Click here to listen to a track from kd Lang's new album

Four years since she last toured here, k.d. lang returned to the London stage last night.

The Canadian singer was in Britain to promote her album Watershed, released this week, and to launch an international tour that will bring her back for more dates in the summer.

At 46, the woman whose most successful album remains her 1992 release Ingénue, now ranks as something of a grande dame of the ballad-singing profession, which may go some way to explaining the resurgence of interest in her work.

With the pop world suddenly in thrall to a bevy of young, female torch singers, here is a star who really knows the stylistic and emotional ropes of the genre.

To begin with, though, there was a shyness between the singer and her fans. Wearing a man’s waistcoat and suit trousers, she strode barefoot on to the stage, an acoustic guitar strapped across her back.

There was a lot of new material to be presented, and she waded straight in with the gently sighing, samba rhythm of Upstream. “The punchline is, I always swim upstream,” she sang, marrying a lyric of world-weary introspection with a melody of understated elegance which set the tone.

Her backing band, which incorporated generally younger faces than in the past, played with restraint and grace. Brushes swished across the snare drum and an upright bass twanged as she revisited Chris Isaak’s song Western Stars, lending the ensemble the air of a classy lounge bar band. But the range of instrumental colours was lent much greater variety than most bar bands – from the flamenco guitar textures of the Brazilian Grecco Buratto to the array of instruments played by Josh Grange, including guitar, pedal steel, banjo and a handmade organ.

As audience and star warmed up, the mercury on the affectionometer swiftly rose. With her voice soaring to silky heights, she set off on a succession of beautifully manicured ballads from the new album. I Dream of Spring and Coming Home brought tales of “sweet sorrow”, while Once In A While promised redemption, if only on an occasional basis. She moved on to more familiar territory with Wash Me Clean, from Ingénue.

At the end of each performance, lang stood beaming at the front of the stage, luxuriating in the applause. Shouted comments and piercing wolf-whistles were all welcomed with a beatific smile.

If there was a shortcoming it was the lack of variation in tempo and tone. Her extraordinary vocal range seemed to find its fullest expression in other’s songs. Neil Young’s Helpless was an early high point. But it wasn’t until later that she allowed herself full rein on a soaring version of Jane Siberry’s The Valley, followed by Leonard Cohen’s evergreen Hallelujah, which she skilfully milked for every ounce of emotion that was going.

But it was more fun when the mood lightened for a delightfully decadent version of Smoke Rings, from her album Drag, celebrating the joys of smoking. “Puff, puff, puff your cares away . . .” she sang in glorious defiance of the signs all around prohibiting any such thing.

“I’m feeling more confident I can go out to the world after hitting Hammersmith,” she said before singing her biggest hit, Constant Craving.

And so she should be.

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