Shania Twain has reemerged on the music scene in spectacular fashion in 2017. The most successful singer-songwriter and female artist ever in country music takes pride in her milestones but feels more satisfaction from getting personal and real with the fans that never stopped loving or believing in the woman who brought a new slant to female empowerment. Her countless hits extolled the strength of women, keeping the pride but leaving anger, and drew an entire generation of both sexes to country music, before the songs themselves infused the genre with pop style so typical today.
Shania Twain will release her album, “Now” on September 29, and already, the reception for the new music has been warmer than she ever imagined. Videos of live performances of her single,” Life's About to Get Good,” as well as the official video, and "Swingin’ With My Eyes Closed,” have soared in views. The lyric videos for “Poor Me” and “We Got Something They Don’t” reveal the same trademark openness and reflection, along with a big dash of sexy-sweet, that have filled other Shania Twain classics. The journey of getting back to fans and creating her first new music in 15 years has been fraught with challenge and deep digging into her soul.
Shania Twain often lets her music speak of emotions, but in her September 24 “Sunday Morning” profile on CBS, she was unexpectedly unguarded and emotional in reflecting on her childhood past, and the satisfaction and joys she finds in life now.
The personal touch
Fans never feel like an arm’s length away for Shania Twain. “I like being with them, I like touching them” she stressed to Lee Cowan. Fans welcomed the superstar back at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival this spring as though she were the next-door neighbor who they couldn't live without. That kind of mutual support was needed during the lengthily and painful interlude for the artist, and part of the reason she was pulled back into creating music.
“Getting a divorce from the person you worked with for 15 years of your life is getting a divorce from every element of your life,” Shania asserts. The dissolution of her marriage to famed rock producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, under allegations of infidelity with her closest friend was more than emotionally devastating. It left physical repercussions.
She developed a condition known as dysphonia, brought on by a bout with Lyme disease, she believes, and her work ethic that only drove her harder after success. The emotional and physical stress left Shania only able to vocalize “this witchy, crying sound.”
She worked her way to releasing the song, “Today Is Your Day,” in 2013, and later began a very successful Las Vegas residency, but it never came easy. It takes constant exercises and therapy to maintain “singing shape” for the artist.
Shania Twain became the sustainer both emotionally and financially for her family after her mother and stepfather were killed in a car crash when she was a teenager, but home life for her and her siblings was never peaceful.
She recalls police bursting through doors with sirens and radios going as her mom suffered frequent physical abuse. She was already going to school hungry, but never reported the abuse situations. “You're afraid you're going to get taken away,” asserts the singer, and millions under similar circumstances can concur. Weekend singing gigs at a tourist lodge eventually led to Nashville, and a transformed life that she never dreamed.
Shania loves her beachside hideaway in the Bahamas, admitting its beauty and luxury, but not apologizing. “I worked really hard, “ she relates, “and there's a part of me that says I deserve it.” She created much of the music on the album in her bathroom, where her voice could echo and carry without any critique.
“I was going to overcome that,” she assures of self-doubts, and as for the raw emotions, “I wrote myself out of my misery,” she says. Beautiful sunsets on the beach can be very therapeutic.
A huge part of the healing was also found in a new love right in front of her eyes. In 2011, Shania Twain and Frederic Thiebaud, who happened to be the spurned husband of that best friend, were married in a beautiful beach ceremony. He admits that he wasn't necessarily up for another “jump into marriage,” but for Shania, the moment of “when we first kissed” still brings her to tears, which she dabs away with her fingers. “How could I not have seen you?” the singer marveled to her husband. “Because you weren't looking,” was his answer.
Everyone is looking at and listening to Shania Twain again. All things happen in their time, and for this artist, her time to savor love, life, music, and touching hearts again is now.
