As the 2016 Golden Melody Awards & Festival approaches, the GMA “Golden Melody Academia” project is already in full gear. The event, which links campuses with the music industry, paired students from National Taipei University of Technology’s Department of Interaction Design with singer Waa Wei, one of the nominees for Best Mandarin Female Singer in the 26th Golden Melody Awards. The students were split into teams, and each team of students was assigned one of the singer’s songs as a visual design project. Just recently, Waa Wei sat in as the teams presented and discussed their ideas for the visuals at the NTUT campus. “Each team left quite an impression. And these college students really can dress! They’re so young and full of life! They’re great. As I was just telling them: You just need to live and love and you’ll never run short of inspiration,” the singer said. On the topic of her own school days, Waa Wei reminisced, “I never really liked going to school. The interactions and relationships were just too complicated. But I did like writing love letters to some of the boys at school. I never stopped writing love letters. And now I’m great at writing lyrics.”
The sociable singer hit it off with the design students during their discussion on visual design. “I think you all did a great job on the visuals for my song ‘You Lovely Bastard.’ The animation style is really cool—I like it!” These self-avowed “super fans” incorporated both the theme “heart” and their admiration for Waa Wei in the visuals for each song. The singer was impressed by the students’ work on the theme. An excited Waa Wei explained it in three short words: “I love red!” Delighted with the students’ fashion sense, she laughed and said, “College students love dressing up, and they’re great at it too. I think people who can dress up like that are amazing.”
This year’s Golden Melody Awards & Festival is organized by the Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development of the Ministry of Culture, with Taiwan Television Enterprise as co-organizer. The second running of the “Golden Melody Academia” event is headed by Dr. Tsau Saiau Yue, Assistant Professor at the Department of Interaction Design, National Taipei University of Technology and Vice Director of the Taiwan Art & Technology Association. One song was given to each NTUT team, who must design the visuals which will accompany the song. One team’s work will be showcased at the Golden Melody’s ticketed concerts. Waa Wei revealed that she will make a few adjustments to the winning song, and will show the song and fresh visuals live at the concert at Neo Studio on June 22.
The 2016 Golden Melody Festival will take place at the Humble House Taipei from June 22 - 24. The three day run of events will include international forums, keynote speeches, a biz matching center, exhibition (this year’s theme will be visual technology), speed meetings, pitching, showcases/concerts, and so much more. Beginning in June, the Golden Melody Workshops and the GMA Talk event will take the stage. For more information about all the events, please visit the GMA 27 official website. This is one show you can’t miss!
