‘Man! I feel like a woman more than ever!’
It was February 1999 the last time Shania Twain toured, amid the chart-topping success of Come On Over. That album – fuelled by hits From This Moment On and That Don’t Impress Me Much – is still the highest-selling album by a female artist in Australia, an 18-times platinum, 1.26 million copies-selling juggernaut only bested by Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell and John Farnham’s Whispering Jack.
‘‘I would say it’s about time I’m back, it’s overdue,’’ Twain, 53, laughs over the phone from Los Angeles, her Canadian modesty intact.
After a 15-year hiatus between albums – a period that saw Lyme disease ravage her vocal cords to the point she was unsure if she would sing again, and the dissolution of her marriage to producer Mutt Lange after his affair with her closest friend – Twain is easing back into the spotlight.
‘‘It wasn’t all negative and bad. Some of it was just wanting to stay at home and be a mum,’’ she says of the break.
Of course, on any comeback trail a hiccup is to be expected. In April, she stepped into that most 2018 of circumstances: a surprise social media backlash, after she suggested she would have voted for Donald Trump (she later apologised, saying she did not hold ‘‘any common moral beliefs’’ with the US president).
‘‘I wasn’t surprised,’’ she says of the controversy. ‘‘I mean, we’re in sensitive times and that calls for sensitive responses.’’
She’s bubblier when discussing the lingering legacy of her late 90s peak, her work embraced by the internet generation. ‘‘It’s a huge compliment. I was always true to myself and concerned about being a good example, and maybe that had a lasting effect? I don’t know,’’ she says.
It’s also ironic considering the critical indifference that initially met her work as a country-pop crossover, decades ahead of Taylor Swift.
‘‘I’m absolutely underrated, of course!’’ she says with just a hint of jest. ‘‘I wasn’t traditional in my music style or in my image. I was different and different makes some people uncomfortable. I had to have broad shoulders and not let it bother me. Instead of changing
to suit naysayers, I carried on.
‘‘Those were the best career years of my life and I felt very appreciated by fans but, funnily enough, I feel even more appreciated now.’’ Take Man! I Feel Like a Woman!, an empowerment anthem whose cultural relevancy has only increased in the era of #MeToo and #TimesUp.
‘‘It’s liberating, that’s what that song meant to me, and it still means that,’’ says Twain. ‘‘I was reaching a point where I was only beginning to appreciate being a woman.
‘‘Growing up, I didn’t see the value in fussing over my femininity, because it just brought stares that made me uncomfortable. So when I found the fun to be had there, I embraced it and I made an exclamation out of it.
‘‘I think that song does still speak for a lot of women: we are what we are, and we’re not going to be intimidated into losing our self-expression.’’
The inter-generational appeal has also opened up an unexpected career path. A cameo on the millennial comedy Broad City led to her first major film role, playing John Travolta’s love interest in the romanticdrama Trading Paint, set for release next year.
‘‘I look back at Man! I Feel Like a Woman! as one of those moments too,’’ she says. ‘‘To keep my life interesting, I need those challenges, to step out of my comfort zone and experiment with things. I enjoy not being Shania in the spotlight sometimes.’’
– Sydney Morning Herald
Shania Twain’s Now world tour arrives at Spark Arena, Auckland, December 18, and Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin, December 22
‘‘I was different and different makes some people uncomfortable. I had to have broad shoulders and not let it bother me.’’ Shania Twain