Excerpt from Playgirl, October 1998
In only three years, Shania Twain catapulted from relative obscurity to international superstardom, thanks to her outrageously successful albums: The Woman in Me and Come on Over. Yet this Canadian beauty remains surprisingly down to earth.
“It’s kind of weird how it came together,” she admits. “When I was a kid, I never wanted to be the star—I wanted to be Stevie Wonder’s backup singer. I’d pray, Please God, I want Stevie Wonder to hear me sing. Then my parents said, ‘You’ve got to be the lead singer or no one will ever know how talented you are.’ I went through a rough time getting over my stage fright and accepting that I was going to make my living as a performer.”
Unfortunately, her parents didn’t live long enough to see her dreams realized. When Shania was 21, they were killed in an automobile accident. Faced with that tragedy and the responsibility of caring for younger siblings, Shania began performing at the Deerhurst resort in northern Ontario to support her family. She landed a recording contract with Mercury Records but didn’t write any of the songs on her 1992 debut album.
Shania’s self-titled CD bombed on the radio and in record stores but when she met her husband, Robert John “Mutt” Lange in 1993, he convinced her to participate in penning songs for her next album.
“Mutt couldn’t understand why I wasn’t recording my own music,” Shania recalls. “It all came together then. I’m nothing without my songs.”
The result was The Woman in Me, which spawned several more hits including, “Any Man of Mine,” “If You’re Not in It for Love” (“I’m Outta Here”) and “No One Needs to Know.” Shania wrote or co-wrote every song on the album, which won a Grammy and has sold over 10 million copies.
When she released Come on Over in 1997, songs like “Love Gets Me Every Time,” “Don’t Be Stupid” (“You Know I Love You”) and “Still the One” raced to the top of the charts and secured her place in the hearts of music fans all over the world. Shania credits her success to taking creative chances.
“The fans are always interested in something new and refreshing and it’s my job to keep them entertained. You have to be creative to make that happen. You can’t have restrictions. If an art gallery exhibited only art that doesn’t show breasts, you’d be robbed of some of the best art in the world. You cannot restrict art!”
And don’t let Shania’s image fool you—beneath the veneer of innocent country girl is an intelligent, savvy feminist.
“As a woman, I tend to be a little stubborn in my perspectives on where we fit into society,” Shania admits. “I wanted to be strong and independent and at school, if you had breasts and bounced and were feminine, people didn’t see anything else. I’d wear loose clothing and squash my breasts—what a waste that was. I should’ve been proud that I was female and tried to change their perception.”
“If people choose to see me only as a sex symbol, it’s their problem. I’m not going to be less of a woman just so people don’t overlook my brains. That’s a great injustice to women,” Shania states emphatically. “There are feminists who feel that by being feminine, we’re exploiting women. I disagree! I heard a story about a woman in Canada who’s now a successful entrepreneur. Early in her career she wore a skirt to work and her boss put his hand on her leg. Instead of wearing slacks the next day, she continued to wear skirts. He had to learn that he couldn’t put his hand on her leg…”
… Continue reading on PLAYGIRL+
Shania Twain • Photo: Lev Radin/Alamy.
