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Moby Amused By Baha Men's Grammy Win

Hex Hector named Remixer of the Year, Björk shut out in two categories, William Orbit loses to Joe Jackson, no wins for Madonna.

The Baha Men's summer anthem, "Who Let the Dogs Out?," one of several canine-oriented hit singles from 2000, received the Grammy for Best Dance Recording on Wednesday (February 21).

"I think it's one of those songs that everyone liked, so it just got played and played and played," said the Baha Men's Colyn "Moe" Grant, after winning the award. "It's great to have a song that the whole world is rocking to."

The song beat out several major artists in the category, including Jennifer Lopez (nominated for her hit "Let's Get Loud"), Moby ("Natural Blues") and Enrique Iglesias ("Be With You," which was an international club hit). The Italian dance-pop trio Eiffel 65's smash "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" also was a contender.

Grant joked that the group is writing a sequel to the song, called "Who Let the Cats Out?"

Daniel Chamberlin, an associate editor at the electronic-music magazine Urb, said "Who Let the Dogs Out?" was the logical Grammy choice.

"Though Moby is the obvious choice for me as a critic of underground dance music," he said, "I must say that Baha Men's mix of Caribbean instrumentation, shouting and social commentary on loosed pets captures not only the rah-rah energy that characterizes the American scene, but also represents our eagerness to bark and jump about in spaces besides night clubs and raves."

Best Dance Recording was among several awards presented Wednesday before the telecast of the 43rd Annual Grammys, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Moby performed "Natural Blues" (RealAudio excerpt) at the Grammy ceremony, where he was joined onstage by the performance troupe Blue Man Group and R&B singer Jill Scott. Moby played bass and sang harmony with Scott, who emulated the gospel vocals of the original song, which he sampled from field recordings made by musicologist Alan Lomax some 50 years ago.

Moby didn't expect to lose much sleep over being triumphed by the whimsical Baha Men.

"I think it's quite a catchy little pop song, and my feeling is if I'm going to lose an award, I'd rather lose to a novelty act than a serious act, 'cause it feels like less of a slight," he said. "Last year I lost to Beck and Santana, and that actually hurt a little bit more, but losing to the Baha Men — you can't help but laugh, you know?"

Moby was nominated last year for Best Alternative Performance for his unstoppable album Play, and for Best Instrumental Rock Performance for "Body Rock."

The dense Remixer of the Year category, in just its fourth year of existence, was won by veteran New York house-music producer Hex Hector. He was tapped for his mixes of Jennifer Lopez's "Feelin' So Good," 98 Degrees' "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)," Whitney Houston's "I Learned From the Best," Melanie C's "I Turn to You," Madonna's "Music" and Toni Braxton's "Spanish Guitar." Hector beat out the Washington, D.C., house duo Deep Dish, R&B maestro Maurice Joshua, Club 69's Peter Rauhofer and Los Angeles DJ Richard "Humpty" Vission, who manned the turntables during Madonna's Grammy-opening performance of "Music."

Innovative singer/producer/actress Björk failed to win either of the two awards she was nominated for, Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying a Vocalist(s). The Brian Setzer Orchestra took home the Grammy in the former category for "Caravan," from his album Vavoom!, while Vince Mendoza won in the latter for Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now."

Both of Björk's nominated songs, "Overture" and "I've Seen It All" (a duet with Radiohead's Thom Yorke), are from Selmasongs, Björk's self-produced soundtrack to "Dancer in the Dark," the award-winning Lars Von Trier film in which she also had the lead role. "I've Seen It All" is also nominated for an Academy Award this year in the Music (Song) category, and Björk is scheduled to perform the song at the March 25 ceremony with Yorke, accompanied by a 55-piece orchestra.

Pieces in a Modern Style, British producer William Orbit's ambient-electronic interpretations of classical compositions, was nominated for Best Instrumental Album, but it lost out to Joe Jackson's Symphony No. 1. Other nominees in the category included Kirk Whalum and the Blue Man Group. Orbit won two awards in 1998 for his production work on Madonna's Ray of Light, including Best Pop Album and Best Dance Recording, for the title track.

Madonna's 2000 album, Music, didn't take home any of its three nominations, for Best Pop Vocal Album, Record of the Year or Best Female Pop Vocal Performance — the latter two nominations came for the dance-floor smash title track, which was produced by French artist Mirwais.

(Click here for a complete list of winners.)

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