For Bif Naked, Lilith Fair is about getting exposed.

The 29-year-old singer says the female-oriented music festival has helped expose her to a whole new audience after 10 years in the business.

"It's allowed me to sing my songs to people who may not otherwise have known to give me a listen," says the striking-looking Naked, who has several tattoos and piercings. "If they had just looked at the CD cover and not heard my music before, they may not have thought they'd like it. Or they might assume that I'm in a death metal band or something."

'Any press is wonderful'

In addition, while the New Delhi-born, Winnipeg-raised Naked is only playing Lilith's smaller B-stage, the energetic performer was recently singled out by USA Today for her performance at the tour's Vancouver launch back in July.

"Oh, that's beautiful," says Naked, who released her latest album, I Bificus, in the U.S. just two weeks ago after its release in Canada last February, where it has reached sales of 40,000. "Any press is wonderful. I've always been a believer in press as a privilege and not a right, so even if it would have been really negative, as long as my name was in it, it would have created curiosity seekers. Even if they said, 'That damn Bif Naked, with her yappy, f---ing dog biting everyone backstage.' " (For the record, Naked has two dogs -- Nicholas, "a very nervous Maltese," and Anastasia, a bichon that "lives for the happiness of others.")

Apart from getting U.S. distribution for I Bificus, for which she had to censor her rather salty-languaged liner notes, Naked also has an upcoming guest appearance on the hugely popular Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series in the fall. She'll appear singing the ballad, Lucky, which will also be on the series' soundtrack. Another tune, Chotee, will be on the soundtrack for the new Susan Sarandon movie, Anywhere But Here.

"I'm a big Susan Sarandon fan," says Naked, a former theatre student at the University of Winnipeg. "So I'm excited and it just makes me feel weird to think that maybe she'll listen to my song. You know, that famous lady that I love from Thelma And Louise, maybe she'll actually listen to my song! That'd be weird. That makes me feel all giggly and butterflies in my stomach. Like if I met her, I'd just look at her and start bawling like a five-year-old."

So given all the good things that have happened to Naked of late, how does touring with Lilith compare?

'Fairy princess'

"I feel like a fairy princess," says the singer, who's also been on the road with the testosterone-fuelled tours of The Cult and Kid Rock. "It's like being in Cinderella land, because it's everything that you dream about with touring when you're a young musician."

So will she miss it next year? Yes, but Naked, who returns to play Mel Lastman Square on Aug. 27, can see why McLachlan is packing her bags after this tour finishes.

"It's definitely her baby, it's her party and I think whatever she chooses to do with it, even if she wants to take a rest for a couple of years, it's still been a wonderful gift that she's given to people."