Ailing Tai
The Girl with the Steel Vocals—Ailing Tai
With the explosive potential of a volcano, Ailing Tai’s voice resounds with full natural timbre, which is one of the reasons she has been dubbed “The Girl with Steel Vocals.”
Although she changed companies midway through her career, a change which forced her to take a 5 year break, Tai never gave up her belief in the music, and has continued to make serious music for 12 years. Campus and live house performances are part of her regular workload. Singing is her belief and the source of her determination—a few setbacks will never make her quit.
Tai’s new solo album F earless is set to drop at the end of June 2015 and let her fans hear what she means by “determination” and “woman power.”
Laka Umaw
Laka Umaw is from the smallest aboriginal tribe in Taiwan, the Seediq tribe.
In 2004 his first solo album Skiya Sabah hit the music scene.
In 2005 he won the Best New Indigenous Artist Pop Album award at the 16th Golden Melody Awards.
2006 saw the release of his second aboriginal-language album I Want to Fly ; he was also involved in a number of performances and in the creation of theme and soundtrack music for several television shows.
In 2011 Laka gave a stellar performance in the movie Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale; equally stellar was his compilation and production of the movie’s theme “The Rainbow Promise,” which made its way into the 48th Golden Melody Awards nominations for Best Original Movie Score.
Just three years later in 2014 he released his third album, Songs of Wandering,
inspired by his three-month retreat at Lugu Lake in Yunnan.
His music breaks national borders and creates new dialogues, and gives his fans a totally different musical experience.
Ayugo Huang
Born August 14, 1960, in Toufen, Miaoli County.
—Freelance singer-songwriter and music producer.
In 1992, Huang worked on New Formosa Band with Bobby Chen, thus making a name for himself in mainstream music.
His Hakka-language works are new cultural-based movements, and are also a type of cultural nostalgia.
In addition to his work on New Formosa Band, Huang began releasing albums on his own in 2007—BANANA, Only Love, Shi Er Yue Gu Ren, and, A Road of Mountain Songs . He is a frequent participant at the Golden Melody Awards.
Hakka mountain songs and rhyme-schemes are so second-nature to Huang that he has been able to find freedom from constraints to mere language.
Boxing
Discovered and produced by the queen of the music world in Asia, A-Mei, the six-man rap group Boxing hails from the Paiwan tribe of Pingtung, Taiwan. Though their music is described as “Urban Latino,” they use their aboriginal language both for daily communication and to make music. As the name might suggest, boxing influences their creative spirit and the music they themselves like. Boxing is the source of the tempo, the breath, the silent coordination of everything the band does. Even their lyrics and musical style contain elements from the sweet science. Boxing is sure to get you in the mood to move and to groove.
