Eason Chan, G.E.M. & Jay Chou Emerge Big Winners at China’s 1st Wave Music Awards

Initiated by the Wave Music Committee and hosted by Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the 1st Wave Music Awards ceremony was held in Chengdu, China, on Aug. 24. The Wave Music Awards handed out 35 awards, including song of the year, album of the year, best male artist and best female artist.

Eason Chan’s “Homo Sapiens” was selected as song of the year, G.E.M.‘s Revelation won album of the year, and Jay Chou‘s “Greatest Works of Art” was named record of the year. Qingfeng Wu and G.E.M. were recognized as the best male and female artists.

Additionally, six groups of performers, including Qingfeng Wu, Jia Lei and Vinida Weng, were invited as performers, putting on stellar displays of highly charismatic live shows for the fans.

This year’s Wave Music Awards were also livestreamed on the four platforms of QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and We Sing under Tencent Music Entertainment Group, allowing more music lovers to witness the moment of the Wave Music Awards together.

The Wave Music Awards cover seven fields, including artists, creation & engineering, genres and languages, with a total of 35 awards. The Wave Music Committee, a group of hundreds of top Chinese musical professionals, worked together for several months to select the highest-quality Chinese music works in 2022.

At the awards, three major honors that were highly anticipated by the industry and music lovers — song of the year, album of the year and record of the year — were awarded to Eason Chan’s “Homo Sapiens,” G.E.M.’s Revelation and Jay Chou’s “Greatest Works of Art,” respectively. In terms of personal achievements, Qingfeng Wu stood out as the best male artist of the year, while G.E.M. shone as the best female artist of the year. Oaeen was named the best duo/group, and Yichun Shan was recognized as the best new artist.

Meanwhile, this Wave Music Awards also included a selection of musical works in various genres like rock, folk, rap, jazz and world music. Accusefive walked away with the best pop song award for “You Are My Magic”; Jackson Wang’s MAGIC MAN was named best pop album; Lexie’s “3.14159” was recognized as best electronic song; GAI’s “Tales of Weiyuan” won best rap song; Dou Wei / Chao Jian’s XianwenXiayue was named best world music album; Julia Peng Peng won best dialect album with Living Room Dreaming; and Jia Lei’s contribution to the theme song of the same name of the TV series A Lifelong Journey won best film and TV song, and she also performed the song live.

As a way to recognize and encourage a wider audience of songwriters working behind the scenes in the music industry, this Wave Music Awards also included special music awards in the category of creation & engineering. Among these, “I Remember” by Lei Zhao won best lyrics, “Greatest Works of Art” of Jay Chou won best composition, Howe Chen snagged best song arrangement for “None of the Above” arranged for LaLa Hsu, and Penny Tai secured best album production award for The Passive Audience.

The 1st Wave Music Awards was staged in response to the increasing focus on quality-driven creation in the Chinese music scene, while also reflecting the Wave Music Committee’s long-term focus on maintaining the sustainable vitality of musical works. The innovative model of “Awards Ceremony + Songwriting Forum” has not only recognized the tremendous achievements of China’s top songwriters, but also paved the way for ideas and directions to further develop the music industry. Going forward, Wave Music Awards will remain focused on honoring annual outstanding music pieces, highlighting the industry’s quality content creations to fully unleash the value of good music.