Singer-songwriter Jonathan Lee [Photo provided to China Daily]

Nominations for the second CMIC (China Music Industry Committee) Music Awards, were announced on June 29 in Beijing.

Xu Yi, president of the CMIC Music Awards Committee, revealed the nominations in 35 categories.

Beijing-based singer-songwriter Pu Shu's album, Orion, scored nominations in ten categories, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Male Singer of the Year.

Hong Kong pop singer Eason Chan's album, C'mon in, also got nominated for the Album of the Year, Male Singer of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

Taiwan singer Kulilay Amit, who is better known by her stage name A-mei, received nine nominations, including Album of the Year for her 2017 album, Story Thief, Female Singer of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

New Artist of the Year nominees are hip-hop singer VaVa, folk singer-songwriter Xie Chunhua, pop singer-songwriters Zhou Shen and Xu Jun and the band, Kawa, from Yunnan province.

For the first time, CMIC Music Awards has two new categories: Best Children's Album and Best Original Soundtrack for a Video Game.

The gala awards ceremony will be held in Beijing on July 31, and will be broadcast online by streaming site iQiyi.

"From the list of the nominations, we can see the music scene of the country in 2017, which has more diversity and more new faces," says Xu.

In 2017, when Song Ke, the chairman of the China Music Industry Committee, initiated the idea of launching CMIC Music Awards, he hoped to restore the dignity of China's music industry.

Being a central figure in the development of China's music industry for more than two decades, Song, the former head of Warner Music China and now the CEO of Ali Music Group, a division of e-commerce giant Alibaba, says that there are many music awards in China which "have celebrities, screaming fans and generous sponsors, but it's more about entertainment. They have nothing to do with music.

"We want to recognize talented people in the music industry and encourage young musicians. Most importantly, we can finally regain our industry's dignity, which we have lost," Song said onstage during last year's awards ceremony in Beijing.

The jury panel of the CMIC Music Awards consists of 101 members of the China Music Industry Committee, all hailing from record labels and distributors. Taiwan veteran songwriter and producer Jonathan Lee has been invited to be the chief consultant.

"Lee helped us by giving a long report on sharing his views about the music industry and his opinions about the standards of each category," Song says. "We want to let people know why we choose the winners and we will elaborate the reasons before announcing each winner at the gala."