Cantopop lyricist wins top award

Hong Kong lyricist Chow Yiu-fai made history at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards - the Chinese-speaking world's equivalent of the Grammy Awards - by winning the best lyricist with a Cantopop song.

Homo Sapiens, sung by Cantopop star Eason Chan Yick-shun, is the first Cantonpop song to win the best lyricist since the award was founded 33 years ago.

Another Hong Kong lyricist, Lin Xi, was also among the nominees with the song Regression, sung by singer-songwriter Terence Lam Ka-him.

Chow was absent from Saturday's ceremony held at Taipei Arena. His representative, Jasmine Yang Hui-fang, digital division director at Universal Music Taiwan, thanked the Golden Melody Awards for putting emphasis on Cantopop.

"Chow asked me to say this sentence in Cantonese: 'It is really insane, you have got to be kidding me,'" Yang said.

"In fact, music made in Chinese is our music, and this award is dedicated to all my fellow lyricists who write lyrics in Chinese."