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Artwork for For The Record episode on Sasha & John Digweed's 'Northern Exposure'

John Digweed (L) & Sasha (R)

Photo: PYMCA/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

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Sasha & John Digweed's 'Northern Exposure' At 25 sasha-john-digweed-northern-exposure-25th-album-anniversary-record

For The Record: How Sasha & John Digweed's 'Northern Exposure' Broke The Mix Album Mold

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Released 25 years ago, Sasha and John Digweed's pivotal mix album 'Northern Exposure' shook up DJ mixes, pushed the boundaries of the mix-CD format, and became a belated classic in the electronic world
Jack Tregoning
GRAMMYs
Sep 27, 2021 - 6:00 pm

In October 1994, the British DJ duo Sasha and John Digweed released Renaissance: The Mix Collection, a three-disc odyssey through the sounds they played as resident DJs at the Renaissance club night at The Conservatory in Derby, England. The three CDs--one blue, one orange, one green--came in an elaborate foldout case adorned with Renaissance art, including a detail from Michelangelo's vast Sistine Chapel ceiling painting on the cover. In every way, from the ornate design to the considered liner notes, the package was a world away from the trippy patterns and smiley faces dominating rave culture at the time.

Over three-plus hours, Renaissance: The Mix Collection blended house anthems with progressive house and trance, two interlocking genres defined by lush melodies and fluid build-ups that took hold of the U.K. in the early '90s. Expertly mixed and featuring producers of the moment like Leftfield, Fluke, Spooky and Age of Love, Renaissance: The Mix Collection was an instant sensation, becoming the U.K.'s first-ever gold-selling mix compilation. For fans of the now hallowed DJ pairing, another serotonin-spiking multi-part mix couldn't come soon enough.

As it turned out, Sasha and Digweed's next move was to swerve. Released 25 years ago this week, on Sept. 27, 1996, Northern Exposure saw the pair step out of their comfort zone to deliver a concept album that straddled home listening and dance-floor reverie. The previous year, Digweed had returned alone to mix all three discs of Renaissance - The Mix Collection Part 2, while Sasha dropped a four-track set for the Essential Mix compilation. Coming back together, they were eager to push the boundaries of the mix-CD format they'd helped create.

While Northern Exposure is now considered a classic on par with the duo's first outing, its reception in the moment was mixed. Some listeners were put off by the simmering, global music-inflected ambience of disc one, titled "0°/North," while others chafed against the darker, strobe-lit atmosphere of disc two, titled "0°/South." In an infamously scathing review, DJ Mag gave 0°/South a score of 0/10.

Sasha & John Digweed's 'Northern Exposure' At 25

The confusion was only deepened by the mix coming out on Ministry Of Sound, the London club-turned-label then best known for releasing slamming house mixes from Tony Humphries, Paul Oakenfold and Masters At Work. Northern Exposure peaked at No. 7 on the UK Compilation Chart, a strong showing that nevertheless fell short of Renaissance - The Mix Collection. "It definitely wasn't what people were expecting," Digweed told Red Bull in 2019. "[DJ Mag] thought we'd disappeared up our own arses."

The cult of Northern Exposure grew over time, creating tingly associations with featured artists like Underworld, Rabbit in the Moon and The Future Sound Of London. The compilation also popularized the concept album in dance music, spawning many mix-CDs made in its image. Most significantly, Northern Exposure cemented Sasha and Digweed as true superstar DJs for a legion of fans who'd pore over their sets to tease out the subtlest differences between their styles.

Sasha and Digweed were mutual admirers before they became DJ partners. After falling for acid house at Manchester's storied Haçienda nightclub, Sasha started DJing with fewer than 50 records to his name, picking up his first residency at the Ashton-under-Lyne club Bugsy's and graduating to the legendary rave venue Shelleys Laserdome. In 1994, he appeared on the cover of dance bible Mixmag doing prayer hands and looking heavenwards above the headline "Sasha: Son of God?"

