More Than a Nod to the Ladies

By GEOFF BOUCHER

Jan. 6, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Year of the Woman in music has been repeatedly declared this decade, but 1998 appears to be the real deal. The female voice dominated the major categories in the 41st annual Grammy nominations in unprecedented fashion.

Lauryn Hill, a member of the Grammy-winning Fugees hip-hop trio, led the way in nominations announced Tuesday with 10 nods, mostly for her solo debut album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”

“Miseducation” was part of the first-ever clean sweep by women in the prestigious album of year category. The other nominees: Sheryl Crow, Madonna, Shania Twain and rock band Garbage, which is fronted by singer Shirley Manson.

Women also ruled in record of the year nominations, with Brandy & Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine,” Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” Madonna’s “Ray of Light” and Twain’s “You’re Still the One.” The lone male voice in the category was provided by the Goo Goo Dolls with “Iris.”

“Nine out of the 10 in album and record are women, which shows the good ol’ boy club that had been so dominant for so long is gone,” said Michael Greene, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, whose membership votes for the awards. “We’re in a different era.”

The Grammy Awards, which will be be presented Feb. 24 at the Shrine Auditorium, will cap a year that saw female performers win over consumers as well as the critics.

Dion and Twain lead all solo artists in album sales, and Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” was the flagship hit on the year’s best seller, the “Titanic” soundtrack.

But while Dion’s “Let’s Talk About Love” and James Horner’s mega-selling soundtrack to the film combined to sell more than 15 million copies in 1997, both were noticeably absent from the announcement of best album nominees.

Hill, whose album had already been named the year’s best by numerous pop critics, was trailed in total nominations by Crow and Twain, who tied with six each. Madonna received five nominations.

“I’m very happy to be amongst an amazing group of female nominees,” an ecstatic Madonna said Tuesday. “I feel incredibly blessed.”

Crow and Hill will also compete in a traditionally male-dominated category: producer of the year. Greene said those nominations signal the advent of greater creative control for women over “their musical destiny.”

The producer nomination for Hill would also seem to signal that the singer’s peers weren’t troubled by a pending federal lawsuit filed by four of Hill’s collaborators on “Miseducation.” The suit filed two months ago in New Jersey claims the hip-hop diva exaggerated her role as a songwriter and producer. Hill’s spokesmen have strongly rebuked the claims, and in previous interviews Greene has said that Grammy voters traditionally ignore such disputes until there is proof.

Hill is also competing with herself in the best R&B; song category, with one nomination as songwriter for “Doo Wop (That Thing)” from her own album, and another nod for “A Rose Is Still a Rose,” which she penned for Aretha Franklin.

The women of 1998 could have an even stronger showing--”Uninvited” by Alanis Morissette and “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia were viewed as contenders for record of the year. Morissette got two nominations in rock categories, and Imbruglia will vie for best new artist honors with the Backstreet Boys, tenor Andrea Bocelli, the Dixie Chicks and Hill.

To Greene, the presence of a “hip-hop singer, pop singers and an opera singer” (the latter an “unfathomable” option to voters in previous years, by Greene’s estimation) signals a healthy diversity in new talent.

In the song of the year category, Aerosmith’s recording of “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” garnered songwriter Diane Warren her third consecutive nomination. The other songwriting nominees are John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls for “Iris,” Kirk Franklin for “Lean on Me,” Horner and Will Jennings for “My Heart Will Go On,” and Robert John “Mutt” Lange and Twain for “You’re Still the One.”

The eligibility period for the 41st annual Grammy Awards was Oct. 1, 1997, through Sept. 30, 1998, and a total of 460 nominations in 95 categories were announced.

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Album of the Year

Sheryl Crow: “The Globe Sessions”

Garbage: “Version 2.0”

Lauryn Hill: “Miseducation”

Madonna: “Ray of Light”

Shania Twain: “Come on Over”

Record of the Year

* Brandy & Monica, “The Boy Is Mine”

* Celine Dion, “My Heart Will Go On”

* Goo Goo Dolls, “Iris”

* Madonna, “Ray of Light”