Stampede show could launch concert tour, Shania says
Superstar ventures outside Las Vegas
— Like Garth Brooks before her, it didn’t take a great deal of coaxing to get Shania Twain to leave the bright lights of Las Vegas for the Calgary Stampede, the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
The country superstar will perform the second of two all-but-sold-out Saddledome shows on Thursday, the first true concerts in a decade outside of her ongoing Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace with the acclaimed Shania: Still the One.
“I was pretty open to it, I have to say,” says Twain. “I was excited about the idea of doing a concert environment show again — it’s been a long time.”
And no doubt the Stampede was excited to lure the Canadian-born Twain out of semi-retirement for this year’s event. She is, after all, one of the most commercially successful artists of all time, like 2012 Stampede headliner Brooks, a crossover star who helped bring country music to the masses in the ’90s and early ’00s. Since that time, she’s sold more than 85 million albums worldwide, garnered music-industry awards of all types, an induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Canada’s Walk of Fame, Order of Canada and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The 48-year-old Timmins, Ont.-raised artist is finally feeling the need to go to the world with her chart-topping songs rather have them coming to her, noting that she and her people are “looking at some dates already, probably in the spring.” She might have something to announce when her commitment to Caesars runs out in July and after she plays another oneoff event in P.E.I. at the end of August.
“I think I’m going to do more,” she says. “I guess it’s just something I’m enjoying more now than I have in a long time. Vegas has been a really good transition for me to get back onstage again.”
Of course, Twain’s touring hiatus has also coincided with her recording absence, with her last studio album being her fourth, 2002’s Up!
Both were also due, in part, to the singer being diagnosed with the vocal condition dysphonia after years of damaging her vocal cords. With rehabilitation and treatment, her voice is on the mend.
She admits a tour next year won’t necessarily coincide with an album release, but doesn’t rule out fresh material before then or soon after.
“It’s my priority this year and I will be in the studio as soon as I can get in, get my ducks in a row — I’m working on it all the time right now,” she says. “I’ve been writing for it for a long time now. I’ve got lots of things so it’s really about putting the puzzle together now.”
As to where she feels she’ll fit into the country music world these days — one dominated by bro country on the men’s side, and Taylor Swifttype pop starlets on the ladies’ end — she says that’s not something she’s overly concerned with.
“It just feels all very natural, to be honest. I haven’t really considered whether I fit in or not. Right now, it’s just not a concern. I’m just doing my thing.”
In Calgary she set aside Monday afternoon for a media conference, where she announced the opening of a local chapter of her Shania Kids Can charity, which sets up shop in schools to help underprivileged children reach their potential.
As a PETA-approved artist — she was voted the sexiest vegetarian alive by the animal rights organization in 2001 — she wasn’t too concerned about the message her involvement in the Stampede might send. “I don’t really know a lot technically about how they operate ... but any rodeo that I have seen, I’ve never felt, myself, uncomfortable.”
And as for the concerts themselves, she promised they would be much different from Still the One. “It’s going to be more of a rockshow feel than in Vegas. This is my first one out of Vegas so there’s going to be a lot of surprises there for me as well, and that’s all part of the fun of it.”
It being the first in a long time, are there any nerves?
“No,” Twain says. “I’m excited. I’ve sort of got that edge about me right now, you know, as far as doing something new again that I haven’t done in a long time. I’m not scared about it; I’m just anxious more than anything.”