Taiwan’s Golden Indie Music Awards Announce 2024 Nominees
On September 19, Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture announced the 2024 nominees for the annual Golden Indie Music Awards (GIMA) via a live streamed press conference. Founded in 2010, GIMA is an international music award created by and hosted in Taiwan. Per a press release, it “represents the freedom, originality, and diversity of Taiwanese musicians.” In addition, GIMA strives to become the “gold standard for original music awards in Asia.”
For its 15th edition this year, the theme is “Shout Out / Shout Out to.” The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, November 2 at the Taipei Music Center. Japan and South Korea will also broadcast the Golden Indie Music Awards via the Space Shower TV YouTube and the media platform PRIZM, respectively.
The Golden Indie Music Awards
With the award ceremony less than a week away, the excitement is steadily growing. For the 2024 awards, GIMA received “record-breaking” registration numbers — over 3,877 entries, according to the awards’ official press release. Of those entries, 842 were albums/EPs and 41 were live performance submissions. One-hundred and sixteen finalists are up for the awards spanning 21 categories (plus two special awards: the Jury Award and the Special Contribution Award). The GIMA categories include Best Album, Best Band, Best Singer-songwriter, Best New Artist, Best Instrumentalist, and Best Live Performance, as well as best of genre awards.
In addition, Taiwan’s indie music awards features a Best Asian Creative Artist category, which is “open to individuals or groups from any country or region excluding Taiwan.” This year, GIMA selected five nominees from a pool of 79 submissions. The “highest ever” number submissions for this category, they hailed from across the APAC region and beyond, including Malaysia, Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Australia.
The 2024 nominees for the Best Asian Creative Artist award are Korean indie rock band Silica Gel, Japanese rock band Age Factory and Japanese math rock band LITE, instrumental group Virgin Vacation based in Hong Kong, Mongolian folk and jazz fusion band NaraBara, and Chinese singer-songwriter Yeoian. Past nominees for this trailblazing award include CHAI and Atarashii Gakko!
The GIMA ceremony this year will also feature Lang Lee, an indie folk singer-songwriter and women’s rights advocate from South Korea. Lee will collaborate with Taiwanese artist Enno Cheng for the ceremony.
Celebrating Taiwanese Talent
As GIMA celebrates its 15th edition, it also celebrates the musicians who have been making waves in the indie world and beyond. In 2018, prolific Taiwanese band Sunset Rollercoaster received a nomination for the Best Band award. This past July, they released a surprise collaboration album with Korean band HYUKOH, which gained attention both domestically and internationally.
Singer-songwriter 9m88 and popular math rock band Elephant Gym have also received nods from Taiwan’s Golden Music Indie Awards. In 2020, 9m88 won the Best New Artist Award for her debut album Beyond Mediocrity. Meanwhile, Kaohsiung-based Elephant Gym clinched the Best Band Award in 2019. That same year, they were nominated for the Best Album title for their project Underwater.
For the 2024 awards, Elephant Gym have again collected nominations for their experimental music — four, in fact. For the 15th GIMA, the band is up for Best Album, Best Band, Best Rock Album, and Best Alternative Pop Song. For the latter category, Elephant Gym actually have two songs nominated: “Feather (featuring Whyte)” and “Jhalleyaa (feat. Shashaa Tirupati),” which are both cuts from their late 2023 album World. (EnVi named Whyte as a Taiwanese indie artist to watch earlier this year.)
Among the long list of finalists, a few artists have emerged in the center of the spotlight. These new entries on the nominee list include the winner of THE RAPPERS, Taiwan’s hip-hop talent show, Taiwan rap handsome man. He was nominated for five categories like Best New Artist. Bremen Entertainment Inc., a psychedelic rock group based in Taipei, is also a rising voice in the Taiwanese indie scene. Singer-songwriter and producer Dac received nominations for their album Love Hereafter and their live performance of their song “Snack.” They were also nominated for their work on the hip-hop track “One More” by Robot Swing featuring DCIV.
