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Taiwan music awards cheers as singer Ellen Joyce Loo comes out

Ellen Joyce Loo supporting LGBTI equality in Taiwan

Hong Kong singer-songwriter Ellen Joyce Loo wowed Taiwan’s 28th Golden Melody Awards by coming out in her acceptance speech.

The Canadian-born folktronica and cantopop artist has a strong following in Asia and her coming out video has started to go viral.

Posted on her Facebook page, it has had over 400K views so far. Fans have reacted positively, with 8.5K reactions celebrating the news.

After taking the stage and thanking the usual list of people in any acceptance speech, she went on to single out one person in particular.

She told the crowd: ‘I have to thank my wife.’

And she credited her with helping Loo write her first Mandarin song seven years ago and developing her music career in Taiwan.

The audience greeted the revelation she is married to a woman with huge cheers. And the award’s host even jumped for joy.

After confessing she and her wife had married overseas last year, she humbly finished: ‘I have to thank her for making my life more complete. I know the world is imperfect, my music is imperfect, I myself am not perfect, but with you, who needs perfection. Thank you.’

You can watch the video here.

Ellen Joyce Loo advocating LGBTI rights

Loo has been a firm supporter of LGBTI rights in Asia for many years. In 2015 she wrote a Facebook post about her journey with gender identity. This led Hong Kong media to wonder at the time if this was Loo coming out.

However, she responded to the question by saying: ‘Sexual orientation isn’t a topic for fans. If I do get married, I will announce it to the world.’

It seems this year’s awards in Taiwan was her time to do it.

Taiwan is the leading nation on LGBT equality in Asia, with the country’s top court ruling in favour of same-sex marriage earlier this year.