K.d. Lang
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Biography
Before she became an elegant chanteuse, k.d. lang (short for Kathryn Dawn Lang) was a wilfully odd performance artist: During her early days in Edmonton, Alberta circa 1982-83, she performed at least one staged heart transplant at a music club. At the same time she fell under the spell of Patsy Cline and her first band the Reclines were originally a purely cover band. By the time she debuted in America, with the Dave Edmunds-produced Angel With a Lariat in 1987, she'd had a five-year career in Canada and developed into a skilled country singer. Though the Edmunds album had its tongue-in-cheek moments, the next album, 1988's Shadowland was a sincere roots homage, produced by Owen Bradley who had worked closely with Cline. The same year she appeared on Roy Orbison's Cinemax special, A Black & White Night, doing a well-received duet on "Crying." At the time lang's spiky-haired, androgynous look was proudly out of sync with her traditionally-styled music; she came out as a lesbian in a magazine interview in 1992. She stepped away from country music with 1992's Ingenue, a romantic pop album that was her most successful (winning her a Grammy for Best Female Vocal Pop Performance) and in many fans' view her best. Its upbeat finale "Constant Craving" became her signature song, and also won a bit of notoriety when the Rolling Stones' 1997 single "Anybody Seen My Baby?" was deemed to have a similar tune; lang and cowriter Ben Mink ultimately shared the writing credit with Jagger and Richards. She followed Ingenue with a film soundtrack, for Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (1993), and a string of semi-conceptual albums: Cigarette songs on 1997's Drag, sunshine pop on 2000's Invincible Summer. She remained enough of a mainstream success that Tony Bennett invited her for a duets album, 2002's A Wonderful World, devoted to the romantic side of the Louis Armstrong catalogue. By now lang was gravitating to singer-songwriter material, often recording with other female artists (including Medeleine Peyroux and Jane Siberry). 2004's Hymns of the 49th Parallel was devoted to Canadian songwriters and included one of the first major covers of Leonard Cohen's now-ubiquitous "Hallelujah." She would later sing it at Cohen's memorial in Quebec in 2017. lang remained politically active, supporting animal rights and gay issues. 2008 brought Watershed, her first solo album in eight years and last as of 2018., though 2011's Sing It Loud found her fronting a new band, the Siss Boom Bang In 2016 she formed a songwriter's supergroup with Neko Case and Laura Viers. The trio's first album, case/lang/viers, marked her return to alternative country.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Music (Special)
Cast (TV Mini-Series)
Life Events
1988
Wrote the film score for "Walking After Midnight" with her band, the re-clines
1990
Starred in "So in Love" music video (directed by Percy Adlon) for the "Red, Hot & Blue" TV special and disc
1991
Made film acting debut in "Salmonberries", directed by Adlon
1992
Publicly "came out" as a lesbian in an interview with <i>The Advocate</i>, a magazine targeted to a gay and lesbian audience
1993
Engendered controversy when she participated in a "Meat Stinks" advertising campaign sponsored by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
1993
Garnered further publicity when she posed for the cover of <i>Vanity Fair</i> sitting in a barber's chair with Cindy Crawford giving lang a shave
1994
With longtime collaborator Ben Mink, wrote the music for Gus Van Sant's "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"
1997
TV acting debut in the CBS miniseries "The Last Don"
1997
Made cameo appearance on the "coming out" episode of "Ellen"
2000
Cast in a supporting role in the feature "Eye of the Beholder" (filmed in 1998), alongside Ewan McGregor and Ashley Judd
2002
Recorded duet album with Tony Bennett
2016
Began collaboration with Neko Case and Laura Viers
2017
Sang "Hallelujah" at Leonard Cohen memorial in Quebec
Family
Companions
