The legendary singer talks to DIVA’s Roxy Bourdillon about coming out, career longevity and that Vanity Fair cover
WORDS: ROXY BOURDILLON, PHOTO BY RACHAEL WRIGHT
k.d. lang’s head is nestled against Cindy Crawford’s cleavage. The top button of her shirt is undone and her smile is, understandably, blissful.
It’s 26 years since the August 1993 Vanity Fair hit newsstands and Herb Ritts’ photograph of same-sex sensuality is still totally arresting, gloriously queer and hot as hell.
“We knew it was provocative and powerful,” the Canadian singer tells me. “When we were shooting it, we were already pretty high from the idea, and then to be working with my friends and creating homo-erotic imagery that would become iconic… It’s something I look back on as an extraordinarily proud moment in my artistic career, for sure.”
k.d.’s career has been full of extraordinarily proud moments. Her sumptuous voice and flair for performing have earned her a truly dizzying array of awards, at last count: four Grammys, four GLAAD Awards, eight Junos, an AMA, a VMA and BRIT. Her single Constant Craving remains one of the greatest odes to lesbian longing of all time.
Although it was released over two-and-a-half decades ago, k.d.’s potency as a symbol of queer culture is undiminished. London girl party, Butch, Please, still holds k.d. lang lookalike contests and plasters her chiselled face all over social media. Last year, stand-up comic Cameron Esposito tweeted the infamous Vanity Fair picture along with the caption: “It’s come to my attn that some young queers don’t know this image. Acquaint urselves, bbs. 1993!!” And, for DIVA’s 25th anniversary issue, we paid homage to k.d. and Cindy’s canoodling with our own limited-edition cover. It’s clear that in 2019, we all still have a constant craving for k.d, but how does she feel about her pivotal role in our herstory?
Read the rest of this exclusive interview in the July issue of DIVA, available now via the links below.
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