Half a century of excellence
At age 13, Twain was invited to perform on the CBC's ‘Tommy Hunter Show’. While in high school, she became the singer for a local band called Longshot, which covered Top 40 music, and she later toured Ontario with a cover band called Flirt.
Shania Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards on August 28, 1965 in Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. Her parents divorced when she was two, and her mother took her and her two sisters to live in Timmins, Ontario. It was there that her mother married Jerry Twain, who adopted the girls and legally changed their surname to Twain.
On November 1, 1987, Twain lost her mother and stepfather in a car crash. She was just 22 years old and had started to see some progress in her career in Toronto, but she moved back to take care of her younger siblings, supporting them with the money she earned by singing at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario.
When her siblings could support themselves, Twain got right back to her dreams. She put together a demo tape and her manager in Huntsville got it in the faces of record executives. She caught the attention of a few labels, including Mercury Nashville Records, who signed her within a few months. She’s pictured here with one of her sisters.
Twain has spoken about her rocky childhood in Timmins, as her mother and stepfather’s marriage was not always healthy, and money was often scarce. Twain reportedly started singing at bars at the age of eight to try help pay her family's bills. She admitted she hated the bars, but the thrill of the music was how she survived.
'The Woman in Me' was a critical and commercial success, selling more than 18 million copies and winning the Grammy for country album of the year.
In December 1993, Twain and Lange wed, which was not without its controversy since he was 17 years older than her. Some thought he was manipulating her, while others suspected she was using him as a stepladder to fame. They later had a son together, Eja Lange, in 2001.
Record producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who had worked with the likes of Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, and Michael Bolton, reached out to Twain and they immediately hit it off, both musically and romantically.
Lange produced Twain's second studio album, 'The Woman in Me,' which went on to become her biggest-selling record at the time and veritably launched her career.
Lange also produced Twain's third studio album 'Come On Over,' which included smash hits like 'You're Still the One,' 'From This Moment On,' 'That Don't Impress Me Much,' and 'Man! I Feel Like a Woman!'
The single 'You're Still the One,' written by Twain and Lange, was her first single to be released to pop radio. The song is recognized as Twain's most successful crossover single, and earned two Grammys—Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance—though it was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year (losing out to fellow Canadian Celine Dion).
'Come On Over' saw unbelievable success. It became the best-selling country music album, the best-selling studio album by a female act, the best-selling album of the 1990s, and the ninth best-selling album in the US. It sold an impressive 40 million copies worldwide and earned Twain four Grammy Awards.
Twain’s debut, self-titled album was released in 1993 and was a commercial failure when first released. In her 2011 autobiography, 'From This Moment On,' Twain expressed that she didn't like the album because she had very little creative control and wasn’t able to show off her songwriting abilities.
She wasn't loved across the board, however. In the '90s, Twain was viewed by some as a “disruption” in Nashville, due to her flashy image and pop-crossover appeal. “I wasn't intentionally being disruptive,” she told Yahoo Entertainment. “I wasn't trying to bring everybody else with me, or change the [country] genre, or anything like that. I was just being me.”
Twain's fourth studio album 'Up!' was also produced by Lange, and was released in November 2002. Three versions of the album were released: a pop version (red disc), a country version (green disc), and a version in the style of Indian film music (blue disc). It was an expansive effort and eventually certified platinum, giving her the distinction of being the only female artist to have three consecutive Diamond albums released in the US.
While horseback riding in 2003, Twain was bitten by a tick with Lyme disease, and everything changed. "My symptoms were quite scary because before I was diagnosed, I was on stage very dizzy. I was losing my balance, I was afraid I was gonna fall off the stage… I was having these very, very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly, every minute or every 30 seconds."
"My voice was never the same again," she says in the documentary ‘Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl.' "I thought I'd lost my voice forever. I thought that was it, [and] I would never, ever sing again."
"In that search to determine what was causing this lack of control with my voice and this change in my voice, I was facing a divorce. My husband leaves me for another woman," Twain recalled. "Now I'm at a whole other low. And I just don't see any point in going on with a music career."
