artists:  kd lang and Tony Bennett

songwriter:  Bob Thiele (as George Douglas)and George David Weiss

date released:  1968 by Louis Armstrong; 2002 by kd lang

Katherine Dawn Lang was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1961.  Her family moved to the rural town of Consort, Alberta, where her father was a drugstore owner. He left the family when lang was twelve, and her mother remarried a school principal in Consort.

After lang graduated from high school, she attended Red Deer College and the country singer, Patsy Cline, became her muse.  Singing and performing at country and western venues with her newly adopted name, k.d.lang, she received some very critical reviews which prompted her to win at 1985 Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist.  Since her early recognition, she has won seven more Juno Awards.  In 1986, she was wooed to Nashville, Tennessee, to record album, "Angel with a Lariat" with an American producer.U.S. audiences began paying attention to k.d.lang while she was touring with the great Roy Orbison. In 1989, Orbison chose her to sing their now-famous duet, "Crying".  

Singing duets features strongly in k.d.lang's career.  She paired with the American jazz singer, Madeleine Peyroux, to record a Joni Mitchell composition, "River" in 2006.  Later she would win a Grammy award for her duet with the legend, Tony Bennett, for the song, "What a Wonderful World".

In addition to her many Junos, our Albertan won four Grammys out of the five nominations she has received in her life.

An activist for gay rights causes and HIV/AIDS care and research, k.d.l ang has recently begun to support Tibetan human rights issues.  At the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch relay, lang joined the pro-Tibet protesters.