love
Best Performing Group
Big Mouth, Wanka
Y2J, Living for You
NyLas, /’nailes/
Nanwan Sisters, Nanwan Sisters Self-titled Album
Best Newcomer
Rachel Liang, Love’s Poetry
Crowd Lu, 100 Ways of Living
Hsiao Hung Jen, Hsiao Hung Jen Self-titled Album
Joanna Wang, Start from Here
Jam Hsiao, Jam Hsiao Self-Titled Album
Yoga Lin, Mystery
I love seeing Crowd Lu all over this thing; I so loved his album. Ashin has never won a Golden Melody Award for his lyrics – all those years of writing, most years the award goes to Vincent Fang or Jay Chou for whatever Chinese-influenced piece they wrote. Clearly, the nominators couldn’t bear to leave Jay out of that category this year, but I really hope Ashin wins it instead.
i can’t believe it.
capricorn’s definitely isn’t on my top ten list. not even in top 20. or 30. ill say it’s one of the most disappointing albums i’ve ever heard in 2008
but seeing crowd lu on the lists [and a lot of them] pleases me. at least we know that the judges aren’t completely blind yet….
“most years the award goes to Vincent Fang or Jay Chou for whatever Chinese-influenced piece they wrote. ”
that is so true. i really hope that Ashin wins this year.
i’d hate to see it go to jay or vincent fang again. arghh
oh please…this year’s song and album of the year is really a disappointment..performance at KTV charts seem to be one of the drivers..and some sort of a benchmark…
Jay’s album is completely over-rated yah…the album is totally commercialised…I feel that even Yoga Lin’s album is better that Jay’s tried and tested formula from his last one…so much for creativity.
The only comfort from this year’s awards is that Ashin got nominated for 2 songs and 2 good ones. i really hope he wins and the recognition that is long due.
I’m just curious now, since I haven’t kept up with Chinese music that long: Has Jay ever been nominated as Best Lyricist before? I mean, I know Vincent has, but did Jay ever get nominated for “爸，我回来了,” “梯田,” “黑色幽默,” or any of the other songs he wrote the lyrics to in the past, and if so which ones? Even though I like the lyrics to “稻香” for very personal reasons (not just because I’m a fan), I hope Ashin wins because both of the songs on the list for his lyrics really deserve awards.
I hope Khalil and Crowd win something. Even my mom liked “Singalongsong,” and Crowd is funny but talented. Has anyone else heard his new live album yet? So fun!
Hmm, I don’t know for sure, and I don’t have time to search the nomination archives at the Golden Melody Awards, but wasn’t Vincent Fang nominated for eight years running on Jay Chou songs? So Jay’s influence, at least, has been omnipresent in the category. Jay himself has a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Golden Melodys, I think – if you listen to Wikipedia, he got fed up with awards ceremonies when the Golden Melody Awards failed to give him best album several years running. I’m sure the page was written by a fan, but that just makes him sound arrogant and self-righteous to the rest of us.
Here’s my question – has he ever won best male artist? I don’t think so, so a win in that category would probably be a big deal.
MAN i’m soo happy for Stan! I really believe that he’ll win the best album! If they don
MAN i’m soo happy for Stan! I really believe that he’ll win the best album! If they don’t steal to Jay’s favor…
So this is the Golden Melody Awards, not very credible. If this is what they thought were the best in 2008, I am disappointed that people in the industry are worst than layman. Some of the ‘bigger’ award nominees just makes me want to sneer at them. Now, I like Crowd Lu but I don’t think his album should be running for Album of the Year but then, I think even less of Stanley Huang and Jay’s albums. Cape 7 is just riding on the fame of the movie, the music is at best passable.
Of all the songs form May Day’s album, they chose the one that is more mainstream and KTV friendly when there are better choices in the album.
This list just looks like a group of people got together and picked songs off the KTV top ranking lists then added some ‘alternative’ singers’ music to make it look a little different from the KTV top ranking list. The Newcomer nominees was the most credible one but I am surprised Joanna Wang was not nominated for Best Female. Tanya’s album was fantastic but she only got one nomination for Best Female Singer?
How can I trust such a panel to come out with credible winners?
