Chen Jianwei and Ai Yiliang’s fateful encounter at the Golden Melody Awards due to a “slip of the tongue” has led to the creation of a new Mandarin duet love song based on the concept of “prejudice”. This marks Chen Jianwei’s first new single in nine years and his debut attempt at a Mandarin duet.
At last year’s Golden Melody Awards ceremony, Ai Yiliang, who was presenting the award for Best Single Producer, mistakenly pronounced “Chen Jian…” prompting a voiceover reminder of “Wei”. The nominee Chen Jianwei thought he had won and took the stage to give his speech, only for Ai Yiliang to suddenly apologize and explain the mix-up, mistaking the jury chairman Chen Jianqi for the winner, causing a momentarily awkward situation.
Chen Jianwei quickly reacted with humor, saying, “I have now become the presenter.” His high emotional intelligence diffused the awkward atmosphere, earning applause from the audience and laying the foundation for the collaboration between Chen Jianwei and Ai Yiliang.
Afterward, about a month later, Ai Yiliang’s agent contacted Chen Jianwei, and both parties quickly reached a collaboration agreement. Chen Jianwei composed the music, and Ai Yiliang provided the lyrics, resulting in the completion of the demo in September last year.
Reflecting on the incident, the names of the jury chairman Chen Jianqi and Chen Jianwei, who was mistakenly brought on stage, are both phonetically related to “prejudice”. Therefore, Chen Jianwei and Ai Yiliang decided to base the song’s concept on this, extending “prejudice” to emotions.
Ai Yiliang stated, “This song should be a heartfelt love song where both parties share openly and communicate with an open heart.”
Chen Jianwei also shared, “Apart from emotions, it can resonate with life as well. The various prejudices people hold towards each other, for example, Ai Yiliang’s slip of the tongue on stage leading to the misconception about her mistake, but after the award envelope was revealed, everyone could understand and break the initial prejudice.”
However, during the production of the new song, Chen Jianwei suddenly suffered from a corneal ulcer, which almost caused him to lose his sight. This temporarily delayed the song’s production, but fortunately, with medical treatment, he recovered with no major issues, allowing the song to be released before this year’s Golden Melody Awards.
The song produced through their collaboration will be available for digital download on June 28th.