Born in a small town in Alberta, Canada, k d lang first gained prominence as a country and western singer. With her close-cropped hair, cowgirl gear and horn-rimmed glasses, she cut an ironic figure that even she has admitted was wacky. But when she opened her mouth to sing, audiences listened. As she dropped the outer trappings and concentrated on her vocal stylings, many began to compare her with the great Patsy Cline. (In fact, lang used to claim that she was the reincarnation of the singer). After two albums with her band, the Reclines, lang began performing as a solo artist. "Shadowland" (1988), her third album, received critical kudos and the singer was lumped with such artists as Lyle Lovett as emblems of the "New Country" movement; artists who managed to find novel approaches to the form without alienating the core audience.

Yet, lang was considered a bit too quirky by the mainstream in Nashville. She began to reposition herself, first with a Grammy-winning duet with Roy Orbison on his haunting "Crying" and later with her breakthrough album "Ingenue" (1992). The latter featured her hit "Constant Craving" which not only earned her a second Grammy Award but also demonstrated her vocal range. Her layered approach to torch songs struck a nerve with the general public. Coincidental with the album's release, lang publicly disclosed her homosexuality in a cover story with THE ADVOCATE. Additional controversy was engendered when lang, a vegetarian, appeared in the "Meat Stinks" advertising campaign sponsored by the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). A 1993 VANITY FAIR cover that featured the singer in male garb, seated in a barber's chair and receiving a shave from supermodel Cindy Crawford also caused a stir. Nevertheless, lang continued to move away from her country roots toward more of a stance as a chanteuse with "All You Can Eat" (1995). She solidified this stance with the concept album "Drag" (1997), which featured covers of songs about smoking, ranging from "Don't Smoke in Bed" to "My Last Cigarette".

lang began working in features in the late 1980s, providing the musical score for the docudrama "Walking After Midnight" (1988). She has gone on to write the scores for such eclectic fare as "Getting Married at Buffalo Jump" (1989), Gus Van Sant's unsuccessful "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" (1994) and "Entwined" (1997). In 1991, Percy Adlon especially created the role of a half-white, half-Inuit orphan who embarks on a journey of self-discovery in "Salmonberries". lang acquitted herself in the role, but has stated that she does not think of herself as an actor. She has subsequently only tackled a handful of roles, most notably as a lesbian film director in the CBS miniseries "The Last Don" (1997) and as a coffeehouse singer in the groundbreaking 1997 episode of the ABC sitcom "Ellen" wherein the lead character comes out as a lesbian. She returned to features as the government contact for Ewen McGregor's operative in the thriller "Eye of the Beholder" (2000), offering perhaps the film's best performance.