was honored as best male artist Saturday as Hong Kong pop stars won big at Taiwan's 14th annual Golden Melody Awards - a major ceremony in the Chinese-language music industry.Chan also got the best album award for ``Special thank to,'' but the singer didn't show up at the ceremony in the capital, Taipei, because he was performing at a concert in Hong Kong.
The Golden Melody Awards were originally scheduled to be held in May, but the ceremony was postponed because of the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome - which hit Taiwan and Hong Kong.
By winning the best female singer award for her album ``i,'' Mok beat one of the favorites, Taiwanese pop diva A-mei .Earlier as an award presenter, Mok shrieked as she read the music-writing award had been won by one of her songwriters, Chen Hsiao-chuan, for ``Love.'' The same song also earned Li Chuo-hsiung the award for best lyrics.
The best new artist award went to eVonne Hsu, who won for ``Happiness First,'' a slow pop song tinged with English phrases.
Two of Taiwan's major talents, A-mei and R&B singer Jay Chou, had been mentioned as favorites for the top awards but left empty-handed.Both had done well last year. A-mei was female artist of the year, and Chou won best record, songwriter and producer for his ``Fantasy'' album.
One of the most unexpected sights at the ceremony was President Chen Shui-bian sharing the stage with rockers wearing long black leather coats and dark makeup.
They were members of Chthonic, the Taiwanese heavy metal band that won the award for rock band of the year. Earlier, Chen had said, ``Music is more powerful, more moving than politicians.''
One of the surprise winners Saturday was Liu Shao-chi, who won the awards for best producer and best Hakka record. Hakka is a language spoken by an ethnic Chinese minority with communities in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and other parts of Asia.
Liu made the most political acceptance speech of the night. ``If you don't care about Hakka music, how can you expect the world to care about Taiwan?'' he asked.
The event also had a moment of deep embarrassment, when presenter Jody Chiang opened the envelope for the winner of the best Taiwanese-language singer award, and found no name inside. She solved the problem by inviting all three nominees on stage and they shared the prize. They were Tsai Hsiao-hu, Wang Shi Xian and Hung Jung-hung. AP
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