Oh man! I’m a big Jay Chou fan, but “Capricorn” is one of his less interesting and worse albums. Why is it on that list so many times? If anything Khalil Fong needs to be up there a couple more times especially in the Best Album category. Leehom’s album wasn’t spectacular but it deserves to be on there above Jay Chou’s album.
i think jay actually won a GMA for best lyrics for the song 梯田. i base this on my vague memory that there was a year where jay actually beat out vincent fang for the lyrics award, which sounds like it would be a rare occurrence.
also, this is probably the last straw for me in terms of taking the GMA seriously. more and more, it seems to me like a random, purpose-less peppering of fan favourites and indie hits.
Random Leon: I checked the Wikipedia page for that year. The Chinese page for it had all the nominees listed, and Jay was nominated for that song. Vincent was also nominated for “东风破” that year, but according the the page they refer to for the winners list, neither Jay nor Vincent won. A certain Shawn Song (of whom I’ve never heard before) beat both of them. Jay did get “best album” that year, but with “Ye Hui Mei,” he deserved that. That album also packed a bunch of great lyrics, though.
Merry: You’re right. He’s never received the award for “best male artist.” I just checked every year starting with 2001 (since Jay’s first album was released in 2000). LeeHom did get that award when he released “Heroes of Earth,” but you’d think that Jay would have won “best male artist” at least once, but I don’t want it to be this year.
Tofu: I almost put “other” on the poll myself, since I also thought Khalil’s album was one of the best.
I’ve never really agreed with the nominations for “song of the year,” though, even when I like the artist. Last year, I thought Khalil should have gotten nominated for “十九八七” instead of “Love Song” because it was simply an amazing song with the outrolude. “Love Song” was much simpler, so I see how people who disagree with “你不是真正的快乐” nominated for that category feel because I felt the same way last year.
Simpler doesn’t mean it is less worthy, sometimes it’s hard to keep it simple. However, I just don’t think 你不是真正的快樂 was as good as arrangement as 夜訪吸血鬼, had better lyrics than 如煙, was as KTV friendly (if we are using that as a yardstick) as 突然很想你, was overall better than 我心中尚未崩壞的地方， etc…
Oh, I didn’t mean it wasn’t worthy. (I liked the way he worked in all the references to other songs, including quite a few songs that I love, but he didn’t make it a corny song.) Most of the songs from that album would be worthy of an award, IMO, but I thought “十九八七” was wonderful and that would be the song that I would have chosen if I were the judges for GMA last year.
I finally watched the Khalil MV that got nominated, and I wish I’d waited for the special edition of “Orange Moon” with the DVD! I’m thinking of finding an excuse to get a second copy.
“(I liked the way he worked in all the references to other songs, including quite a few songs that I love, but he didn’t make it a corny song.)”
Okay, I confess: I’ve lost the antecedent here. Which “he” is this about, Khalil or Ashin?
I’m wondering if the Golden Melody Awards have anonymous balloting or if they’re done by committee; if it’s anonymous, Ashin’s two nominations could split the vote for him and that blasted Jay song could still win. (Actually, it’s actually pretty much the only song on the album that I like, but I don’t find the lyrics that original and must stand against Jay on principle here for having waaay too many nominations for this album.)
Oh, I meant Khalil, for “Love Song” last year, in reply to Wenning’s comment, but the presence of ice cream and my bad reaction to dairy products has made my mind a bit muddled, which can make what I write or say a bit incomprehensible.
Hmm, I hadn’t thought about the negative side of there being two nominations for Ashin as “best lyricist.” It seems very odd for him to be nominated twice for the same category in the first place.
anybody knows who will be the guest performing singers during the awards?
