Santana Rises Again

Carlos Santana's band won best-album honors at Monday's American Music Awards for Supernatural, a commercial comeback that put the rock guitar maestro on top of the charts for the first time in his 30-year career.

Shania Twain won two awards, for favorite pop-rock female artist and country female artist. Garth Brooks also won two awards, for favorite country male artist and country album for Double Live.

"They say live albums never do anything. Thank you once again for not listening to the rules," said Brooks, who also received a special honor as artist of the 1990s.

The other double winner was Lauryn Hill for favorite soul-rhythm and blues female artist and top soul-R&B album for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Will Smith won for pop-rock male artist.

Supernatural, mixing the veteran Santana's searing instrumentals with vocals by such collaborators as Hill and Dave Matthews, beat out two teen sensations, the Backstreet Boys' Millennium and Britney Spears' ...Baby One More Time.

Later in the evening, the Backstreet Boys topped Santana and 'N Sync for favorite pop-rock band, duo or group.

Santana took the stage to a standing ovation after winning the album honor, the evening's first award. After thanking his parents, siblings and wife, he invited his co-producer, Clive Davis, to join him. "Your music has soared," Davis told Santana. "To musicians everywhere, this is a special moment, because it's this man."

"Supernatural would never have been manifested without the heart and soul of this gentleman," said Santana, who leads contenders for next month's Grammys with 10 nominations.

Backstage, the 52-year-old Santana said "a lot of people told me they didn't want to work with me because I'm old. Mr. Davis believed in me. We both believed we had a masterpiece in our belly."

Spears won for favorite new pop-rock artist.

"This has been such an amazing adventure for me, this whole year," she said.

TLC were chosen as favorite soul-rhythm and blues artist on the strength of their album FanMail. Tyrese took the honors for new soul-rhythm and blues artist.

"No way!" Tyrese bellowed when he came on stage.

R. Kelly, who won for favorite male soul-rhythm and blues artist, sang a ribald ditty in his acceptance speech. One of the milder lines was, "Betcha I can make your body talk to me."

DMX won for favorite rap-hip hop artist. On stage he thanked Jesus, but backstage, he grumbled that with two hit albums out previously, he should have won an award before this. "I feel I should have won a few awards," DMX said. "Give it all to me."

Whitney Houston, who tied with Twain and Spears for most nominations with three, was departing for Europe on Monday night or Tuesday and had not planned on attending the show, awards spokesman Paul Shfrin said. He said her absence was unrelated to an incident in Hawaii last week, when airport security guards said they found about half an ounce of marijuana in her bag but she boarded her flight before police arrived.

Nominees for the 27th annual awards were chosen by music industry representatives. The winners were decided by about 20,000 music fans nationwide.

The show also featured results of an Internet poll that named Elvis Presley favorite artist of the 1950s, the Beatles of the 1960s, Stevie Wonder of the 1970s and Michael Jackson of the 1980s.

An Award of Merit went to Gloria Estefan, who was honored with a musical tribute featuring 'N Sync.

Mariah Carey received an Award of Achievement for her "rare and distinguished accomplishments." Michael Jackson and Prince are the only previous winners of that honor.

HERE IS A LIST OF WINNERS:

• Pop-rock:
  
  • Male artist: Will Smith.
    
  • Female artist: Shania Twain.
    
  • Band, duo or group: Backstreet Boys.
    
  • Album: Supernatural, Santana.
    
  • New artist: Britney Spears.

• Soul-rhythm & blues:
  
  • Male artist: R. Kelly.
    
  • Female artist: Lauryn Hill.
    
  • Band, duo or group: TLC.
    
  • Album: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Lauryn Hill.
    
  • New artist: Tyrese.

• Country:
  
  • Male artist: Garth Brooks.
    
  • Female artist: Shania Twain.
    
  • Band, duo or group: Brooks & Dunn.
    
  • Album: Double Live, Garth Brooks
    
  • New artist: Montgomery Gentry.

• Other:
  
  • Adult contemporary artist: Phil Collins.
    
  • Latin music artist: Ricky Martin.
    
  • Rap-hip hop artist: DMX.
    
  • Alternative music artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers.
    
  • Soundtrack: Wild Wild West.

• Special awards (Chosen by the American Music Awards)
  
  • Award of merit: Gloria Estefan.
    
  • Award of achievement: Mariah Carey.
    
  • Artist of the '90s: Garth Brooks.

• Internet poll: Artists of the Decades
  
  • 1950s Elvis Presley.
    
  • 1960s The Beatles.
    
  • 1970s Stevie Wonder.
    
  • 1980s Michael Jackson.

Written by David Germain