THE Grammy Awards have always been good to Irish acts and this year was no exception, with Clannad and The Chieftains both winning more prizes at last Wednesday's night ceremony which was held in Los Angeles.
Clannad won the New Age award for their Landmarks album and The Chieftains won the Traditional Folk Album award for their album, The Long Journey Home which features vocal contributions from Brenda Fricker and Sinead O'Connor.
There was a further Irish-related success story when Elvis Costello (who now lives in Dublin) shared the Pop Collaboration With Vocals award with Burt Bacharach for their work on the song I Still Have That Other Girl off the duo's acclaimed Painted From Memory album.
In other categories, woman power ruled supreme, with Lauryn Hill, Madonna and Celine Dion scooping the majority of the awards and leaving the male nominees trailing in their wake.
Hill's The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill album became the first hip-hop record ever to capture the Album of the Year honours, which is significant as the award usually goes to a white, male, rock act. Hill, who is also a member of The Fugees, picked up five awards in total, setting a new record for Grammys for a female artist in a year - the previous record had been set in 1971 when Carole King's Tapestry won four awards.
Madonna picked up the Best Pop Album award for her strongest album to date, Ray of Light, as well as other production and vocal awards.
Predictably, Celine Dion won both Song and Record of the Year for her warblings on My Heart Will Go On, the ballad from the film Titanic - and here's hoping that the song will now be taken out of public circulation.