Digweed, meanwhile, honed his craft in the south coast town of Hastings under the early alias of JD. He convinced Sasha to drive five hours to play the Storm! party on Hastings Pier, and a lifelong friendship was born. After sharing the booth at Renaissance, the pair created their own niche with the Northern Exposure midweek club night, which inspired the dreamy-to-banging feel of the mix compilation and grew into a national touring brand.

Sasha and Digweed designed Northern Exposure as a departure from the glut of anthem-stacked mix-CDs at the time. Speaking to Australian radio station triple j in 1997, the pair described the 0°/North disc in particular as an after-hours affair.

"There were a lot of tunes we'd listen to when we'd come in from a night out that we wouldn't be able to play in a club, because they weren't appropriate," Digweed explained, name checking The Future Sound Of London's "Cascade (Part 1)" and The Orb's mix of Keiichi Suzuki's "Satellite Serenade." Sasha added, "We wanted to choose some stuff from our record collections that were classic records to us but perhaps forgotten classics."

To fit their home stereo favorites into the flow of a DJ set, Sasha told triple j the pair "did re-edits of certain tunes that needed them." Fans have debated just how much of Northern Exposure was created using the then-nascent music software Pro Tools, although the tech-savvy DJs have never claimed it was recorded live with only a pair of turntables and a mixer.

Speaking to Billboard in 2013, Sasha said his early mixes were "all handmade," then polished in the computer. "By embracing the technology at the time, we were able to mix to the limits with layering and effects," Digweed told Billboard in 2020. While some attribute the boundary-pushing 0°/North disc to Sasha and the Renaissance-like 0°/South disc to Digweed, both DJs are adamant they work as a team, their roles always adapting and evolving.

The two mixes that make up Northern Exposure are distinct but inseparable. The shimmering synths, nature sounds and sampled David Attenborough narration in The Orb's remix of Keiichi Suzuki set an appropriately wide-eyed tone for 0°/North. While the disc itself is a cohesive journey, the individual tracks (most clocking in well over five minutes) also contain their own movements and mood changes.

Each selection tells a small story of '90s dance music, from the early adventures of William Orbit, who'd later make his name as a three-time GRAMMY-winning super producer to Madonna and others, to the brilliance of Bay Area pioneer Scott Hardkiss, aka God Within, who died in 2013. The mix was influenced by the duo's travels in America and especially the trance and breakbeat scene in Florida, home to acts like Rabbit in the Moon. While "timeless" is a cliché often used to describe significant dance albums, the 0°/North disc is truly of its time, which doesn't diminish its impact.

0°/South is closer to a Sasha and Digweed club set in 1996, starting at a slow simmer and building to a driving pay-off in the final third. Its tracklist is another snapshot of the moment in dance music, including a hard-hitting remix of Pete Lazonby's "Wavespeech" by U.S. house don Junior Vasquez and closing with Underworld's "Dark & Long (Dark Train)," which also appeared that year on the Trainspotting soundtrack. It was this disc's patient build and fine-drawn shifts that upset DJ Mag's reviewer at the time, who called it the "altogether duller" half of Northern Exposure that "makes the rock people think that we are all drugged-up idiots."

After Northern Exposure, Sasha and Digweed were a powerhouse team. In 1997, the duo explored trancier sounds on Northern Exposure 2, with its mixes this time divided between "East Coast" and "West Coast" discs. The third volume, 1999's Northern Exposure: Expeditions, coincided with the duo's new residency at the revered Twilo nightclub in Manhattan. In 2000, they started anew with the club-focused Communicate mix album, which led into the ambitious Delta Heavy tour across the U.S., featuring rock concert production and support from the duo's protégé Jimmy Van M.

Without hard feelings or a major divergence in sound, the DJs went their separate ways after the Delta Heavy tour. In 2002, Sasha released his definitive artist album, Airdrawndagger, kickstarting a new phase of his career. His sound evolved over time, including excursions into techier and Balearic sounds, but never so far as to alienate his fans.

Digweed, meanwhile, carried on as the steady captain of his long-running Bedrock label, reliably delivering extended sets that brought tune trainspotters to their knees. Both DJs also remained committed to the mix-CD form, from Sasha's innovative Involver to Digweed's ever-reliable Transitions series. Speaking to The Guardian in 2016, Sasha drew a direct line from Northern Exposure to his ambient artist album, Scene Delete, saying he "always looks for those melancholic heart-tugging melodies."

