The 38th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1996, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The awards recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year. Alanis Morissette was the main recipient, being awarded four trophies, including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men opened the show with their Record of the Year nominated "One Sweet Day".
The ceremony was controversial for its unexpected snub of Mariah Carey's Daydream album, which proved to be one of the bestselling and most acclaimed albums of 1995. When the Grammy Award nominees were announced, and Daydream was nominated for six different awards, critics began raving how it would be "cleaning up" that year. Carey, being a multiple award nominee, was one of the headlining performers. Together with Boyz II Men, she sang a live rendition of "One Sweet Day", to a very positive response. The album had lost all of its six nominations, shocking most critics who branded it the "album of the year". Carey did not perform again until the 2006 ceremony, when she was nominated for eight awards (winning three) for The Emancipation of Mimi.
The ceremony is also significant for Tupac Shakur introducing Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, and Paul Stanley of Kiss for the first time in full makeup and costume since 1979. Shakur said "And I've seen just about everything now," in response to seeing Kiss walk on stage to announce the nominees for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.
Performers
Presenters
Award winners
General
Record of the Year
Album of the Year
- Jagged Little Pill â Alanis Morissette
- Glen Ballard, producer
- Daydream â Mariah Carey
- Walter Afanasieff, Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Dave Hall, David Morales & Manuel Seal, producers
- ' â Michael Jackson
- Dallas Austin, Bill Bottrell, David Foster, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Jimmy Jam, R. Kelly, Terry Lewis, René & Bruce Swedien, producers
- Relish â Joan Osborne
- Rick Chertoff, producer
- Vitalogy â Pearl Jam
- Brendan O'Brien & Pearl Jam, producers
Song of the Year
Best New Artist
Alternative
Blues
Children's
Classical
- Best Orchestral Performance
- Pierre Boulez (conductor) & the Cleveland Orchestra for Debussy: La Mer
- Best Classical Vocal Performance
- Christopher Hogwood (conductor), Sylvia McNair & the Academy of Ancient Music for The Echoing Air â The Music of Henry Purcell
- Best Opera Recording
- Raymond Minshull (producer), Charles Dutoit (conductor), Gary Lakes, Françoise Pollet, Gino Quilico, Deborah Voigt & L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal & Chorus for Berlioz: Les Troyens
- Best Choral Performance
- Herbert Blomstedt (conductor), Vance George (choir director) & the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra & Chorus for Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem
- Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)
- Seiji Ozawa (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Boston Symphony Orchestra for The American Album â Works of Bernstein, Barber, Foss
- Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra)
- Radu Lupu for Schubert: Piano Sonatas (B-flat major and A major)
- Best Chamber Music Performance
- Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma & Richard Stoltzman for Brahms/Beethoven/Mozart: Clarinet Trios
- Best Classical Contemporary Composition
- Olivier Messiaen (composer) & Myung-whun Chung (conductor) for Messiaen: Concert a Quatre
- Best Classical Album
- Karl-August Naegler (producer), Pierre Boulez (conductor) & the Cleveland Orchestra & Chorus for Debussy: La Mer; Nocturnes; Jeux
Comedy
- From 1994 through 2003, see "Best Spoken Comedy Album" under the "Spoken" field, below.
Composing and arranging
Country
Folk
Gospel
Historical
- Best Historical Album
- John Pfeiffer (producer & notes writer), Ray Hall, Thomas MacCluskey, James P. Nichols, Anthony Salvatore, Jon M. Samuels, David Satz (engineers), J.J. Stelmach (art director), Gabriel Banat, Grant Beglarian, Robert Cowan, Mortimer W. Frank, Richard Freed, Erick Friedman, Harris Goldsmith, Josefa Heifetz, George Jellinek, Irving Kolodin, Jacob Lateiner, Laurence Lesser, Myra C. Livingston, John Maltese, John Anthony Maltese, Leonard Pennario & Brooks Smith (notes writers) for The Heifetz Collection performed by Jascha Heifetz & various artists
Jazz
Latin
Musical show
Music video
New Age
Packaging and notes
Polka
Pop
Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance
Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals
Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals
Best Pop Instrumental Performance
Best Pop Album
- Turbulent Indigo â Joni Mitchell
- Larry Klein, producer
- Daydream â Mariah Carey
- Walter Afanasieff, Mariah Carey, Jermaine Dupri, Dave Hall, David Morales & Manuel Seal, producers
- Hell Freezes Over â Eagles
- Eagles, Elliot Scheiner, Rob Jacobs, and Stan Lynch, producers
- Medusa â Annie Lennox
- Stephen Lipson, producer
- Bedtime Stories â Madonna
- Madonna, Dallas Austin, Babyface, Dave Hall, and Nellee Hooper, producers
Production and engineering
R&B
Rap
Best Rap Solo Performance
Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group
Best Rap Album
Reggae
Rock
Spoken
Traditional pop
World
Special merit awards
References