36th Golden Melody Awards: Big S Appears In Tears, Khalil Fong Wins 2 Awards, Becomes a True Dreamer

The 36th Golden Melody Awards ceremony concluded perfectly on the 28th. The competition among female Mandarin singers was considered the “group of death.” Waa Wei won her second Golden Melody Best Female Singer award with her album Pearl Sentence in the third round of voting. Meanwhile, a surprise occurred in the Best Male Singer category, with rapper LÜ Si-Xuan breaking through in the first round and winning with Good Voice and Mighty.

Khalil Fong, who passed away in February, had previously won Best Male Singer at the Golden Melody Awards. Last year, he released his new album The Dreamer with almost no promotion, and news resurfaced only upon the sad news of his passing. This year, he posthumously won two major awards: Best Composer for "Only Twenty-Three" and the Jury Award for The Dreamer. Jury chairwoman Ting Hsiao-Wen said on stage that Khalil Fong, even in the final journey of his life, poured his soul into every song on the album, proving himself a true dreamer. This brought fans supporting Khalil Fong to tears in the audience.

Newly crowned Best Female Singer Waa Wei performed at the ceremony, using her uniquely penetrating voice to pay sincere tribute to departed musicians. On the big screen, the audience watched touching dedications to Chiung Yao, Liu Chia-chang, and Khalil Fong, moving many to tears. The closing act was the classic S.O.S song "Ten Minutes' Love," in memory of the late Big S (Barbie Hsu), who passed away earlier this year. The screen showed beautiful scenes of Big S as the legendary "Beauty Queen," heart-wrenching for those watching and moving many netizens to tears.

The ceremony ended successfully, and as always, there were both joyful and disappointing moments. However, several incidents sparked controversy. When the newly crowned Best Male Singer LÜ Si-Xuan went on stage to accept the Best Mandarin Album award, the award presenter Tracy Chang told him, "walk faster, it's late." This caused him to hurry up to the stage and keep his acceptance speech brief. This action led to Tracy Chang being heavily criticized online. Later, in the early hours of the 29th, LÜ Si-Xuan responded on Facebook, seemingly not mentioning the incident and displaying a very gracious attitude.
Tracy Chang has not been new to controversy at the Golden Melody Awards. In 2016, while presenting Best Mandarin Album, she directly called hip-hop singer Kumachan "that fat guy," leading to questions about prejudice against the hip-hop community. Although the situation was somewhat defused afterwards and they staged a reconciliation publicly, the moment she told Kumachan, "Why aren't you a bit fatter?" was seen as her way of trying to lighten the mood. However, most netizens still didn't buy it.