By 2025 Golden Melody Festival in Taipei, a conversation between Panos A. PanayPresident for Recording Academy (The organization behind Gramm) and SXSW VP James Minor cut right to the heart of where the global music industry is heading – and why it has never been more boundless.
Was held as part of the festival’s three-day conference lineup, explored the dialogue Grammy’s developing global footprint, Panay’s personal musical journey and the creative potential for cross-cultural exchange. The festival served as a lead to the Golden Melody Awards, mixed B2B Matchmaking, Live Music Showcases and Industryforum-All set the stage for the awards ceremony.
For Panay meant growing up in Cyprus to tune into a cultural mosaic – Greek at home, but as often French, Turkish or Italian oaks from radios and street corners. The early exposure to a spectrum of language and sound shaped a lifelong conviction: music is not bound by geography.
Now at the Rodret for Recording Academy, he is pushing to make that philosophy more than personal. His goal: to bring more international votes in the limelight and update how we talk about what – and who – makes it the world scene.
“It’s something exciting about Ed Sheeran that connects with Diggit Dosanjh, or BTS and Coldplay Merging Worlds,” Panay told Amount. “Fifteen years ago, that type of sonic, rhythmic and linguistic mergers would have been a rarity.”
Technology, Panay claims, is the big enabler. Streaming platforms and social media have radically expanded who is heard and how far a track can travel. But it’s not just access – it’s openness. “The audience today is more willing than ever to embrace music in language in addition to their own,” Panay explains.
He urged emerging Asian artists to take risks, seek cooperation and remain faithful to their roots: “Be curious. Be real. Your truth is your superpower.”
“Be open to influences and perspectives and artists who are outside your own culture,” he adds. “Listen to as many poly-cultural influences as you can-then mix, mesh and stir them into your own and create something new.”
When it comes to price exhibitions, Panay says they are not relics – they are rituals. “Contrary to expectations, price exhibitions all over the world have had a renaissance in recent years. So whether it is Grammys or Golden Melody Awards here in Taiwan, regardless of culture, there is something that is permanent and, I dare, human about the concept of an award. Assuming there is real integrity behind the honor.”