ASIA’S biggest stars lit up the red carpet of the 26th Golden Melody Awards on Saturday, Taiwan’s equivalent of the Grammy Awards.

    God of Songs Jacky Cheung lost the Best Mandarin Male Singer prize to his compatriot Eason Chan as expected.

    The Hong Kong singer was in the news days before the ceremony after the jury’s representative, singer Sky Wu, said Cheung was the fifth and last singer to make it into the category’s nominations list, narrowly beating Jay Chou in the jury’s voting. On Saturday, Cheung was in the audience sitting next to Chan when the winner was announced.

    He had made it to the ceremony despite admitting to reporters last week that “it is hard not to completely mind” Wu’s comment which had revealed the odds against him before the ceremony.

    And when Chan got up to go to the stage, turning first to hug him, Cheung also sportingly patted his head.

    Chan won with 10 votes against Cheung’s nine, with one judge abstaining from voting.

    Cheung was in the running for his album, “Wake Up Dreaming,” his first new Mandarin album in seven years.

    It was the second Best Mandarin Male Singer Golden Melody award for Chan, who won for his album “Rice & Shine” at the awards, held at the Taipei Arena and hosted by Harlem Yu.

    Taking his prize from Singapore’s JJ Lin, who is one of the album’s producers, he said on stage, “Thank you Taiwan!”

    A-mei collected her third Mandarin Female Singer title for “Faces of Paranoia.”

    Jolin Tsai, who had led with nine nominations going into the ceremony, was still the night’s biggest winner.

    Her album “Play” won for Best Mandarin Album and Best Vocal Recording Album, and “Lip Reading,” a track off it, won for Best Single Producer.

    The Song of the Year was “Island’s Sunrise,” the protest song that punk bank Fire Ex wrote for the student-led Sunflower Movement in Taiwan last year. Buddha Jump, the rock band fronted by Malaysian singer Penny Tai, was crowned Best Band. Karen Mok’s “Departures” won two prizes including Best Album Producer, and William Wei was Best Composer for “Wolf.”

    Meanwhile, Cheung showed that all was well between him and Wu. On stage at one point to play a dice game with the other Mandarin Male Singer nominees, he won the game, winning a grilled sausage. He gave it to Wu and they hugged.(SD-Agencies)