K.d. lang

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Template:Lowercase Image:Kd lang-Drag.jpg Kathryn Dawn Lang OC (born November 2, 1961), best known by the stage name k.d. lang (without capital letters), is a Canadian singer and songwriter.

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 Further reading
4 See also
5 External links

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Biography

Lang was born in the small farming town of Consort, Alberta and grew up on the Canadian prairies; she is of German, Sioux and Icelandic descent on her father's side, and has a Russian Jewish great grandmother on her mother's side. Singing at country and western venues in Canada, she made several recordings that received good reviews and earned a 1985 Canadian Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. She accepted the award wearing a wedding dress.

In 1986, she signed a contract with an American record producer in Nashville, Tennessee and received critical acclaim for her 1987 album, Angel with a Lariat. Her career received a huge boost when rock legend Roy Orbison chose her to record a duet of his standard, "Crying". Instead of being overwhelmed by the power of Orbison's three-octave voice, the two blended their tremendous vocal ranges into a riveting collaboration that won them the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. In 1988, she performed "Turn me Round" at the closing ceremonies of the XV Winter Olympiad in Calgary. Later that same year she would sing background vocals with Jennifer Warnes and Bonnie Raitt for Orbison's acclaimed television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night.

k.d. lang won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her 1989 album, Absolute Torch and Twang. The single "Full Moon of Love" that stemmed from that album became a modest hit in the United States in the summer of 1989.

In addition to her musical talents, k.d. lang, who came out as a lesbian in a 1992 article of the gay journal The Advocate, has actively championed lesbian causes. Her animal rights vegetarian stands including a "Meat Stinks" campaign created much controversy, particularly at her hometown in the middle of Alberta's cattle ranching industry.

The album, Ingenue, released in 1992, contained her most popular song, "Constant Craving", which brought her multi-million sales, much critical acclaim, and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Another top ten single from the record was "Miss Chatelaine"; the salsa inspired track was ironic, as a "Chatelaine" is a respected mistress of a large, fashionable household and lang herself is known for keeping a stereotypically masculine appearance.

In 1993, she starred in the Alaska-themed film Salmonberries, to generally poor reviews. She contributed much of the music towards Gus van Sant's soundtrack of the movie version of Tom Robbins's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, and also did a cover of "Skylark" for the movie version of the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She also performed "Surrender" for the closing titles of the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, having previously worked with Bond composer David Arnold on his album Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project.

In 1996, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

In 2003, she won her fourth Grammy Award, this time for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for her collaboration with Tony Bennett, A Wonderful World.

On subsequent tours critical acclaim continued to come her way. For example, in 2004 Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote: "Few singers command such perfection of pitch. Her voice, at once beautiful and unadorned and softened with a veil of smoke, invariably hits the middle of a note and remains there. She discreetly flaunted her technique, drawing out notes and shading them from sustained cries into softer, vibrato-laden murmurs. She balanced her commitment to the material with humor, projecting a twinkling merriment behind it all." (see [1]).

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