Images(5)

k.d. lang Stage Outfit

Not currently on exhibit

Artifact TypeWedding Dress & Veil

Date20th Century

This vintage wedding dress and veil were worn by Alberta singer-songwriter k.d. lang to the 1985 JUNO Awards, where she won her first JUNO for “Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year”. A country crooner with a mischievous sense of humour, lang accepted the award dressed as her interpretation of the most promising female in general, a bride. Complete with her signature spiky hair and sawed-off cowboy boots, the outfit cemented the Canadian singer as an androgynous style icon.

Vintage wedding dress and veil donated by k.d. lang

Cultural SignificanceThis particular artifact is reported to be the infamous dress worn by Lang while attending the Juno awards ceremony in 1985, for which she received the award for Most Promising Female Vocalist. k.d. lang stands as one of the most recognizable and prolific Canadian musicians, lauded primarily for her contributions in establishing the adult contemporary genre in the early 1990s with works such as 1992’s “Constant Craving”.Users/Performersk.d. lang was born Kathryn Dawn Lang on 2 November 1961 in Edmonton, Alberta, and was raised in the prairie town of Consort, Alberta. Her earliest musical interests emerged in the early 1980s while studying at Red Deer College, where she formed her first band, The Reclines, which was a tribute band to Patsy Cline. The group’s first recordings throughout 1983 and 1984, characterized by a playfully punk attitude and country-rock aesthetic, proved successful, garnering national interest. In 1985, Lang was the recipient of the Juno award for Most Promising Female Vocalist, and, the following year, signed a recording contract with Sire records and a producer in Nashville, Tennessee. International attention came in 1988 with a performance at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, which led to a hugely successful collaborative recording with Roy Orbison that earned the pair a Grammy award in 1989. In the early 1990s, Lang’s aesthetic moved away from country and toward adult contemporary, reflected most prominently in the critically acclaimed Ingénue of 1992, with the hits “Constant Craving” and “Miss Chatelaine”. She remained among the most successful and prolific Canadian musicians of the 1990s, continuing to release albums, tour worldwide, and providing original music for films such as Gus Van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues of 1993. Her awards and accolades over the years are numerous, including multiple Grammy awards and nominations, eight Juno awards, and numerous Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) awards. Lang was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1996.

Object numberT.2016.30.01