Ceremonies of the 19th Golden Melody Awards were held in Taipei, Taiwan in 2008. Nominees were announced on May 22, 2008, and the award winners in 12 traditional music categories and 23 popular music categories were selected by a panel of 33 judges after four rounds of jury meetings. Initially, there were 10,632 submissions from 185 companies in the music industry, making it the largest submission pool in the Awards' history.

Gary Chaw, also known as Gary Cao or Cao Ge or by his alter ego Cao Xiaoge, is a Malaysian Chinese singer-songwriter based in Taiwan, who has had achieved success in Taiwan, Mainland China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. He is renowned for his stage presence, wide vocal range, and rich voice. In addition, he composes for himself and other singers.