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k.d. lang

Highest Rated: 63% Salmonberries (1991)

Lowest Rated: 9% Eye of the Beholder (1999)

Birthday: Nov 2, 1961

Birthplace: Consort, Alberta, Canada

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.

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Highest rated movies

63% 55% Salmonberries
Watchlist
9% 32% Eye of the Beholder
Watchlist
Walking After Midnight
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90% Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
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50% Teresa's Tattoo
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Filmography

Movies

Credit
9% 32% Eye of the Beholder Hilary (Character) $16.5M 1999
No Score Yet 50% Teresa's Tattoo Michelle (Character) - 1994
63% 55% Salmonberries Kotzebue (Character) - 1991
No Score Yet 90% Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night Self - 1988
No Score Yet No Score Yet Walking After Midnight Unknown (Character) - 1988

TV

Credit
No Score Yet No Score Yet Jann Guest 2020
94% 81% Portlandia Unknown (Guest Star) 2014
No Score Yet 12% The View Guest 2014
84% 85% How I Met Your Mother k.d. lang (Guest Star) 2013
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Talk Music Performer 2012
No Score Yet 42% Jimmy Kimmel Live! Music Performer 2011
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Graham Norton Show Guest 2011
No Score Yet No Score Yet Dharma & Greg Unknown (Guest Star) 2000
No Score Yet No Score Yet The Last Don Unknown (Character) 1997
No Score Yet No Score Yet MTV Unplugged Self 1993
No Score Yet 57% Saturday Night Live Music Performer 1989