The QUEEN of me
As Shania Twain prepares to jet into Ireland, we look back at her life and career - and her recent TV show
Shania Twain is having a moment. With a new album out and a place on the judging panel of ITV1’s Starstruck, the Man! I Feel Like A Woman! singer is very much back in the spotlight. After selling more than 100 million records worldwide and becoming the best-selling female artist in country music history, Shania is thrilled she’s now influencing a whole new generation of fans - including some famous ones!
Not only was she invited to join Harry Styles on stage at the Coachella festival last year - something Shania later described as “one of the highlights of my career” - but she discovered Adele is a superfan after she attended one of the singer’s Las Vegas concerts.
However, things haven’t always been so sweet for the superstar. In fact, her life is the type of rags to riches tale that could have come straight from the lyrics of a country song.
Born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Ontario in 1965, she gained the surname Twain after she was adopted by her stepfather, Jerry. She changed her first name later in life to Shania, which she thought would make a “beautiful” stage name.
The star’s impoverished upbringing is well documented, as is the sexual abuse she alleges she experienced at the hands of her stepfather. She said that growing up, she’d try to “flatten” her breasts in an attempt to make herself appear less feminine.
“I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me. Make it easier to go unnoticed,” she confessed. “Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible - you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”
When she was 22, tragedy struck when her mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident, leaving Shania to raise her four siblings alone.
Despite her stepfather’s alleged abuse - which she didn’t speak about until after his death - Shania regrets the fact that neither he nor her mother got a chance to witness her incredible global success.
“It’s very, very sad that they never got to see one moment of it,” she said earlier this year. “When I started to win awards was when it really bothered me the most that my parents were not there to see the glory. Because I felt that they had sacrificed so much. And they deserved to share in those moments.”
Shania sold millions of records in the 90s and noughties, with hits like Man! I Feel Like A Woman! and That Don’t Impress Me Much. But her life fell apart in 2008 when her musician husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange - who also co-wrote and produced many of her most famous songs - allegedly cheated with her close friend.
“It was a very low period in my life,” said Shania, who shares son Eja, 21, with her ex. This coincided with yet another setback, when her voice started to fail her.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever sing again, I thought my career was over.”
The star was suffering from nerve damage after contracting Lyme disease in 2003. Throat surgery followed with Shania terrified her voice may be irreparably damaged.
“After the surgery, I was petrified to make a sound, I didn’t know what was going to come out.
“It did scare me, but I just had to take the leap and make a sound. And I was so excited about what came out. It was a connection to the vocal cords and it came out very easily. I was really, really, really excited.”
A residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas followed in 2012 and Shania was officially back. She now lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with her second husband, former Nestlé executive Frédéric Thiébaud.
She’s now celebrating the release of her latest album, Queen Of Me, and after battling through incredibly hard times, has a refreshingly matter-of-fact take on life, including accepting her body just the way it is.
“I know I’m never going to look 30 again and I refuse to be disappointed about that. I want to look in the mirror and go, ‘Yeah, I’m 57 and this is what the average 57-year old looks like naturally’. I’m being very forthcoming about newfound confidence in my body image.” And she’s not taking her singing voice for granted either.
“Even if this procedure on my larynx doesn’t hold up, I’ve still got songwriting. I live for the creative part of my work. It’s my therapy, my self-help,” she said. “All these years later, I’m still here, almost in a bigger way, and I’m embracing it.”
She recently joined fellow judges Adam Lambert, Beverley Knight and Jason Manford for the second series of the hit talent show Starstruck hosted by Olly Murs.
And the multi-Grammy winning country music star can’t wait to get stuck into her new role.
“I would say I’m an inspired judge
- I’m inspired by the personalities of the talent and their life stories really move me.
“I’m always considering how inspired I am, that’s really where I’m coming from when I’m giving them any commentary or any feedback.”
Shania had nothing but praise for Olly and her fellow judges.
“The panel and Olly are all so great - I love them!” she said. “You never know with personalities, but everyone is so lovely. They’re very welcoming, complimentary and there is such a great mutual respect among all of us - a real immediate camaraderie.”
■ Shania Twain plays Dublin’s 3Arena on September 19 - tickets on sale now
I didn’t know if I’d ever sing again. I thought my career was over