TORONTO — Humility can be hard to come by for many celebrities.

They are recognized everywhere they go, their every whim is catered to and they often think of themselves perched above the rest of us. Jann Arden isn't one of them as is obvious in a new documentary profiling the Alberta singer-songwriter.

Ranked among the Canada's most popular performers for her tender love songs and self-depreciating humour, Arden is virtually an unknown south of the border.

But she spent two weeks last year trying to woo Manhattan in search of American recognition of her talents, beginning when she realized her name wasn't on the theatre marquee where she was performing.

But she's not ashamed to show Canadians just how much of an unknown she is.

"I had no qualms about (the project). I think it's important for people to know that and to understand exactly what happens," she said recently. "It's not that I've ever felt unsuccessful in my life."

She says she merely wanted to figure out what was keeping her from breaking in the U.S. market.

The one-hour documentary, produced by Arden's own company, follows the singer on a trip to New York in May 2003 to perform in an off-Broadway theatre, the legendary Studio 54, with the goal of finding a U.S. agent and attracting media attention.

Jann Takes Manhattan, airing Saturday at 10 p.m. ET on CTV, is an interesting and often hilarious look at what musicians need to do to get noticed. She makes early-morning TV and radio appearances. She and her band busk in Central Park only to get the boot by the NYPD. She even hits popular tourist attractions to hand out flyers for her shows.

"The shit we see about artists these days is constantly this plastic fake world that nobody can relate to," said Arden. "I've presented a really ordinary person to people . . . if I can do it, you sure as hell can."

It's not that Arden's never had a shot at the U.S. market. In 1995 her song Insensitive created waves on U.S. radio and she spent several months on a promo tour which included appearances on talk shows with David Letterman, Jay Leno and Rosie O'Donnell. But she quickly grew tired of living out of a van and sleeping in cheap hotel rooms and felt her career was being mismanaged.

"I hated it. I was lonesome and I was homesick . . . yet the song was winging around the world," recalled the 41-year-old singer who has released seven albums in her decade-long career.

"It's funny revisiting that all these years later. I don't want to be the dancing frog on the white box going 'Hello My Baby' because you pretty much have to sell your soul these days to do anything down there," she said.

It's just as well since Arden's New York stint wasn't enough to land her a major deal. While several agents and labels showed interest, none offered her a substantial package.

In the end, Arden decided to pass on the offers.

"I'm not going to sell out," she said. "At the end of it we were like 'We can come to New York any time and play and do our own thing.' "

This week she began a three-month Canadian tour to support of her latest disc, Love Is The Only Soldier. The tour is nearly sold out in most cities including four shows in Toronto.