The first wave of activities heralding the coming 2018 Golden Melody Awards & Festival has begun. The GMA on campus: Industry-University Cooperation series involves a two-month course starting from 14 April, lecturers include the Best Mandarin Female Vocalist from the 28th GMA Eve Ai, veteran nominee Lala Hsu, and veteran of the GMA judging panel Tso Kuang Ping. The class on 21st April involved the three lecturers sharing their valuable experiences in the creative concepts of music. Ms Ai stated compassionately at one point “Should anyone in the class feel sleepy, we have prepared Vitamin B complex supplements for everyone”. Hsu noted “All three of us have given it all for the course, and we regularly get together in the morning to discuss course content”. Tso also jokingly stated “Since all three of us are rather glass-hearted, it would behoove you all not to fall asleep in class”.
Over the 4-hour course, the three lecturers tirelessly shared their creative experience to the class and contributed multiple demos as explainers. Ai also disclosed in class that during the writing process for A-mei's song “Catfight”, she was bereft of inspiration until the very last night, when inspiration stroke whilst watching a movie. Hsu also added that her career has benefited immensely from the guidance of industry veterans, allowing her to experience and develop a taste for this life, which in turn improved her creative endeavors. Tso further shared another light-hearted anecdote, that Lala Hsu's song “The Prayer” was also a product resulting from the pressure to publish an album, and the happenstance of the particular melody been on her cellphone at the time.
The three lecturers also expressed in unison that “None of us majored in music, consequently this particular endeavor will be focused on sharing our creative experiences”. Ai also jokingly stated that since there was so much to share with the class, they might have to extend the lecture, to which the class gave their thunderous approval. As for the question of whether she will be nominated for this year's GMA, Hsu has a rather optimistic outlook, “Of course I have expectations, these are all important steps in a music career”. Ai also encouraged her friend “Of course you ought to be confident in yourself, with so many joint creative endeavors under our belt”.
This year's GMA on Campus: Industry-University Cooperation series for the GMA&F also aspire to the goal of “planting our roots and cultivating new talents”. Other than expanding the number of classes, GMA also invited a more diverse set of lecturers, including Jonathan Chen, Wu Hsiung, Europa Huang, Francis Lee, DJ Delafat, and Chung Hsing-min, in the hope of providing all participating students with a more exhaustive study experience, and to lay down some groundwork for the next generation of Taiwan's music scene.