Northern Exposure has continued to inspire other DJs too. A host of progressive house mix series followed in its example, including Balance, Global Underground and Global Underground: Nubreed, which featured fellow genre flag-bearers like Nick Warren, Hernan Cattaneo and Danny Howells. Sasha and Digweed's outing also coincided with the emergence of DJ-Kicks, a still-active mix series that features home listening sets by house and techno DJs.

In 2016, techno DJ Nicole Moudaber raved to Insomniac.com about playing Northern Exposure "probably 500 times since it was released" and noted its influence on a new generation of melodic techno DJs like Tale Of Us, Mind Against and DJ Tennis. Notably, Age of Love's "The Age of Love," featured on Renaissance: The Mix Collection, has returned as one of 2021's biggest peak time techno tracks, courtesy of a new remix by Charlotte de Witte and Enrico Sangiuliano.

Both Sasha and Digweed have mentioned their hopes to reissue Northern Exposure for its 25th anniversary so it can finally live on streaming platforms—a plan that as yet hasn't eventuated. "Unfortunately, a lot of these compilations keep dropping off streaming because the licensing on the tracks expire and we can't track down [the rights holders]," Sasha told Billboard this year.

As consolation, the DJs are in sync and back out in the world. Their first reunion set, at Ministry of Sound's Bedrock Easter celebration in 2016, was kept a secret until Sasha appeared as a shadowy figure next to Digweed in the booth. They've since played a host of festivals alongside DJs who grew up worshipping Northern Exposure, and just wrapped a joint fall tour of the U.S. Three decades on from their first meeting, there's no separating Sasha and John Digweed.

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Louie Vega

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Explore "Little" Louie Vega's Legendary Career record-how-little-louie-vega-built-name-big-enough-stretch-four-decades

For The Record: Explore The Decades-Long Career Of Legendary Producer "Little" Louie Vega

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In the latest episode of For The Record, GRAMMY.com examines the legendary career of GRAMMY-winning producer, DJ and remixer "Little" Louie Vega
Taj Mayfield
GRAMMYs
Sep 16, 2021 - 7:23 pm

Simply put, Louie Vega is a living legend behind the turntables.

Vega received his first GRAMMY nomination, for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical​, at the 41st GRAMMY Awards in 1999; he received his most recent GRAMMY nomination, for Best Remixed Recording, at the 63rd GRAMMY Awards in 2021.

To put Vega's iconic music career into perspective, the producer/DJ/remixer has been getting nominated for GRAMMYs for as long as the euro has been accepted as currency.

After starting his career in the '80s and gaining widespread success in the nightlife arena, Vega, commonly referred to as "Little" Louie Vega, became an even bigger artist in the '90s, thanks to collaborations with a diverse group of superstars like Curtis Mayfield, Luther Vandross, Madonna, and Janet Jackson.

Explore "Little" Louie Vega's Legendary Career

Watch the clip above to find out how Vega, always destined for musical greatness, burst onto the scene in the '80s and continues to dominate dance floors worldwide decades later.

Click below to dig through the crates of For The Record and find out how some of the biggest names in music made their climb.

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Artwork for For The Record episode on Sylvester's 'Step II'

Sylvester

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Inside The Colorful World Of Sylvester's 'Step II' sylvester-step-ii-record-lgbtq-pride-month

For The Record: Explore The Colorful, Inclusive World Of Sylvester's 'Step II'

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In the latest episode of For The Record, learn how disco maverick Sylvester crafted 'Step II,' a touchstone of the genre and a clarion call for LGBTQ+ culture
Morgan Enos
GRAMMYs
Jun 13, 2021 - 1:50 pm

Let's face it: "Disco Sucks" sucks. The late-'70s backlash against the popularity of disco music and films like Saturday Night Fever, which crescendoed with the infamous Disco Demolition Night on a Chicago ballfield in 1979, is now generally understood as wrongheaded, if not bigoted.

