OTTAWA — A chorus of k.d. lang's friends and admirers turned the tables on the serial cover artist Friday, serenading the Alberta-born singer with renditions of her own songs at a concert in her honour. Lang sat in a box at stage right, illuminated by a spotlight and armed with a handful of tissues as she watched and was watched. "I think there was a reason I was such an oddball, because then I could skirt some of the attention," lang said sheepishly as she took the stage at the end of the night. Still, she gamely joined her peers to sing her biggest hit, "Constant Craving," in the show's grand finale. Over her 40-year career, lang has become known as a great interpreter of other people's music, from collaborations with Tony Bennett and Roy Orbison to her 2004 compendium of Canadian masterpieces "Hymns of the 49th Parallel." But performers including Jill Barber and Allison Russell ensured lang's songwriting took centre stage at the Ottawa event. Barber opened the night with a rendition of lang's campy classic "Miss Chatelaine," hiking up the voluminous skirt of her red dress so she could traipse barefoot across the stage as she sang. Later in the evening, Barber described lang's voice. "Now, when it comes to k.d. lang's powerful and distinctive voice, all I can think is that it sounds like Canada: its vastness, its depth of emotion, its ability to express beauty and pain and longing, sometimes all at the same time," she said. Barber added that when she was a kid, lang proved to her that Canadian women could make it in the music business. "That's what k.d. has done for so many of us: given us permission to be completely ourselves, shown us that there is room for all of our voices," she said. Allison Russell, who sang "Trail of Broken Hearts" off lang's album "Absolute Torch and Twang," told the crowd lang was a lifeline for her when she was growing up. Russell recalled listening to lang and Tracy Chapman's records on a road trip with her uncle: a rare respite from the abuse she endured. "Part of the reason I survived," she said. Jann Arden praised lang's artistic versatility, saying she "has never stopped pushing the boundaries of music genre." "Look her up on any of the streamers. They don't know what she is. It's like alternative, country, jazz, rock. It's all there. All the genres. And she's making them distinctly her own, reimagining her artistic expressions constantly," Arden said. Attendees Friday included Gov.-Gen. Louise Arbour and Canadian actor Michael J. Fox, who earlier in the day was invested as a companion of the Order of Canada. "In addition to her own artistic innovations, k.d. lang has championed Canadian talent in the music industry, and she's elevated the songs of many, many Canadian and international artists to new heights," Arbour said on stage. And while many of the artists toasted lang's songwriting prowess, some ensured her powerful covers also got their due. Michael Bublé sang Roy Orbison's 1961 song "Crying," which lang recorded as a duet with the late musician in 1987. That record nabbed lang her first Grammy and helped her break out in the United States. And William Prince performed "Hallelujah" in an ode to lang's versions of the song. Her first notable performance of the ballad came at the Juno Awards in 2005, and she repeated it on the world stage at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Prince's soulful rendition of the Leonard Cohen song garnered a standing ovation from the audience -- a member of which shouted "I'm not crying, you're crying!" when the applause died down. Lang wiped her eyes as she watched her friend and collaborator Jane Siberry's perform "The Valley." It's one of Siberry's own songs, which lang covered on "Hymns of the 49th Parallel." When Siberry walked on stage, she quipped: "Well, I guess they ran out of awards." The evening was also laced with video tributes from notables not in attendance: Reba McEntire, Carole King, former prime minister Justin Trudeau and director Gus Van Sant. At the end of the night, lang turned patriotic as she thanked the crowd. "Let's take this show on the road to the Kennedy Centre," she joked. "Hell yeah! Here come the Canadians! They're queer, and they're very, very talented." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2026. Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press
