Industry Reacts to No GMA Nominations for "Senses Around"

Note: These translations are not, in anyway, disrespect to the GMA judging panel or any of the nominees. This is just a collection of industry post-nomination thoughts for future reference purposes (not that it should come into use). For all the disappointed Yoga fans, hopefully you'll feel better after reading some of the positive feedback and, more importantly, forget about the nominations and move on (as Yoga and HIM International Music have) because Yoga's post-nomination responses are so eloquent.

Yoga and Sandee Chan

Industry reaction:

After the announcement of the 21st Golden Melody Award (GMA) nominations, netizens started ripping and the three most talked about artists missing from the 21st GMA nominations are:

(a) Jolin Tsai, whose album Butterfly was the highest selling album of 2009, was left off the nominations list.
(b) Fish (Jasmine) Leong, who has been nominated multiple times (and without a win), is missing from the Best Female Artist category.
(c) Yoga Lin, whose album Senses Around (感官/世界) received high praise from music critics, DJs and industry insiders throughout Asia (not just Taiwan), received only two non-music related nominations.

Senses Around's lack of nominations is getting the most support from netizens and the judging panel is certainly getting an earful from them, with netizens going as far as questioning, "Are the judges blind or deaf?!"

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One Million Star judge Yuan Wei Ren 袁惟仁 shows his supports for Yoga and questions A-Mei's 10 nominations, "If this [Senses Around's lack of nominations] is the most talked about regret of these nominations, how did the judges not figure it out? Is 10 nominations for 1 album too much?"

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DJ and former GMA judge Wang Zu Shou (王祖壽) gives Senses Around recognition, saying, "There was a lot of care in interpretation. The entire album started out using the concept of 'senses' and completed as such. To be nominated only for Best MV is a bit ironic."

Show (Alan) Luo's manager Jiang Cheng Jin (蔣承縉) responds, "I feel Yoga must be pretty disappointed because he worked so hard to be in line with Eason Chan."

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Yoga Lin and Sandee Chan were both attendees of a Guangzhou award ceremony the night when the 21st Golden Melody Award nominations were revealed. Yoga and Sandee were backstage resting when Sandee asked Yoga, “So, how many categories were you nominated in [for the 21st Golden Melody Awards]?” A rather awkward Yoga responded, “None, only Best MV and Best Album Design/Packaging.” A competition judge (Taiwan's Super Idol) herself, Sandee responded, “Are you serious? What happened to the ears of the judging panel? I thought your album [Senses Around] was great and I was certain it would receive nominations.”

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Clips from the Taiwan media:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6


Yoga's reaction:

Upon learning of the non-music based nominations, Yoga responds, "Congratulations to all the nominees. I will continue to use a sincere heart to create music. I believe music will continue to take care of me."

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Upon receiving recognition from Sandee Chan, Yoga immediately said, "Looking at it from another angle, I am happier with this result [of no nomination] because I now realize there are so many people who thought so highly of and enjoyed Senses Around." HIM International Music general manager Ho Yan Ling attempted to calm fans, saying, "Yoga's interpretation of music is filled with immense charm. We will more actively strive for a commitment in creating a third album."

Sources: chinatimes, appledaily, 163 05.15.2010; yahoo 05.17.2010; udn 05.18.2010

Mae: Congratulations Yoga! It is your music and not your person (i.e. an idol-class artist, as they like to say in Hong Kong) that is generating most of, if not all, the complaints. You have succeeded in spreading your music. You are being recognized for your music.