Because the discotheque wasn't simply some hedonistic phenomenon: It was often the last place where marginalized people, like Black, gay singer/songwriter Sylvester, could be themselves.

Inside The Colorful World Of Sylvester's 'Step II'

"You've come out of the closet. It's been difficult," Sylvester's biographer, Rick Karr, told NPR in 2018. "Many people [at the time] have moved out of their homes of origin, their families of origin, with great pain, and moved to a more liberated place, like San Francisco. And then ... this person comes out into public life that sounds like what you were feeling when you made yourself free."

Granted, by 1979, Sylvester had already been around for six years and had released five albums. But it was his 1978 album, Step II, that genuinely delivered his message of liberation to the world. Step II, which included his chart-topping signature song "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)," hit the Billboard charts hard and received gold certification by the RIAA in the late '70s.

Both the album and the song left a profound mark on disco and are today considered touchstones of the genre and clarion calls for LGBTQ+ culture. Hailed as one of the definitive LGBTQ+ Pride anthems of all time, "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" was inducted to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2019.

The world lost Sylvester too soon; he died in 1988, at 41, of AIDS. But when considering the strides the LGBTQ+ community has made in music, art and all other media, we can partly thank this fearless, out-and-proud musical dynamo.

In the latest episode of For The Record, GRAMMY.com takes you into the colorful, inclusive world of Step II, the classic album from disco maverick Sylvester that still sounds like it could have been recorded this morning.

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Yotto plays Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, 2019

Yotto

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Yotto On New Music & Building A BBC Essential Mix yotto-trance-launching-odd-one-out-building-bbc-essential-mix

Yotto On "Is This Trance?," Launching Odd One Out & Building A BBC Essential Mix

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We sat down with the Finnish DJ/producer before his final show of 2019 to hear about the vision behind his brand-new label, the electronic music he listened to as a kid and more
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Dec 17, 2019 - 12:42 pm

For a globe-trotting DJ/producer who isn't convinced he's made any great dance tracks "yet," Yotto has a pretty impressive musical resume that has many others at odds with him on the matter. Hailing from Finland, Otto Yliperttula, a.k.a Yotto, has been signed to Above & Beyond's beloved deep house sublabel, Anjunadeep, since 2015 and has been packing dancefloors around the world with his emotive, pulsing beats rooted in deep and progressive house.

His tracks have been celebrated by longtime icons of the global house scene, including Pete Tong, Annie Mac, Sasha and Laurent Garnier. In addition to landing at least five of Tong's "Essential New Tune" selections over the years, the British DJ also invited him to do a BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix in 2018, a major DJ rite of passage moment. 2018 also saw the release of Yotto's gorgeous debut LP, Hyperfall, on Anjunadeep. This past summer, the "Radiate" producer launched his own label, Odd One Out, and toured historic venues and theatres across North America to celebrate, bringing his energetic music and down-to-earth presence to new spaces.

The Recording Academy sat down with the Finnish artist before his final show of 2019 to talk about the vision behind the label, the electronic music he sought out as a teen (including Sasha) and what he thinks makes a great dance track—which he'll make "hopefully one day."

You launched your Odd One Out label this summer. What made you want to start your own label?

I always wanted to have my own label because when I grew up, I was listening to all these DJs that were playing great music and then I found out they have labels. And I was able to dig through the labels' catalog and be like, oh, yeah, this is really, really good. And that always gave me a glimpse inside the head of the DJ who I really admired and the music they wanted to play. I like the idea of the label being an extension of the DJ.

The person who runs the label, shares the music he likes or thinks people will like, or the music that works well in his live DJ sets through it. That was the core idea of it and I don't know where it's going to go, I don't really have a big plan for it. It's going to be a lot of my own music, but also I'm going to sign a bunch of artists.

I just get so much really good music sent to me, from kids that don't really know what to do with it, so I'm just going to take some of it and put it all together. I'm working on a small compilation for next year, a curated album kind of thing. That's going to be the first thing I'm going to hop into when I'm back [home in Finland] from the tour.

Who are some of these people you were listening to when you were younger?

