Singer Tanya Chua of Singapore poses after winning the Best Female Artist category in Mandarin at the 23rd Golden Melody Awards in Taipei June 23, 2012. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

TAIPEI, July 3 (Reuters) – Singaporean singer Tanya Chua has won four awards at Taiwan’s Golden Melody Awards, one of the most prestigious entertainment events in the Chinese world.

Chua, whose debut album was “Bored” in English in 1997 and whose breakthrough Mandarin record was “Tanya” in 1999, won album of the year for “Depart,” as well as best Mandarin album, the best singer in Mandarin and the best recording of vocal albums.

During the ceremony on Saturday night, Chua expressed her amazement that more than two decades after her debut, people still enjoyed her music.

“To be honest, I think I’ve been singing for many years. I’m very afraid that people will get bored of it,” she said at the ceremony in Kaohsiung city, southern Taiwan. , after bringing his mother as a plus one.

Surprisingly, Chinese rocker Cui Jian, whose song “Nothing to My Name” became the anthem of student protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, won the award for best male vocalist in Mandarin. He was not there in person and had a thank you message read to him on stage.

While Taiwan has a population of just 23 million, its music scene has an outsized influence in the Chinese-speaking world, not just in China but within the diaspora, thanks in part to creativity unfettered by censorship.

The Golden Melody Awards celebrate not only Mandopop but also artists singing in Taiwanese – also known as Hokkien – Hakka and indigenous languages, a visible sign of the government’s efforts to promote languages ​​other than Mandarin.

The song of the year went to the Taiwanese-language “Oh Love, You Are Much Greater Than I Imagined” by the group EggPlantEgg.

The award for best indigenous singer was won by Osay Hongay, 83, an ethnic Friends from Hualien County in eastern Taiwan. She delivered her acceptance speech in her native language, which was translated for her into Mandarin.

Reporting by Fabian Hamacher and Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard

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