The 2024 Nominees
Uncategorized Awards
Best Album
- SIM — Taiwan rap handsome man (Album Producer: 2-CHI, W. LIN)
- Sincerely, me — Wayne’s So Sad (Album Producer: Zen Chien)
- Noise Apartment — Sorry Youth (Album Producer: CHANG SHENG-WEI, HSIEH CHUNG-HAN, LIANG HUNG-CHANG, CHOU I-TUN)
- Hotel La Rut — Joanna Wang (Album Producer: Joanna Wang, Adam Lee)
- World — Elephant Gym (Album Producer: Elephant Gym)
- The Great Bremen Show — Bremen Entertainment Inc. (Album Producer: Michael Wu)
Best Band
- Plutato — Pluto Potato
- Wayne’s So Sad — Sincerely, me
- I’mdifficult — I’mdifficult
- Sorry Youth — Noise Apartment
- Elephant Gym — World
- Bremen Entertainment Inc. — The Great Bremen Show
Best Singer-songwriter
- Taiwan rap handsome man — SIM
- Joey Chiang — Sleep Talking
- Dac — Love Hereafter
- Wayne Liu — Wayne Liu’s Solo Album
- Joanna Wang — Hotel La Rut
- CHENG CHING JU — UNDERCURRENT
Best New Artist
- Plutato — Pluto Potato
- Taiwan rap handsome man — SIM
- Makav — Treasure
- Shuchan Chiu — Shape of Life
- Flowstrong — Study (of) Breaks
- Andr — Hidden Card
Best Instrumentalist
- Cheng Chia Fu — Pluto Potato / Drum, Electronic, Effects
- Minyen Hsieh — Our Waning Love / Saxophone
- Mao-Sung LEE — MANAGONA / Synthesizer, Marimba, Percussion, Drums
- Yuhan Su — Liberated Gesture / Vibraphone
- Blaire Ko — Iā-Pô / Guitar (Acoustic, Electric, Classical), Piano, KB & more
- Ruby Pan — Knot A Problem / Saxophone
- KT Chang — World / Bass, Vocal, Backing Vocal
- FlyingPP — 幾何碼 / Drums
Best Live Performance
- “Is It Alive?” — Robot Swing
- “Snack” — Dac
- Legacy Presents: “MANDARK《be a “BADA88”》1st solo concert” — MANDARK
- deca joins “Heaven ＆ Dirt” 2024／deca joins
- TRASH ”HOLY TRIP!” Kaohsiung — TRASH
Best Asian Creative Artist
- Dapple Patterns — Virgin Vacation
- Paradox — Yeoian
- STRATA — LITE
- POWER ANDRE 99 — Silica Gel
- Songs — Age Factory
- Dab Hi — NaraBara
Category Awards
Best Rock Album
- Sincerely, me — Wayne’s So Sad
- Posture — Fool and Idiot
- Intro_shoe — Easy Weeds
- Noise Apartment — Sorry Youth
- World — Elephant Gym
Best Rock Song
- “Stepping in the heavy rain”／Sincerely, me — Wayne’s So Sad
- “Foresight”／Posture — Fool and Idiot
- “Peace and Quiet (Bremen announcement)”／The Great Bremen Show — Bremen Entertainment Inc.
