The 28th Golden Melody Awards ceremony will be grandly held at Taipei Arena on June 24th. Previous GMA-winning singers Jacky Chen and Wing Luo will perform together, to give new interpretations to songs in Taiwanese and Hakka. Both of them won GMA last year and became father this year. Their performance, titled Increase Production for Music, will include nursery rhymes in creative ways, and pass on traditional cultures to future generations. Both of them are excited and nervous to perform at this ceremony for the first time. Chen hopes everything will go well on stage. “With so many professional musicians in the audience and live broadcast, I hope to deliver a performance that meets my own standard.” Luo looks forward to his dream moment: “I feel honored to sing in front of musicians I admire.” As new parents, they can easily relate to sleep deprivation and fatigue during discussions and rehearsals. “We often have meetings, recording sessions and practices with sleepy eyes,” Lu says, “and we discuss about parenting as well.” “We had nearly ten meetings,” Chen mention, “from song selection, style, outfit, rehearsal, to even choreography that we are unfamiliar with, just to present a refreshing performance.”
GMA has been influential to Chen and Luo. Chen gets to know musicians, and becomes a judge in Taiwanese song contests. “I’m in the jury for Universiade 2017 to think about how I can contribute to local culture,” says Chen. In future, Chen hopes to compose and produce Mandarin songs for more possibilities. He also plans to pursue film studies abroad to combine two of his favorites in life. Luo thinks GMA motivates him a lot. “When I start to compose songs in Hakka, more people get to know me and identify what I am doing,” says Luo. “It’s also a brand new experience to host a music show.” Luo also starts to think more about children songs with new creativity, production and tone, so future generations can inherit Hakka culture. After daughters were born this year, they have new understandings and ideas to their music careers respectively. “I was trying to prove myself and achieve more,” says Chen, “but the kid completely changes my life. Every moment is important, and my thoughts become softer and more about life. Maybe it will show later in my works.” Luo had created works based on his daughter’s heartbeats when his wife was only seven weeks pregnant. “When I feel tired at work,” Luo says, “my wife sends me photos and videos. It motivates me to imagine more.”
The ceremony will be held on June 24th. Luo hopes to reunite with the band Mayday. “We both started in Rock Records in 1999, and I would love to discuss about our experiences of the past 18 years,” says Luo. “Talking about parenting with Jay Chou should be fun as well. With proper opportunities, I would hope to collaborate with Khalil Fong or Ronghao Li one day.” Chen remembers that he gave his album to Jason Mraz in 2014 at GMA ceremony during commercial breaks. “I feel no regrets in life at the moment,” he says. Chen also hopes to sit beside other songwriters, “because discussions about creative process enrich myself as well”.
