Ingenue Encore

k.d. lang isn’t constantly craving anymore.

.d. lang is embarking on a full-scale Canadian tour for the first time in more than a decade. It’s part of her duties as a Canada 150 Ambassador, which is an odd title since she’s representing Canada to Canadians in order to celebrate Canada. Not that we’re complaining. If anyone embodies this country in all its gracious complexity, it’s lang: She’s a smalltown Alberta girl who first made a name for herself by infusing country music with a kind of performance art/ punk rock spirit, and she’s a performer whose vegetarianism offended more people back home than her eventual coming out ever did. Like Canada, she has always been progressive yet courteous, pushing against categorization—both musically and personally. She is a living embodiment of No One Thing-ness.

Simply by being herself, lang has also become an unintentional marker to measure how much the world has changed in the 25-plus years since she rose to global prominence. Back in the bold-faced early ’90s, lang—vegetarian, out-of-the-closet lesbian, woman with an androgynous hairstyle—was the epitome of hip, if harmless, edginess. She represents the difference between a provocateur and a pioneer. She’s not exactly edgy these days, but that’s not because she has changed—the world has simply caught up.

Then there’s her music. On her tour, which runs until September 19, lang will be performing songs from

Ingénue, her genre-bending masterpiece that, coincidentally, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. If time has changed how we see lang and her persona, it hasn’t touched the album that gave that persona life. Its timelessness would almost be eerie if it weren’t so powerful, beautiful and true; it’s just one more way lang perfectly represents this country. »