- “A Dream of Bonnie and Clyde” (feat. JADE)／A Dream of Bonnie and Clyde feat. JADE — Naiwen Yang
- “All Things Desire”／All Things Desire — JADE
- “Come out”／Come out — lilium
Best Folk Album
- The Song for You — TUDI-VOICE
- Shape Of Life — Shuchan Chiu
- Zhin‘ Moi — Zoomie
- Iā-Pô — Panai, Blaire Ko
- Wayne Liu’s Solo Album — Wayne Liu
Best Folk Song
- “Native Tongue”／The Song for You — TUDI-VOICE
- “Hometown”／The Beauty of Pangcah — Usay Kawlu
- “Where I Belong”／Shape Of Life — Shuchan Chiu
- “Zhinˊ Moi”／Zhin‘ Moi — Zoomie
- “Tiàu Tshiū-Thâu”／Iā-Pô — Panai, Blaire Ko
- “In Case I Don’t See You Again”／Wayne Liu’s Solo Album — Wayne Liu
Best Hip-hop Album
- SIM — Taiwan rap handsome man
- BS — wannasleep & Gummy B
- THE ONE GOT C.H.A.N.G.E.s. — 2CHANGE
- Love Hereafter — Dac
- WHO CARES — SmashRegz
Best Hip-hop Song
- “dream”／SIM — Taiwan rap handsome man
- “ABC”／BS — wannasleep & Gummy B feat. Kumachan
- “HOT SAUCE”／Study (of) Breaks — Flowstrong feat. DaBao
- “How to Become a Rapper In 3 Days?”／WHO CARES — SmashRegz
- “The One Who Never Blinks”／Penrose Stairs — MadNeuron
- “One More (feat. LEO37, DCIV, Dac, Lazy Habits, Star Wu, Minyen Hsieh)”／One More — Robot Swing feat. DCIV
Best Electronica Album
- Melancholy Order — Dizparity
- Tainai — David Lu
- HEMI DEMI SEMI — Freedom Beat & cheer
- Wonderful One — Chill Qin
Best Electronica Song
- “Stone”／HIA-Nature’s Pulse — ufa
- “Kenosis” ／Melancholy Order — Dizparity
- “Universe”／Tainai — David Lu
- “In-between the Rocks”／HEMI DEMI SEMI — Freedom Beat & cheer
- “Wonderful One”／Wonderful One — Chill Qin
Best Jazz Album
- Pluto Potato — Plutato
- Our Waning Love — Minyen Hsieh
- Built In System — Chien Chien Lu
- Twisting Roots — TPO Big Band
Best Jazz Song
- “Chamakana”／Our Waning Love — Minyen Hsieh
- “She Goes to A Silent War”／Liberated Gesture — Yuhan Su
- “Träumerei”／Built In System — Chien Chien Lu
- “Exploitation Suite Part I: They’d Like to Support”／Exploitation Suite — Roger Lin
- “8 drunken gods feat. Pan Yu Puppet Theater”／Aftertaste — Debby Wang 王思雅
Best R&B Song
- “RACE OF FAITH”／FLUID — Sophy Wong
- “Adddicted (feat. Karencici)”／Boomerang — Shi Shi
- “Beach Song”／Love Hereafter — Dac
- “WET/DRY”／moment: now — It’s Your Fault
- “SEX TAPE (feat. Sunset Rollercoaster)”／SEX TAPE — ØZI
Best Alternative Pop Album
- FLUID — Sophy Wong
- Vusam — Utjung(Utjung Tjakivalid)
- I’mdifficult — I’mdifficult
- Hotel La Rut — Joanna Wang
- The Great Bremen Show — Bremen Entertainment Inc.
Best Alternative Pop Song
- “Fauvism”／Sent — 9m88
- “Little More Time”／Love Hereafter — Dac
- “Last Summer”／I’mdifficult — I’mdifficult
- “She Had a Habit of Meeting All of the Artists Backstage”／Hotel La Rut — Joanna Wang
- “Feather (feat. 壞特 ?te)”／World — Elephant Gym feat. ?te (Whyte)
- “Jhalleyaa (feat. Shashaa Tirupati)”／World — Elephant Gym
- “Castle”／The Great Bremen Show — Bremen Entertainment Inc.
Jury Award
- Wayne Liu — Wayne Liu’s Solo Album
Special Contribution Award
- THE NEXT BIG THING (Legacy Taipei / StreetVoice Taiwan)
Follow along with the 2024 Golden Indie Music Awards on their official website, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Find more information about the awards ceremony live streams on GIMA’s website.
Want more Taiwanese music on your playlists? Check out EnVi’s roundup of seven Taiwanese indie artists to keep an eye on here!
