Name |
K. D. Lang |
Height |
|
Naionality |
Canadian |
Date of Birth |
2-November-1961 |
Place of Birth |
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
Famous for |
Singing |
K. D. Lang also known by Kathryn Dawn Lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won both Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances; hits include "Constant Craving" and "Miss Chatelaine". She has contributed songs to movie soundtracks and has teamed with musicians such as Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, Elton John, Anne Murray and Jane Siberry.
Lang is also known for being a vegan as well as an animal rights, gay rights, and Tibetan human rights activist. She is a tantric practitioner of the old school of Tibetan Buddhism. She performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" live at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Previously, she had performed at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Lang possesses the vocal range of a mezzo-soprano. 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.
Lang won the American Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her 1989 album, Absolute Torch and Twang. The single "Full Moon Full of Love" that stemmed from that album became a modest hit in the United States in the summer of 1989 and a number 1 hit on the RPM Country chart in Canada. In 1989 she sang a duet, Sin City, with Dwight Yoakam on his album "Just Lookin' for a Hit." The 1992 album, Ingénue, a set of adult contemporary pop songs that showed comparatively little country influence, contained her most popular song, "Constant Craving." That song 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; Chatelaine, a women's magazine, once chose lang as its "Woman of the Year," and the song's video depicted lang in an exaggeratedly feminine manner, surrounded by bright pastel colors and a profusion of bubbles reminiscent of a performance on the Lawrence Welk show.
In 1997, Drag, an album of cover tunes dedicated to 'smoke' (specifically cigarette smoking) was released, although the album cover and booklet photographs show lang in a man's suit, referring to cross dressing as another possible meaning of the word 'drag'. The songs on Drag include "Smoke Dreams," from the '40s, Steve Miller Band's "The Joker," "Smoke Rings," the theme from the cult movie Valley of the Dolls, and 8 other smoke-themed songs. Lang ranked No. 33 on VH-1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock & Roll in 1999 and No. 26 on CMT' 40 Greatest Women in Country Music in 2002, one of only eight women to make both lists. The others were Linda Ronstadt, Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Lucinda Williams, and Emmylou Harris.