It was like Desyn Masiello, Sasha, [John] Digweed, the old progressive house DJs pretty much. Hernán Cattáneo was a big one. Also, there was this label called Underwater, Darren Emerson was on it. Those were probably my favorites.

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How old were you when you first started getting into electronic music?

Around then, I was maybe 15. It was really hard to get that, because the internet was just slow. It was there, but just not the way it is now, of course.

Were there any good record stores where you grew up?

Yeah, there was one that I would always go to, and that's where I kind of found most of the records and the DJs because they would also sell music magazines. Ministry of Sound had a magazine back then—"Muzic" with a "z"—that was really good, really tasteful, kind of sarcastic, really good reviews on dance music. And Mixmag was around already, so then reading those and their reviews, and then going to the record store, trying to buy the records. Because I was underage I couldn't go to the clubs, so I would just have to listen to the records and think about how they worked.

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You got into it early, that's cool. It seems like in Europe, electronic music has been a lot more embedded into youth culture, and also just music in general, than in the U.S.

I think yeah, especially in the U.K. and Germany.

When I was a kid, I only knew about, like, Daft Punk. But so did everyone. Of course there were kids here that were really into electronic music, but it was a lot more sub-culture here in the '90s and '00s.

Oh yeah, sure. It was the same in Finland, it was very, very underground. There was a big scene around trance music, but the rest of it was small. It's a small country, so in relation to that, it was a healthy scene. So the best things, at least for me, I found out as a kid, were just reading about it and listening to the music.

Okay, back to 2019. To launch Odd One Out, you released "Shifter," then "Nova" and, most recently, "Is This Trance?"—the best track name ever. Can you talk a little bit about that one? And when you're working on a track—and on "Is This Trance?" specifically—where do you start?  

It depends on so much, each track is a bit different. That one was, I was in Italy for a couple of weeks on holiday. I was listening to old '90s trance that day for who knows what reason, and I was inspired by it after not having listened to it for a while. I just put my little spin on it, it's a lot slower than what the music was back then.

The name was a joke, but I just thought, you know, it works. Trance can be anything. It can be like ambient, slow music, it doesn't have to be club music. I think trance was always more about the emotional content of the music than a very particular style.

And you're about to wrap up the North American leg of the Odd One Out Tour here in L.A. tonight and you've done a lot of shows this year. What's been your favorite part about this tour?

This tour has been a bit different because I moved away from clubs a bit, doing venues like The Fonda and Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. I played a bunch of theaters and ballrooms and warehouses to just to do something a bit different and special. So it's been a challenging tour, but also one of the most rewarding ones. I'm excited to see what we're going to do next, I don't know yet.

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I can only imagine that with touring, part of it is exciting, but it can also be kind of draining to not have a home base. What do you do to stay upbeat and grounded when you're all over the place?

I fly back to Finland quite often. I recently stayed here [in L.A.] for a couple of months just to make the touring easier, which was nice. But in general, I don't party that much, I try to work out a lot, eat healthy, just sleep as much as I can. Today is a party night, so I can have a few drinks because it's the end of the tour, so I'm happy about it.

You don't meditate to trance music or anything?

I've tried meditation, I haven't really got into it yet. I'm not a very anxious person. When I'm alone at an airport, I think that's already a form of meditation. I'm just sitting there and my head just empties.

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That's a good skill.

It's kind of helpful, but also not ideal sometimes. I might drift away during a conversation and be totally somewhere else.

Well, when you're DJing, do you feel kind of immersed in it? What's the experience like for you when you're sharing music with people?

Yeah, there's part of me that's constantly thinking about or analyzing it, in a way where I kind of think about what record I want to play next. There's a few tracks that I know the people that actually bought tickets want to hear, so I have to figure out a way to make those tracks come through in the set, but also I just want to keep it fully free-flowing. I don't really plan the sets that much. I just play whatever feels right in the moment.

Last year, you released your debut album Hyperfall. You've put out a lot of music and mixes before then, but did it feel different working on a cohesive album versus a one-off track?

