k.d. lang found connection in Jane Siberry’s songs, will induct her into Hall of Fame

Jane Siberry performs the song NACL during a concert tribute to the late Canadian musician Kate McGarrigle in Toronto as part of the Luminato festival on Friday, June 15, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu

TORONTO — When organizers at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame asked k.d. lang if she would induct Jane Siberry in recognition of her career penning lyrical gems, her response was a quick yes.

“There was no question, because Jane’s songwriting has meant so much to me,” lang explained in a recent interview.

“She’s 100 per cent an artist. She’s an intellect, a free spirit, unique and fearless. She falls into the grand lineage of Canadian songwriters quite easily,” she said.

“I’m not quite sure she’s of this planet, respectfully,” she added.

Explaining precisely what makes Siberry’s songs resonate is difficult.

Many of her best-known works, which include “Mimi on the Beach” and “It Can’t Rain All the Time,” thrive on their lyrical mystery, at once specific and intentionally imprecise.

Siberry tells stories that weave the individual, the collective and the spiritual together. They’re rich in complex themes and deep introspection of the intangible human experience.

“It’s similar to Leonard Cohen, her lyrics always provide some parallel to your own life,” lang said.

“It doesn’t give you solutions, but it gives you a path to provoke your own compassion.”

The Grammy-winning performer intends to express those sentiments to Siberry during a Hall of Fame gala at Toronto’s Meridian Arts Centre on Friday.

Siberry is part of this year’s cohort in the Legends Induction Series, a spinoff of the main Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame event.

The night will honour Canadian songwriters who helped define Canadian culture and shaped the global soundscape, with Siberry joined by fellow inductees Andy Kim, Gino Vanelli, Ian Thomas and rock trio Triumph.

Siberry admits learning about her honour led to some mixed emotions at first, as she was deep into the production of a three-part studio album project, her first release in a decade.

“It was uncomfortable at first, now I’m really into it,” she said of the induction.

“I think I was just so focused on the new recording. I just didn’t want to tear myself away, and it seemed like a distraction.”

After some further consideration, Siberry said her ego might’ve gotten in the way for a brief period.

“I cleared that up in myself and realized this is an opportunity for lots of happiness,” Siberry added.

Part of that joy will be reuniting with lang for the first time in a while. Siberry says they met as working musicians coming up in the scene during the 1980s, most memorably when they both played Toronto’s Brunswick House.

They stayed in touch. Siberry opened for lang on tour, and their friendship led to “Calling All Angels,” a mystical 1991 duet that both singers admit didn’t come naturally in a Vancouver studio.

“I felt like I was so lost,” lang remembered of the recording process.

“She wanted me to do the mantra of the deities at the beginning of the song, and I’d never done anything like that. I was in a different realm than I was used to.”

After several tries, Siberry says it became clear that part of their disconnect was physical, rather than lyrical.

“Proximity is huge for musicians, because you’re picking up all kinds of things in the person’s energy field,” she said.

“And so, we stood together. That was when we did the takes people hear, because we were able to sync up properly.”

Since its release, “Calling All Angels” has become an understated pop classic and a favourite of film and television because it packs an emotional punch. It has appeared in stirring scenes from episodes of “Six Feet Under,” “Roswell” and “Charmed.” Siberry made a solo version for the devastating, yet hopeful, finale of 2001 Hollywood drama “Pay It Forward.”

“There’s something about the version with k.d. that’s got a magnetism the other doesn’t have,” Siberry said.

The two reunited for the haunting “Let Me Be a Living Stone” in 2016, while lang recorded two Siberry songs for her 2004 Canadian covers album “Hymns of the 49th Parallel.”

One of them, Siberry’s “The Valley,” also happens to be lang’s all-time favourite song.

“I truly mean this, I want Jane’s version played at my funeral,” she said.

“It contains all the vulnerability, interconnectedness and all the empathy that could possibly be stuffed into one song.”

Siberry will continue to explore those themes with “In the Thicket of Our Own Unconsciousness,” the first of three albums she plans to issue in the coming months.

She describes the project as an ongoing series of stories, with the songs interwoven with spoken-word tracks “where a cast of characters comment and sometimes argue about the songs.” The first single, “Bountiful Beautiful,” will be released on Friday.

Songwriting in these divisive times has changed for her, Siberry said. She’s focused more on creating a unity with the words she chooses.

“I’ve stopped writing songs that are third person, for the most part,” she said.

“It’s more important than ever to be as direct as you can with people who are listening, because part of the job of a songwriter is to write words that other people couldn’t find.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2025.

David Friend, The Canadian Press