Born in Alberta, Canada, lang was first drawn toward music while she was in college. In particular, she was attracted to the music of Patsy Cline. She became acquainted with Cline's music while she was preparing to star in a collegiate theatrical production based on the vocalist's life. Soon, lang immersed herself within Cline's life and music and decided that she would pursue a career as a professional singer. With the help of guitarist/co-songwriter Ben Mink, she formed a band, named the re-clines in tribute to Patsy Cline, in 1983 and they recorded a debut album, Friday Dance Promenade, which received some positive notices in independent papers. A follow-up album, A Truly Western Experience, was released in 1984 and received even better reviews and led to national attention. In 1985, lang was named the Most Promising Female Vocalist by the Juno Awards.

All of the Canadian attention led to the interest of a number of American record labels. Sire signed lang in early 1986 and she recorded her first record for the label later that year. The result, Angel with a Lariat, was produced by Dave Edmunds and appeared in the fall of 1986. The mix of '50s-styled ballads, kitschy rockabilly and honky tonk numbers on Angel with a Lariat received good reviews, especially from rock critics. The album had heavy support from college radio, as well as cutting-edge country stations. Though it was a mainstream hit in Canada and an underground smash in the U.S., Nashville resisted lang, especially her tongue-in-cheek concert appearances. As she was recording her second Nashville album in 1987, lang duetted with Roy Orbison on his old hit "Crying," which was recorded for the film Hiding Out. The single was released at the end of the year and it was hit, marking her first appearance on the country charts.

Shadowland, her second Sire album, made her debt to Patsy Cline explicit. Recorded with Cline's producer, Owen Bradley, the album lacked the campy humor of Angel with a Lariat, which helped it succeed in traditional country circles -- "I'm Down to My Last Cigarette," the first single from the record, was her first to break the country Top 40. Shadowland became a sizable word-of-mouth hit, both in modern country and alternative music circles, which led to it going gold. The following year lang released the harder-edged Absolute Torch and Twang, which increased her mainstream American country audience, in addition to being a college radio and Canadian hit. lang won a Grammy -- Best Country Vocal Performance, Female -- for the album in 1989 and "Full Moon of Love" became a Top 25 hit in the summer of 1989. The attention made lang a minor celebrity, which meant that when she launched a protest against meat eating in 1990, it became a media sensation.

Before the release of her fourth album, lang declared that she was a lesbian in an interview in The Advocate, which could have been a risky proposition, since Nashville's industry was notorious for not accepting people that fell outside of the margins of the mainstream. However, the new album was not a country album. Ingenue was a set of adult contemporary pop that owed very little to country. It's first single, "Constant Craving," became an Top 40 American hit and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female, leading the album to platinum status in America, Britain, and Australia; it went double platinum in Canada.

Ingenue won lang a new audience, but she didn't immediately produce a follow-up to the album. Instead, her next recorded work was the largely instrumental soundtrack for Gus Van Zant's film adaptation of Tom Robbins' Even Cowgirls Get the Blues in 1993; the soundtrack was actually released several months before the before the film. It wasn't until 1995 that lang delivered All You Can Eat, her full-fledged follow-up to Ingenue. All You Can Eat continued the pop direction of its predecessor, showing no traces of country. The album didn't enjoy the mass commercial acceptance of Ingenue, but it was a moderate success, proving that she had a dedicated cult following.