The 2025 Golden Melody Awards, often dubbed “the Grammys of Asia,” returned to Taipei Arena with a celebration of excellence across the Mandarin music world. Among the most poignant moments of the night was the posthumous Jury Award presentation to beloved singer-songwriter Khalil Fong for his final album, “Dreamer.”

Fong, who died in February at the age of 41 due to an unspecified illness, will be remembered not just as a genre-bending artist but as a singular voice who shaped the contours of contemporary Mando-pop, R&B, and soul. Accepting the award on his behalf were members of the Khalil Fong Trust, who paid tribute to the late musician’s enduring impact.

“Khalil Fong composed the notes of love with his heart and constructed a universe of kindness,” they said onstage. “His music, his thoughts, and his belief in world harmony are like starlights guiding us. We promise to protect his spirit and make his voice not only a memory, but also a force driving the future.”

The album, Fong’s last, has taken on an almost sacred resonance among fans. “If Khalil Fong’s past albums were like meticulously crafted novels, then ‘Dreamer’ is more like a diary tucked away in his bedside drawer,” Golden Melody Awards producer Chuan-che Lee told Variety. “His own unique sense of humor still surfaces from time to time, but there’s also an unmistakable vulnerability in his voice.”

Born in Kauai, Hawaii, in 1983, Fong spent his early years in Shanghai and Guangzhou before settling in Hong Kong. Throughout his career, he was celebrated for challenging musical conventions – fusing Mandarin lyrics with Western soul and R&B sensibilities – and for writing hits for the likes of Eason Chan, Andy Lau, and Jacky Cheung.

Lee recalls discovering Fong in the mid-2000s during a commercial break on TV. “Normally, those segments just felt like noise to my elementary school self. But then came “Love Song.” A skinny boy with glasses at a piano, singing in the middle of empty skyscrapers,” he says. “In an era when singers and idol groups were all vying to deliver high-energy dance hits, his soft, reserved, fuzzy voice felt like the gentlest form of resistance to the world around him.”

Fong’s minimalist approach redefined the boundaries of Mandarin pop. “His songs may seem light and simple, but with deeper analysis and deconstruction, you would realize they are not only intricate but also impossible to replicate through sheer effort alone,” Lee adds. “Those delicate, and occasionally eerie string sections, silky acoustic guitars, tight and dry sounding drums, and the sparkling Fender Rhodes piano – these were his personal form of ‘protest’ against the conventions of Mandarin pop music.”

“Before Khalil Fong, I didn’t know that Mandarin pop music, which I had grown used to being ‘forceful,’ could be spoken like a whisper, yet still carry the passionate pulse of soul music,” he says.

It was a revelation that reshaped his understanding of the genre – one that aligned closely with Fong’s own belief in the quiet power of music.

As Fong once said: “Art plays a paramount role in promoting and enhancing harmony among humanity, and music as an art acts as a medium for enriching and enlivening the human soul.”