It was a big night for Soft Lipa.
The Taiwanese rapper-producer took home two trophies at the 32nd Golden Melody Awards—Taiwan’s version of the Grammys—held last Saturday (August 21) at the Taipei Music Center. The ceremony was postponed from June 26 due to an uptick in local COVID-19 cases.
Soft Lipa (杜振熙) won the Best Mandarin Album for Home Cookin’ (家常音樂) and Best Male Singer (Mandarin). The music video for the title track, directed by Cowper Wang (王宗欣), won Best Music Video.
The rapper read an excerpt of a statement his mother had written for him in his acceptance speech, according to Focus Taiwan. It read, “Soft Lipa is responsible for supporting a family of five people, one cat and a dog, and he does so without complaint. Everyone, please take care of him at work. Thank you!”
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On Soft Lipa’s music, the jury noted that his tempo and lyrics are “full of imagination,” while Home Cookin’ “brought the Mandarin music scene into the grand age of hip hop.”
In an Instagram post, Soft Lipa shared that he almost didn’t want to attend. “For each ceremony, the most important thing for me is to show up. It doesn’t matter if I don’t win a prize. I must go on the Avenue of Stars (although I almost don’t want to go this time), and I must show myself…especially this time…. Although it can still depend on the situation, I personally don’t really like to wear a suit… but I like gold chains very much.” He also said that he’s happy that “I can be myself freely,” he wrote in Taiwanese.
Soft Lipa started his music career at the end of the 2000s and has since established himself in Taiwan’s underground hip hop scene with his jazz-inflected beatwork. He founded his label, RSDR, following his departure from Kao! Inc. Home Cookin’ is currently not available on streaming platforms, and the CD format is sold out.
