The 12th GIMA Wrap-Up / Taiwanese Music and Drama Tie-Ups

The 12th Golden Indie Music Awards (GIMA) was held on November 6th, Kaohsiung Music Center.

The slogan of GIMA this year is “GIMA is now”. The wordplay originates from the pronunciation of the acronym GIMA, which is quite similar to the pronunciation of “now” in Taiwanese. The slogan last year was “GIMA is the future” so it has moved from the future to now, stating that the ongoing creativity of Taiwanese music scenes is getting more attention.

The biggest winner of the night goes to Flesh Juicer. The metal band won Best Album, Best Band and Best Live Performance. They’ve also performed twice, adding up to a total of fifth time showing their faces on the ceremony. Their award-winning album Golden Taizi Bro has been described as bringing back a sense of nu metal. Interestingly, their newest single “Modern Siren”, featuring Julia Wu, remind some metalheads of Evanescence. Who knows, maybe the next retro breeze of nu metal is really around the corner.

When Panai Kusui won the Jury Award with her self-portraying Love, and Yet, the 52-year-old singer/activist came up to the stage and shouted to raise the awareness of the upcoming referendum next month, gaining a big round of applause.

Young rapper wannasleep won the best new artist. Being grateful and honest, he thanked his doctor who gave him sedative prescription so he could speak properly onstage and shouted out to his favorite ramen shop Kikanbo. Kumachan, who happened to be the judge of talent show Rappers, the contest in which wannasleep won 6th place, dedicated his best hip-hop song award to the show and all contestants.

It is a night that glorified artists. As one of the first live events that allowed audiences, the applause and screaming reminded us how much we miss live gigs.

Full winner list: https://taiwanbeats.tw/archives/12106

As the government emphasizes more on the development of cultural power and the establishment of Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), film and television has become a sparkling focus in Taiwan recent years. The results are more and more Taiwanese drama launching on various over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms and more movies participating oversea film festivals. New TV series such as The Making of an Ordinary Woman and Seqalu: Formosa 1867 are trying various genres such as historical or suspense, in order to walk a different path from the Taiwanese TV series decades ago, when there are mostly romance back then.

Alongside with the drama come theme songs. Recently, there are bundles of new release singles tagging along with the upcoming TV series and movies. The blast of visual of audio entertainment is always a traditional way of promoting both, but apparently, it still works.

Gold Leaf, a historical drama on Netflix which just launched its pilot, the theme song “Some One” is sang by award-winner artist Waa Wei, who is getting ready for her Taipei arena gig next month. We also have singer songwriter Enno Cheng, who is singing for new TV series Fragrance of the First Flower, an LGBT love story of dedicated to the legalization of same sex marriage in Taiwan in 2019.

As for movies, family suspense The Falls, scoring by Lu Luming, a musician that is deeply involved within the indie scenes, Lu also rearranged the ending track of the film, which is a cover version of an old hit “Decision” by Chin Tsai, covered by Sandee Chan. There are also more Taiwanese movies coming along this year end. WeiBird, who just sang for TV series Tears on Fire earlier this year, is singing for the fantasy romance movie Till We Meet Again, which is another fascinating combination. 

Last, though not a Taiwanese movie, Anita, the bio film of Hong Kong legendary artist Anita Mui, is the trending topic in the Mandarin speaking region. Fran, a Taiwanese artist who recently started her solo career outside rock trio Frandé, is singing “Intimate Lover” and “Flower of the Woman” for Anita. Both singles are produced by the member of Mayday.