How k.d. lang’s “Miss Chatelaine” became an unlikely dance-floor anthem—with help from Orville Peck
Shadowland, which was a critical and commercial success. Then, in the following years, lang won two Grammys (Best Country Vocal Collaboration with Roy Orbison, and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for “Absolute Torch And Twang”), cementing her breakthrough into the mainstream music scene.Punk rock.
Disco. Folk. Just as the community is all-inclusive, the songs that shaped it span across several genres. While new gay artists and empowering anthems pop up daily, it’s important to honor the tried-and-true classics.All of which is to say, by the time she released her more pop-oriented sophomore effort, Ingenue, in 1992, all eyes were on k.d.
lang, especially after lead single “Constant Craving” became her biggest hit ever.It was shortly after the album’s release that lang sat down with The Advocate and, for the first time, spoke publicly about being queer.
Though she’s said she was worried about the impact coming out might have on her career (and, indeed, some radio stations stopped playing her music after that), lang knew being open and honest could only be good for her—and for an LGBTQ+ community still looking for positive representation in the media.So it feels like no accident that her second single from Ingenue was the ebullient and decidedly queer, “Miss Chatelaine.”Seamlessly incorporating an acoustic guitar, Latin percussion, and a Parisian accordion, the track’s soundscape is both distinctive and universal, almost campy in its defiant, radiant optimism.