Then came more devastating news. In May 2008, it came out that Lange and Twain were separating, after Lange had an affair with Twain's best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud, with whom he reportedly later began a relationship. Lange and Twain officially divorced in June 2010.
In 2011, she reappeared in the public eye when she starred in the reality television series 'Why Not? with Shania Twain.' The show followed her healing journey as she recovered her voice, journeyed back to her childhood home, and met with vocal coaches, grief counselors, and other musicians. That same year she also published her autobiography 'From This Moment On.'
Though she hadn't put out music in years, she was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. It seemed that was the push she needed, as she released the single 'Today Is Your Day' that same year.
Twain decided she would move on as well, and she did so by marrying Frédéric Thiébaud, the former husband of Marie-Anne Thiébaud— the woman her husband cheated with—in 2011. Maybe it was just a tale of crossed lovers?
Twain even went on to have a residency show titled 'Shania: Still the One' (2012–14) at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and in 2015 she launched her North American Rock This Country Tour, her first tour in 11 years, which she also billed as her farewell tour.
Though she was scared to work without Lange, Twain eventually started writing music again. "It took a long time to be ready to write and record again," she says in the doc. "It was really more about taking independence, [and] just being able to listen to myself back on my writing tapes was difficult… It was an exercise of saying, 'Okay, look, you can't just not ever make music again because you don't have Mutt. You gotta just dive in.' And I was petrified, I really was."
She was forced to take a break from performing, but ultimately spent a total of 15 years without releasing an album, both to deal with the effects of Lyme disease and to heal from the loss of her marriage and her writing partner in Lange, a pain she likened to what she felt when her parents died.
She has sold over 100 million records, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history and one of the best-selling music artists of all time. And the best part is: she's just starting her comeback! Keep an eye out for a new album coming in 2023.
Sources: (People) (Yahoo Entertainment) (Britannica)
Twain said the documentary gave her a chance to explain why she and Mutt Lange—a seeming mismatch—hit it off so well. People thought Lange was manipulating her into sounding more rock, but she showed the world that from a young age she had a natural inclination toward pop rock. Even Harry Styles brought her onstage to show off her pop-rock abilities at Coachella in 2022.
Lucky for us, Twain took the chance to rediscover her creative self and in 2017 she released her fifth studio album 'Now,' her first in 15 years, which she later called her "favorite recorded work" she's ever done.
Everyone seemingly has seen or been part of a group of people singing a Shania Twain song way too loud in some bar or party. The Canadian singer-songwriter’s influence has changed the face of country music while also making a lasting impression and breaking numerous records in the world of pop, and her songs continue to lift people’s spirits around the world.
With the release of her new career-spanning documentary, ‘Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl,’ which chronicles her tumultuous and oftentimes tragic journey from small-town performer to global superstar, a lot has come to light about the multi-Grammy Award winner’s career and personal life. To find out more about the star, like her mysterious 15-year mid-career hiatus or her peculiar marital history, click through.
Twain revisits her highs and lows across her three-decade-long career in the documentary, of which she said, “That in itself took some courage to revisit. I don't sit around thinking about the past every day, otherwise I might get a bit depressed! I'm somebody that likes to look to the future. I like to move forward. I like to look up, not down, and not behind. So, there was some emotional moments just looking back at all of that stuff.”
Shania Twain: How the Queen of Country Pop got her crown
The Canadian singer-songwriter turns 59 on August 28
CELEBRITY Retrospective
Everyone seemingly has seen or been part of a group of people singing a Shania Twain song way too loud in some bar or party. The Canadian singer-songwriter’s influence has changed the face of country music while also making a lasting impression and breaking numerous records in the world of pop, and her songs continue to lift people’s spirits around the world.
With the release of her new career-spanning documentary in 2022, ‘Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl,’ which chronicles her tumultuous and oftentimes tragic journey from small-town performer to global superstar, a lot has come to light about the multi-Grammy Award winner’s career and personal life. To find out more about the star, like her mysterious 15-year mid-career hiatus or her peculiar marital history, click through.