k.d. lang, born Kathryn Dawn Lang in 1961, burst onto the music scene in 1984 with A Truly Western Experience, her debut album recorded with backing band The Reclines. In the next five years, she released three more country albums, styling herself as an androgynous Patsy Cline revivalist. (Her backing band was even named as a reference to the late Cline.) In 1988, she released the most-acclaimed of these, Shadowland, which she recorded with legendary producer Owen Bradley. Though she didn’t have any smash hits, her records sold respectably and garnered critical praise.

However, the tides changed in 1990 after lang recorded a controversial TV ad for animal rights group PETA. lang, herself a vegetarian, caught criticism for the ad before it even aired, with numerous radio stations banning her music (despite the fact that many of those stations had barely played her music to start). lang left country music and pivoted to pop, a move that proved successful with the release of 1992’s Ingenue. The record spawned the top 40 pop hit “Constant Craving,” won universal acclaim, and earned lang six Grammy nominations (and one win) over two years. She came out as lesbian weeks after the album’s release, and has also become a gay icon.

lang has remained an alternative-pop singer ever since, with her most recent solo album, Watershed, being released to critical praise in 2008. She also regularly releases collaborative albums, most notably the acclaimed case/lang/veirs in 2016.