Yeah, it started just by having a few tracks that didn't make sense to me as singles at the moment, so then I started building something larger around them. It was something I always wanted to do. It's not a necessary thing for a club act today. Personally, I just wanted to have an album that has music that's not just what I play in the shows, it's just something different.

Also in 2018, you made your BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix debut, which is a big deal. Were you happy with how it turned out?

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I used to listen to all of the Essential Mixes when they came out. I would the download sh*tty quality ones the next day, when they were available online after being broadcasted on BBC since 2003 or '04.

So yeah, when they invited me to do one, obviously my first reaction is, "Yay, that's amazing," but after that you get a bit nervous. You're like, "What if it's going to suck?" But then I just thought, I'm just going to record a mix of me playing music that I like, so then I just did that and then edited it a bit more, added a few extra in there, like an intro and outro. That was it.

I think it kind of functions as a really good, thought-out mix for me, and also a time capsule of where I was musically in that time of my career. If I were to make a new one right now, it would sound a lot different, but also similar. You never know.

Sounds like you didn't overthink it and it flowed pretty well.

I started overthinking it, but then it was like, yeah, this is not going to sound natural. So then I approached it as just another DJ set with just a few extra things.

What do you think makes a great dance track? 

I don't know if I've made any great tracks yet, hopefully one day.

You really don't think you've made a great dance track?!

I think I've made some decent ones, time will tell if they're great or not. But I think it's the combination of capturing a moment that people will remember from their lives and then, whether it's melody or just something that grabs their attention. And then with that, combined with the club functionality of a dance record. When those two things meet, then it's like a recipe.

Bye Bye Plastic: BLOND:ISH, Annie Mac, Eats Everything & More Advocate For Eco-Friendly Parties

Madonna at the 41st GRAMMY Awards in 1999

Madonna

Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage.com

Feature
Madonna: 'Ray Of Light' | For The Record madonnas-electronic-music-pioneering-ray-light-record

Madonna's Electronic Music Pioneering 'Ray Of Light': For The Record

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Remember when the GRAMMY winner brought electronic music in "Vogue" and won big at the 41st GRAMMYs?
Renée Fabian
GRAMMYs
Apr 26, 2018 - 11:52 am

What songs come to mind when you think about Madonna? "Like A Virgin"? "Like A Prayer"? "Vogue"? "Open Your Heart"? How about "Ray Of Light"? The evocative singer/songwriter's rule-breaking seventh studio album, Ray Of Light, proved to be a pivotal one, both for Madonna and for the music world.

Madonna: 'Ray Of Light' | For The Record

Released worldwide March 3, 1998, Ray Of Light offered a different side of Madonna. After trying — and ultimately failing — to get something going with producers Babyface and Patrick Leonard, Madonna turned to English producer William Orbit, who helped her turn over a new musical leaf.

Madonna recorded the album shortly following the birth of her first child, Lourdes, which led her to tap into her spiritual side, including Buddhist and Hinduist influences on songs such as "Nothing Really Matters." She refocused her vocal tone and brought in elements from a wide range of genres, such as techno, ambient, trip-hop, and Middle Eastern music — all fused with an electronic sound.

"This record takes me back to where I started — in a club right in the middle of a dance floor," she told Billboard in 1998. "It's full circle, except I'm so different now."

Whenever an artist makes a major musical departure, they're taking a risk. In Madonna's case, that risk paid off. Ray Of Light landed at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and critics hailed her new sound, revitalizing her career for a new generation of fans deep in the '90s. The album is also credited with bringing electronic music into global pop culture.

"I like risk, and — like with Ray Of Light — when someone wants to make an artistic statement and be bold and experimental, that's when [music is] exciting," Orbit said in a recent interview.

Ray Of Light also hit it big at the 41st GRAMMY Awards, where it earned Madonna a total of five nominations, including for Album Of The Year and Record Of The Year for the title track. At the end of the night, Madonna won Best Pop Album and the title track took home Best Dance Recording and Best Short Form Music Video.

Catching Up On Music News Powered By The Recording Academy Just Got Easier. Have A Google Home Device? "Talk To GRAMMYs"

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