The 41st Grammy Awards from the 10,000 members of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences were distributed February 24 in Los Angeles. The toast of the most woman-dominated Grammies ever was Lauryn Hill, who broke Carole King's 1971 women's record by taking home five statues; Hill had been nominated in 10 categories. Hill was followed by Celine Dion with four awards for "My Heart Still Goes On."
But it was also a very good night for Madonna, who in a successful 16-year career had previously taken home just one Grammy, a 1991 Best Long-Form Video. She opened the show performing "Nothing Really Matters" from her album "Ray of Light," in a red kimono (described by one reviewer as "hideous") with a group of Japanese dancers. She went on to collect three awards for that album (out of five nominations), including the new Best Dance Recording (beating out open gay Boy George), Best Short Music Video, and Best Pop Album. ("Ray of Light" also won a Best Recording Package for art director Kevin Reagan.)
Open gay Sir Elton John was part of the team sharing "The Lion King's" award for Best Musical Show Album. Other gay winners were deceased classical composers. A Telarc album headlined by Samuel Barber's "Prayers of Kirkegaard" won Best Classical Album for conductor Robert Shaw and producer James Mallinson, Best Choral Performance for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and Best Engineered Album for Jack Renner. Barber and open gay Aaron Copland were among the composers on Deutsche Grammophon's "American Scenes" album, which won Best Chamber Music Performance for Andre Previn and Gil Shaham. An album inclu! ding Tchaikovsky's "Violin Concerto in D Major" helped Steven Epstein become Classical Producer of the Year.
Rosie O'Donnell's MC performance was not critically acclaimed; almost her only remark to be quoted in the press was that if double-winner Alanis Morissette were to write a book, it would be called "Women Are from Venus, Men Are Pieces of Crap." Three drag performers including "Bridgette of Madison County" backed up double-winner Sheryl Crow's performance of "There Goes the Neighborhood."