Merry: Let’s just hope it’s not one of the pretty boy groups
or trio girl groups 
hong kong oncert just ended and it was amazingggg as usual. the storylines so quirky and cute XDD most of the songs they sang were the rock ones, and there were like… only one or two ballads since they turned them all too soft rock. ru yan, xin zhong and ye fang were all sang pretty awesomely by ashin [esp on ru yan, it was so powerful]
and there’s two new songs: DNA and fang she. I LOVE DNA, its such a cute MV [im guessing what they put on was the MV]
can’t believe that they danced in the MV XD we kept telling them to dance and ashin kept putting excuses forward hahhaa. But he did do a few ball dancing actions with guan yo [i think it was him haha]
hey does anyone know how someone from the public can get tickets to the golden melody awards, if they wish to attend?
you all damn fcuking got problem .
what judges blind .
go jump lah .
jaychou is as great as ever alrights .
you all so clever , go sing yrself lahs .
why insult other people’s idol .
you all think it’s not good .
because you all dint see how hard jay chou worked for this .
this is the hardest he’d ever worked for it alrights .
every song inside , he directed and acted his own mv .
this is his first album that he’d every song with an mv .
and he wanted to bring out the feeling out .
but sadly , no one knows .
even his so-called fans , do not know .
i really pity him for such betraying fans he have .
Well lots of MVs and even self-directed MVs don’t guarantee good music, of course, something for which we have ample proof. But more importantly, Nabei, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If Jay’s your idol, then who cares what anyone else thinks of him?
I continue to believe that Jay stopped putting full effort and creativity into his music some time ago, and that this album and the last one represent particular lows. I am delighted to be free to express this wherever I please. I should note, though, that never having been a particularly strong fan of his anyway from a stylistic point of view, I doubt anyone can accuse me of disloyalty.
well, not exactly merry.
i agree with you, nabei.
even if you all don’t like jay,
doesn’t mean you can insult, or you’ll say , give your opinions.
even if you do not like jay, or you’re not a fan of jay,
you should not say out your insulting opinions like god’s business.
i’m not a jay fan, but i can seriously say, he’s a great composer, singer as well as a director.
your belief will cause a lot of misunderstanding between fans.
yes, no one will accuse you of disloyalty, but that doesn’t mean you can shoot out your nasty comments to humiliate their idol.
you may think that you’re not insulting/humiliating jay, but the fans may think so.
please end this nonsensical argument between who should win the award, as the nomination list is already decided.
thanks hey , for supporting
You’ve got to be kidding me. No, I don’t have any particular qualms about giving my honest opinion about Jay on my own personal blog, nor am I ever going to stop doing so. If I was doing this on some Jay Chou fansite, or being deliberately provocative on a Jay fan thread of some other site, then you’d have a point. But I’ve been very consistent on Jay since I began this blog (and pretty consistent about the idea that he really does have a lot of talent – that’s what I find so offensive about his more half-hearted work of late). Anyone reading here should know what they’re getting themselves into.
i dunno why are u guys debating on whether they really deserved awards or not. to much of ur respect those who are nonimated deserve their places. pls dun think much why tiz could be the choices. they dun select d nominees by simply selecting it. it may not be d way u expect it to be but hey can’t u give respects to those who worked so hard and managed to get nominated. to those who r not, dun blame urself or any1 else come back n try harder nex year. only a loser will always have a reason. if somethg belongs to u, it will return to u. no one can possibly take tat away. so could all of u stop complaining about it. perhaps if the panel of jury are u guys others may set up a website and critisize u selections too.
Why on earth shouldn’t we debate and complain about who gets awards and who should/should not have been nominated? This is what I don’t get about all of these most recent comments here. There’s nothing in the world wrong with having actual opinions on awards. There’s nothing wrong with expressing those opinions. There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing and telling everyone else they’re crazy for disagreeing with you. The only thing that is wrong at all is saying that there is something wrong with discussing it.
No censorship, I say – I’ll criticize Jay and anyone else I damn well please, and you are welcome to criticize Mayday or sodagreen or whoever. And Jay and the Golden Melody Awards committee people are welcome to criticize me, though again, I doubt they care much what I write on my blog.
It is simple why the jugdes made such unknowwledge decision this year for best lyrictist, MayDay and Jay joint the music industry around the same time(much early for Jay) the chances that they got compared through the press are likely high, thereforce, Ashin and Jay are both song writters, so they have even bigger chances in comparetion, not let the award making fans gone crazy because it all ready became past, let hope, cheer and celebrate for what they have won and will going to win.
p.s. so sad for Ashin, however he has won best lyrictist from other award, who care about this GM Award, by the way there always something weird and kindda stupid happening in ever GM Award ceramoni.