Nominees for the 26th Golden Melody Awards Released

Nominees for the much-awaited 2015 Golden Melody Awards was released by the jury on Monday, May 18. From 449 albums and 12,890 works submitted for consideration, the jury has chosen 131 works to compete for the awards’ 26 categories.

Taiwanese pop diva Jolin Tsai leads the race with a total of nine nominations in different categories.

Her latest album, "Play," which was released in 2014, is one of the contenders for Best Song of the Year, Best Musical Arranger, Best Single Producer, Best Album Packaging, Best Mandarin Album and Best Music Video. The successful album also gained a nod in the new category Best Album Recording.

Unfortunately, Tsai, who is dubbed as the Dancing Queen of Asia, isn't nominated as Best Mandarin Female Singer despite her latest album's critical and commercial success. Instead, the highly coveted award will either go to one of the following nominees: Lala Hsu, A-mei, A-lin, Karen Mok and Waa Wei.

Jacky Cheung, Eason Chang, Khalil Fong, Yang Pei-an and William Wei, on the other hand, are competing against each other in the Best Mandarin Male Singer category.

Albums pitted against Tsai's "Play" for Best Mandarin Album include Karen Mok's "Departures," "Not Bad" by Jay Chou, Lala Hsu's "Missing," Eason Chan's "Rice and Shine," and "Wake Up Dreaming" by Jacky Cheung.

Meanwhile, Trash, Buddha Jump, Magic Power, Boxing, The Chairman, and Chthonic are vying for the Best Band Award.

The Ministry of Culture's Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development also announced that Taiwanese chanteuse Jody Chiang and composer Chen Yang will be recognized for their significant contributions to the music industry with the Lifetime Contribution Award.

As for the Jury Award, singer-songwriter Sky Wu revealed that the 92-member jury has failed to reach an agreement on nominees.

The awards ceremony will take place at the Taipei Arena on June 27 with live broadcast by Taiwan Television Enterprise.