Jann Arden will be everywhere: singer announces cross country tour

Arden embraced the challenge with her usual dry enthusiasm, sharing comedic anecdotes, tackling a few questions from invited fans, and deflecting a moderator’s jokey query about a Jann Arden lingerie line (she doesn’t have one, in case you’re wondering). (File photo: jannarden/Instagram)

TORONTO — You can’t stop the incredible force of Jann Arden.

This year, the Calgary chanteuse is going to be everywhere, from the Juno Awards broadcast where she’ll be ushered into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, to nationwide concert stages with her 19-city tour that kicks off in May.

Throw in Arden’s greatest hits album release, a new season of her CTV comedy series, and a book about “becoming a certain age” that’s due in the fall, and Arden is running at a pace that could leave even the most aspirational stars behind.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” she says, pausing for a moment in the midst of a full day of publicity. “I really want to live a purposeful life.”

Over her three decades in music, Arden, 57, has already covered many bases in the Canadian entertainment business. She’s played comedian, television host and was appointed to the Order of Canada, but Tuesday marked a first of sorts.

She was the centrepiece of a press conference organized by concert promoter Live Nation, which attempted to capture the many threads of Arden 2020 in one media event, a relatively unusual stunt for a Canadian artist in this day in age.

Arden embraced the challenge with her usual dry enthusiasm, sharing comedic anecdotes, tackling a few questions from invited fans, and deflecting a moderator’s jokey query about a Jann Arden lingerie line (she doesn’t have one, in case you’re wondering).

“I was nervous doing this,” Arden confided shortly after the event wrapped. “I’ve never done a press conference before.”

One of the lessons Arden says she’s gleaned from Canada’s music industry is to keep rolling with the punches because there’s “no opportunity to be static, complacent or rest on old victories.” Artists are always prodded about what they’re working on next, and she’s become accustomed to meeting those expectations.

“It kind of propels you forward,” she said. “There’s not many people who do (this for) 25 or 30 years. They just fall away.”

Arden will be toasted for her irrepressible Canadian cultural influence on the Junos broadcast March 15. She’s slated to perform music from her multi-platinum career, which includes 1990s hits “I Would Die For You,” “Could I Be Your Girl” and “Insensitive.”

The National Music Centre in Calgary will follow on March 20 with the launch of an exhibition that’s stocked with memorabilia from their hometown vocalist.

The celebration frames the release of her greatest hits album “Hits & Other Gems,” due on May 1, and a nationwide tour starting in St. John’s on May 7 that winds through cities including Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver.

A second season of “Jann” is expected to debut sometime in the spring.

She’s also recently put the finishing touches on a new book called “If I Knew Then,” which explores life after 50.

“It’s about becoming a certain age as a woman and walking into your crone-dom and that type of thinking where you really don’t take any prisoners,” Arden said.

“It’s owning your physicality, what you think… Your principles, your ethics. It becomes so much easier to get through.”

After that, she hopes to meet producer and frequent collaborator Bob Rock in the studio for what could become her next album.

So, if she hasn’t made it clear, Arden isn’t slowing down any time soon.

“I don’t know what retirement means,” she said.

“I see Cher out there, Elton John in his 70s, and our contemporary pop heroes, Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks. I feel like if I’m singing well, I’ll absolutely swing the bat for another 10 years.”