It is time to review the 2004 Chinese pop music scene. Two annual awards on this subject will give gala ceremonies in January.

Channel V, Asia's leading music TV channel, will join hands with China Central Television (CCTV) and the Shanghai Media Group (SMG) to hold the ceremony at the Shanghai International Gymnasium Center on January 11.

It is sure to be a star-studded party where fans will see most Chinese pop artists. Richard Marx will also appear and sing "Right Here Waiting" with Hong Kong singer Ronald Cheng.

Then Beijing Music Radio will collaborate with 21 local radio stations, which are all members of the China National Satellite Network of Music Radio, to hold a ceremony at Beijing Workers Gymnasium on January 22.

From the nominees' lists of both awards, people can see that there have been more new faces rising more quickly in 2004.

Some of them such as groups Longkuan Jiuduan from Chinese mainland and F.I.R from Taiwan, singers Huang Yida and Angela Chang from Taiwan, gave such impressive performances last year that they were nominated in the Best Newman category at both awards.

Taking the boom of the pop industry in the Chinese mainland into consideration, Channel V's Chinese Music Awards has balanced its awards among nominees from Hong Kong and Taiwan and the Chinese mainland in its 11th year.

The artists from the mainland are equally nominated for the seven categories as those for Hong Kong and Taiwan areas: Best Male Singer, Best Female Singer, Best Band/Group, Best Songwriter, Best New Male, Most Popular Male Singer and Most Popular Female Singer. Each category has five nominees.

Starting in 1994 and only awarded to artists from Taiwan and Hong Kong in the first three years, Channel V's Chinese Music Awards became the first of its kind to give awards to singers and song writers from the Chinese mainland in 1997. Since 1998, the ceremony moved to the mainland.

"The pop singers and song writers are rising at an incredible speed. Today, they are as competitive as the counterparts in Hong Kong and Taiwan," says Gu Yuan, general manager of Channel V China.

"Songwriters especially, many of them such as Pu Shu and Yu Quan are very talented musicians and had some professional training before entering the pop scene."

(China Daily January 11, 2005)