k.d. lang: Still Thrives This Love

On Sapphic self-realization, subtext, and the importance of swagger.

It may be hard for some to recall or even imagine that there was a time when k.d. lang — the exquisitely virtuosic and versatile Canadian singer who is inarguably one of the best vocalists of our lifetime — was not an out lesbian. To be more specific, she was not out professionally — she was clearly living her authentic life in private, and in plain sight to those who recognized the signifiers. She wasn’t being coy; back in the 1980s, declaring your sexuality was risky business to the point of inadvisable if you wanted to have a successful career in the entertainment business. Which was why a lot of … let’s call them “lesbian-canonical” artists who broke out that time, e.g. the Indigo Girls, Melissa Etheridge, were undeclared until the early 1990s. But those “in the life” clocked her as “family” as we used to say, not just by the way k.d. lang presented herself (the soft butch signifiers and overall aesthetic), but from parsing the subtext in the lyrics, and, when she sang covers, the delivery. Put another way: Many of us had gaydar and electromagnetic energy beamed rainbows. She was the whole flirty package — giving listeners a big old wink of acknowledgement, like we shared a secret, or a collective inside joke, while she seduced us with her sly smile and her smoldering, seamlessly multi-octave-spanning voice.