Hill Makes History With 5 Wins

On a Grammy night when the female voice reigned, none was stronger or more honored than that of Lauryn Hill, who took album of the year and best new artist honors for her celebrated alchemy of old-school R&B; and hip-hop.

Hill’s triumphant showing at the 41st annual Grammys, the music industry’s top honor, saw her win five awards, a record for a female artist, and capture the first album of the year honors for a hip-hop project, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

“This is so amazing,” she mused from the stage at the Shrine Auditorium. “This is crazy because this is hip-hop music.”

The 23-year-old New Jersey singer performed “To Zion,” a heartfelt ode to her son, and stole the show on a night that also featured subplots of redemption for Madonna and the continuing dominance of music from the film “Titanic.”

Madonna came into the night with 16 years of hits and only one Grammy--the 1991 award for best video--but left with three more. The 40-year-old’s audacious explorations of sexuality in her music and image had never won over the traditionally staid voters in the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

That changed this year, however, with “Ray of Light,” her biggest commercial and critical success of the 1990s. She won best pop album for “Ray of Light,” and best dance recording and short form music video for the title track. For “Titanic,” however, it was business as usual. The song “My Heart Will Go On” from the blockbuster soundtrack, an Oscar winner last year, was named record of the year, song of the year and won the best female vocal award for Canadian diva Celine Dion. It also won for song written for motion picture or television.

This year’s nominations were dominated by women in unprecedented fashion, including a complete sweep of the album of the year category and four of five nominees for record of the year.

Alanis Morissette won two awards, best rock song and female rock vocal for “Uninvited,” while Sheryl Crow’s “The Globe Sessions” took the Grammy for best rock album. The Dixie Chicks won two awards in the country categories, a total matched by country phenom Shania Twain.

Even Vince Gill, who won for best male country vocal, commented on the woman power at the event. “In my whole career and life, I have to say that most of my heroes have always been women,” Gill said backstage. “All of my favorite singers have been women.” Among those heroes? Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. “Women are getting their due now because they’re making great records.”

For Crow, accepting the award for best rock album also provided an opportunity for a brief industry eulogy: She noted the passing of A&M; Records, the famed Los Angeles-based label that was gutted last month in a massive corporate downsizing. She thanked A&M; executives Al Cafaro and David Anderle and, in a cracking voice, praised the pioneering independent label for its history of guiding careers.

“I was at a party last night and I overheard someone say, ‘God, she’s gotten so much better,’ ” Crow said, “and I have to look at the label as letting me develop as an artist from the ground up.”

The upset of the night seemed to come in the country album category: Twain’s glossy, rock-inflected “Come On Over” was passed over by Grammy voters in favor of the more tradition-bound Dixie Chicks and their “Wide Open Spaces.”

That loss early in the show was telling: Twain, whose sexy image and pop stylings have at times put her at odds with the Nashville establishment, was nominated in six categories but settled for just two awards, best country song and best female country vocal performance.

Twain said the true victory was her success with fans and the more than 6.8 million copies sold of the smash album. “I’m happy with my record sales,” she said to the press backstage. “I’m the biggest seller. Every one of those records [sold] is the award for me.”

In the end though, the story of the night was decidedly one woman and her vision. Hill, who won two Grammys in 1996 as a member of the rap trio the Fugees, was the clear favorite coming into the show after a chorus of glowing reviews made her “Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” the most acclaimed album of 1998.

Hill racked up eight nominations for the album and two others for a project with Aretha Franklin, arriving with 10 nominations--two shy of the record held by Michael Jackson and Babyface.

Like that intensely personal album, the New Jersey singer’s first acceptance speech touched on spirituality, family and a personal history of pain and triumph.

She read a biblical passage of redemption, thanked her children “for not spilling anything on Mommy’s outfit” and warmly saluted their father, Rohan Marley, for being “a lion.”

While Hill’s success will likely be hailed as a landmark acceptance of hip-hop by the recording academy, one Grammy winner on Wednesday said rap is still slighted by the industry’s mainstream.

Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z, who won best rap album for his “Vol. 2 . . . Hard Knock Life,” announced before the show that he would not attend because he was unhappy that two of the three rap categories--including the category he won--would not be included in the televised portion of the ceremony. Only 13 of the 95 awards were presented during the three-hour show.

A spokesman for Jay-Z said the omission of the best rap album presentation is “disrespectful” to rap, and gives short shrift to a genre that accounts for 10% of all album sales. The televised ceremony did include the equivalent award category for pop, country and rock genres.

The lone rap presentation aired was for best rap solo performance, which was won by Will Smith, for “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It,” an airy dance hit that voters embraced over more intense offerings from Wyclef Jean, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes and Hill.

Other highlights:

* Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, two Grammy stalwarts, added to their collection of trophies. Clapton, who won song, record and album of the year in 1992, won his 13th career Grammy--this time for best male vocal for “My Father’s Eyes.” Meanwhile, Wonder, who was feted earlier this week at a Grammy Week tribute dinner, picked up his 20th and 21st Grammys.

* Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, a pair of prolific songwriters with decidedly different backgrounds, won for best pop collaboration with vocal for “I Still Have That Other Girl.” For Costello, a wry icon of the ‘70s punk movement, it marked his first Grammy, while it was the fifth award for Bacharach, a composer whose career has been defined by seminal pop hits.

The awards were based on ballots of the academy’s 10,000 voting members. The eligibility period for this year’s recordings was Oct. 1, 1997 to Sept. 30, 1998.

Times staff writer Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and freelancer writer Steve Hochman contributed to this report.

* MORE COVERAGE: All the winners and commentaries by Robert Hilburn and Howard Rosenberg. A16, 17

* WHO WHAT WEAR: What the celebrities wore and how they partied. See Friday’s Southern California Living.

* Speeches on the Web: https://www.latimes.com