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.
This weekend she will join fellow judges Adam Lambert, Beverley Knight and Jason Manford for the second series of the hit talent show hosted by Olly Murs.
Shania replaces Sheridan Smith, 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,” she says of her critiquing style. “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.”
And Shania, 57, isn’t just at home in the judging chair, she also loves being in Britain.
“I love being in the UK – it’s very much a sister culture for me coming from Canada,” she says. “It doesn’t feel foreign in many ways. I would drink tea in Canada! There is a much more relaxed sense of humour. We swear more in Canada so I curb that a little bit when I’m over here! I always feel very at home when I’m here.”
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 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last year – something she 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.
And Olly also admitted he was giddy with excitement when he learned Shania was joining the Starstruck line-up, revealing she was one of his biggest teenage crushes.
“She was one of the first women I had a proper crush on when I was 18 and 19,” he confessed recently. “It was a bit weird meeting her at first, but once I got over that I was professional and we got on brilliantly.”
Thankfully, the feeling was mutual and Shania has 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 a great mutual respect among all of us – a real immediate camaraderie.”
While Shania may be currently riding the crest of a wave both personally and professionally, 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, as a young girl. 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 experienced at the hands of her stepfather. She recently revealed how, 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 both her mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident, leaving Shania to raise her four siblings alone.
Despite her stepfather’s appalling 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 last month. “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 such as That Don’t Impress Me Much and You’re Still The One conquering charts across the world. But her life fell apart in 2008 when her musician husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange – who co-wrote and produced many of her songs – allegedly cheated on her with her close friend.
“It was a very low period in my life,” said Shania, who has a son, Eja, now 21, with her ex. The breakdown of her marriage coincided with yet another setback in Shania’s life, when her voice started to fail her. “I didn’t know if I’d ever sing again,” she said. “I thought my career was over.”
The star discovered she was suffering from nerve damage after contracting Lyme disease in 2003. Throat surgery followed, after which Shania was terrified her voice may have been irreparably damaged. “After I had the surgery, I was petrified to make a sound,” she said. “It did scare me, but I had to take the leap and make a sound. I was so excited about what came out.”
A residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas followed in 2012 – Shania was officially back. She now lives in Geneva, Switzerland, with her second husband, former Nestlé executive Frédéric Thiébaud. She’s celebrating the release of her latest album, Queen Of Me, which, at one point, she feared she may not be able to make. During the pandemic, Shania contracted a life-threatening bout of pneumonia.
After battling through incredibly hard times, Shania now has a refreshingly matter-of-fact take on life. And that includes 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. I may not be able to [sing] forever, but right now I’m just enjoying where I am.”
