Thursday, February 25, 1999
Hill gets record haul of Grammys
BY LARRY NAGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It really was the Year of the Woman at the 41st Grammy Awards, as Lauryn Hill won five, including the top award, album of the year, for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
It's the most Grammys ever won by a female artist in one year, breaking a record that had stood since 1971, when Carole King's Tapestry won four gramophone statuettes.
It also marked the first time a rap album ever won album of the year.
Ms. Hill acknowledged that in her acceptance speech, saying, “This is crazy, 'cause this is hip-hop music.”
With 10 nominations, she had the most at stake. She also won best new artist, accepting that award by thanking her kids for “not spilling anything on Mommy's outfit.”
Her other three Grammys were awarded before Wednesday's televised ceremonies — R&B female vocal and song, both for “Doo Wop (That Thing)” and R&B album.
Madonna was the other big winner, opening the awards with her first Grammy performance, then winning the first award, pop album, for Ray of Light. That continued through the three-hour show, as almost every performer sang, then picked up an award.
Madonna's other three Grammys were dance recording, album package and short video. She'd previously won only one Grammy, a 1991 video award.
The night's most predictable win was Celine Dion's Titanic anthem, “My Heart Will Go On,” which took record of the year.
Big ballads are traditional Grammy favorites, but it was Ms. Hill who set the tone Wednesday night, as many winners were less predictable.
First-time Grammy host Rosie O'Donnell kept the night's female theme going with an impersonation of Elvis' mother, jokes about fashion and her open admiration of hunky Hispanic singer Ricky Martin (winner of the Latin pop Grammy).
Ms. Hill failed to win the non-classical producer Grammy (which went to Rob Cavallo who worked with Alanis Morrisette, Goo Goo Dolls and Green Day), but women dominated other non-traditional categories.
Best rock album was won by Sheryl Crow for her self-produced Globe Sessions. Ms. Morissette won rock song and female rock performance for “Uninvited.”
The “sisters are doing it for themselves” theme stretched into country music. The Dixie Chicks, a female trio who play their own instruments, took country group and album honors for Wide Open Spaces.
Shania Twain shared the country song award for “You're Still the One” with husband and co-writer Mutt Lange. That song also won her the female country award.
In contemporary folk, Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road beat a particularly strong field, including Mermaid Avenue, an album of lyrics by folk music deity Woody Guthrie with music by Billy Bragg and Wilco, plus efforts by Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett.
The male winners stayed truer to the Grammy Awards' reputation for being an old-boys club.
Old-boy winners included Aerosmith, rock group Grammy for “Pink”; Led Zeppelin duo Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, hard rock Grammy for “Most High”; Eric Clapton, pop male Grammy for “My Father's Eyes.”
The metal Grammy was won by Metallica, whose members are a few years further away from AARP membership. Lenny Kravitz upset a largely over-50 field to win the male rock Grammy for “Fly Away.”
The swing revival was acknowledged in a double win by the Brian Setzer Orchestra. The former Stray Cat frontman won the pop group Grammy for his remake of Louis Prima's “Jump, Jive an' Wail” and the pop instrumental award for his reworking of Santo & Johnny's steel guitar classic, “Sleepwalk.”
Will Smith took the solo rap Grammy, the safest nominee in a field that included Ms. Hill and her Fugee partner Wyclef Jean. Mr. Smith accepted the award for “Gettin' Jiggy Wit It,” telling how a parent-teacher conference had revealed his son's rhyming skills were weak. “There's always law school,” he shrugged.
The Beastie Boys pulled off a difficult double-play, taking Grammys in both alternative and rap group categories.
With the exception of former Pure Prairie League singer Vince Gill, winner of the country male award, local connections were a curse this year.
Former Cincinnatian Keith Lockhart's Boston Pops, the odds-on favorite to win the first classical crossover Grammy, lost the award to cellist Yo-Yo Ma's Soul of the Tango.
The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, featuring Cincinnatian Noah Hunt, lost the rock instrumental Grammy to fusion guitarist Pat Metheny.
Cincinnati's BJ Mass Choir lost its soul gospel Grammy to Cissy Houston's He Leadeth Me before the broadcast even began.
Local music didn't go completely unacknowledged. Song of the year winner Will Jennings, co-writer of “My Heart Will Go On,” thanked former Cincinnatian Troy Seals, the Nashville-based songwriter “who put me in this music business.”
Keb' Mo', who wrote much of the music in the recent Playhouse in the Park production of Thunder Knocking at the Door, won the contemporary blues Grammy.
Grammy winners
Official Grammy site
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