k.d. lang
Kathryn Dawn Lang OC AOE (born November 2, 1961), known by her[a] stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances. Hits include the songs "Constant Craving" and "Miss Chatelaine".
A mezzo-soprano,[2] lang has contributed songs to movie soundtracks and has collaborated with musicians such as Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, Elton John, The Killers, Anne Murray, Ann Wilson, and Jane Siberry.[3] She performed at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, and at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".
Lang has also been active as an animal rights, gay rights, and Tibetan human rights activist. She is a tantric practitioner of the old school of Tibetan Buddhism.[4]
Early life[edit]
Lang was born in Edmonton, Alberta, the youngest child[5] of Audrey Bebee and Adam Frederick Lang.[6] She is of English, Irish, Scottish, German, Russian-Jewish, Icelandic, and Sioux ancestry.[7] When lang was nine months old, her family moved to Consort, Alberta, where she grew up with two older sisters and one older brother in the Canadian prairies.[8] Her father, a drugstore owner, left the family when she was twelve.[8]
After secondary school, lang attended Red Deer College, where she became fascinated with the life and music of Patsy Cline and decided to pursue a career as a professional singer.[9] She moved to Edmonton after her graduation in 1982 and answered Jim Alexander's classified ad in the Edmonton Journal looking for a singer for his country-swing band. After a show at Devil's Lake Corral which drew over 500 people, lang joined with label owner and manager Larry Wanagas to form a Patsy Cline tribute band, the Reclines in 1983.
[10] They recorded their debut single, "Friday Dance Promenade", at Sundown Recorders. The first band featured Stu Macdougal on keys, Dave Bjarnson on drums, Gary Koligar on guitar and bassist Farley Scott.
The Reclines regularly played Edmonton's popular Sidetrack Cafe, a local venue that featured live bands six nights a week. In 1983, lang presented a performance-art piece, a seven-hour re-enactment of the transplantation of an artificial heart for Barney Clark, a retired American dentist.[11][12] A Truly Western Experience was released in 1984 and received strong reviews and led to national attention in Canada. In August 1984, lang was one of three Canadian artists to be selected to perform at the World Science Fair in Tsukuba, Japan (along with other performing and recording contracts throughout Japan).
Singing at country and western venues in Canada, lang began to establish an appearance and style referred to as "cowboy punk".[13] She was called a "Canadian Cowpunk" in the June 20, 1985, issue of Rolling Stone.[14] She would later recall the inspiration for her defining look in an interview with the Canadian Press: "I used to sew plastic cowboys and Indians on my clothes – just having fun with it on a budget. I was broke at the time, so I'd find things at Value Village or get my mom to make me a skirt from the curtains she was about to throw out. I loved playing with the clothes as much as the music."[13]
Career[edit]
Lang made several recordings that received very positive reviews and earned a 1985 Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. She accepted the award wearing a wedding dress borrowed from her male roommate.[13] She also made numerous tongue-in-cheek promises about what she would and would not do in the future, thus fulfilling the title of 'Most Promising'. She has won a total of eight Juno Awards.
In 1986, lang signed a contract with an American record producer in Nashville, Tennessee, and received critical acclaim for her 1987 album, Angel with a Lariat, which was produced by Dave Edmunds.
Lang chose to use a lower-case name, inspired by the poet e. e. cummings.[15]
Lang first earned international recognition in 1988 when she performed as "The Alberta Rose" at the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.[16] Canadian women's magazine Chatelaine selected lang as its "Woman of the Year" in 1988.[17]
Lang's career received a huge boost when Roy Orbison chose her to record a duet of his standard, "Crying", a collaboration that won them the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1989. The song was used in the Jon Cryer film Hiding Out released in 1987. Due to the success of the song, lang received the Entertainer of the Year award from the Canadian Country Music Association. Lang would win the same award for the next three years, in addition to two Female Vocalist of the Year awards in 1988 and 1989.
1988 marked the release of Shadowland, an album of torch country produced by Owen Bradley. In late 1988, Shadowland was named Album of the Year by the Canadian Country Music Association. That year she also performed "Turn Me Round" at the closing ceremonies of the XV Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, and sang background vocals with Jennifer Warnes and Bonnie Raitt for Orbison's acclaimed television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night.
In 1990, lang contributed the song "So in Love" to the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 1998, she contributed "Fado Hilário" to the AIDS benefit compilation album Onda Sonora: Red Hot + Lisbon produced by the same organization.
Personal life[edit]
A 2008 article in which lang is interviewed states that "when she isn't working, [lang] is mostly a homebody, living quietly with a girlfriend she refers to as 'my wife' — they are not legally married — and her two dogs."[41] On November 11, 2009, she entered into a domestic partnership with Jamie Price, whom she had met in 2003. After separating on September 6, 2011, lang filed for a dissolution of the partnership in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Los Angeles, California, on December 30, 2011.[42]
