Fans of singing show Starstruck were thrilled when it was announced that country star Shania Twain would be joining the glitzy line-up on the ITV1 programme's judging panel. The best-selling Canadian singer-songwriter behind hits like 'Man, I Feel Like A Woman' and 'That Don't Impress Me Much' joined the star-studded panel when the show returned for its second series on Saturday night at 8pm on ITV1.
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The news that the 57-year-old pop icon would be joining the show was announced in summer 2022 as she replaces Sheridan Smith. Joining judges Queen frontman Adam Lambert, soul singer Beverly Knight and comedian Jason Manford, plus host Olly Murs, Shania has said of being part of the show: "There have been a lot of really great vocalists and there have been some great impersonations as well - there are two sides to the coin in this show. They are taking on the persona of a particular artist so their mannerisms and the way they deliver the character of the artist is part of the performance. I’ve been pleasantly surprised over and over again."
Shania Twain has sold over 100 million records and is the best-selling female country artist in music history. She has been given the title of Queen of Country Pop and was named by Billboard as leader of the 90s country-pop crossover. But despite being hugely successful in her career, it seems that Shania hasn't had it easy. So who is the famous country star? Here's everything we know...
Shania Twain's difficult and violent childhood
Shania Twain was born Eileen Regina Edwards in 1965 in Windsor, Ontario in Canada. Her parents divorced when she was two and she has spoken about having had a difficult childhood. Her father left and she and her two sisters were raised by her mother and stepfather in Timmins, 500 miles north of Toronto, where she has spoken about sometimes only having enough to eat one meal a day when she was a teenager and often witnessing violence at home.
Twain started singing at bars at the age of eight to try to help pay her family's bills, often earning $20 between midnight and 1 am performing for remaining customers after the bar had finished serving alcohol.
In 1987, she was 21 and on the cusp of pursuing her musical career when her mother and stepfather were killed in a car crash, leaving her to care for her two half brothers. "I knew I had to look after my younger brothers," she has said. "I really needed to keep the family together. I just put all my singing ambitions on hold until the rest of the family had grown up."
A new country star
In 1990 she changed her name to Shania - said to be an Ojibwe word for "I'm on my way", but there is confusion about this - and headed to Nashville to cut a demo. Her self-titled debut album was released on April 20, 1993, in North America and garnered her audiences outside Canada but she later expressed displeasure at her lack of creative control over her debut, which only charted at number 67.
However, it was from there that Shania's career took off in a big way. Her recordings were heard by South African Robert John "Mutt" Lange, a record producer for high-profile artists including the Backstreet Boys and Def Leppard, who called her to say he wanted to work with her. "I had no idea he was a world-famous record producer... which was good, because I wasn't intimidated by him," she said at the time. The two met in person in 1993 and married in December of that year. Her 1995 follow up The Woman In Me sold 17 million copies and won best country album at the Grammys - the first of Shania's five gongs at the awards.
1997's Come On Over - also produced by then-husband Lange - featured crossover hits like It Don't Impress Me Much and Man! I Feel Like A Woman and became the best-selling country album, the best selling album by a Canadian and recognized by Guinness World Records as the biggest-selling studio album by a solo female artist. There was some debate in the country music community about whether the singer's midriff-baring outfits were 'too sexy for country', but the singer said she was happy to cross genre barriers.
"People said, 'You have to decide what you are, either pop or country or rock or R&B', but I couldn't make up my mind," she said at the time. "And in the end I didn't have to. I wound up doing a little bit of everything. And it's wonderful."
Marriage split
In August 2001 Twain and Lange had a baby boy, Eja (pronounced 'Asia'), but their relationship was not to last. In 2008 their 14-year marriage came to and end amid reports Lange had had an affair with the singer's best friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud, and their divorce was finalised in 2010. "There were days I didn’t really care if tomorrow came," Twain told AARP The Magazine in 2020 of her marriage to Lange ending in such a way.
"Sometimes I get overwhelmed coping with things, but experience also teaches you how to manage. When you get older, you have so much experience at falling and getting up. You’re not going to stop falling. But you will get better at getting up and brushing yourself off. I believe that. I’ve lived it."
On December 20, 2010 it was reported that Twain was engaged to Swiss Nestlé executive Frédéric Thiébaud, Marie-Anne's former husband. They were married on January 1, 2011.
Stalker trauma
The singer also faced further issues when she became the target of stalking by doctor Giovanni Palumbo, who she told a court in 2011 had sent her love letters and made unexpected visits to her family's cottage in Ontario. Twain said she hired security for a family gathering at her cottage because Palumbo was repeatedly seen in his parked Lamborghini nearby. She also said he visited her brother-in-law's garage pretending there was a problem with his car because he wanted to be closer to the star.
The court heard at the time that one of the letters read: "I love you more than quotes can describe. I love you more than anything in the universe. I need you more than anyone else in the world." Palumbo pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and was sentenced to three years of probation. He was released from jail in November 2011 after a brief spell.
Serious illness
Twain has also spoken about the serious risk to her career posed by Lyme disease, an infection caused by the bite of an infected tick. The singer contracted the illness in 2003 and her voice was damaged by the effects of dysphonia – a term to describe disorders of the voice – as a result. She underwent open throat surgery in 2018 and said at the time that she feared she might never sing again. "I’m just grateful, honestly. I went a long time thinking I’d never be able to sing again or thinking I wouldn’t be able to cheer at a sports game really loud," she said.
As she is set to start on the new ITV series of Starstruck, Twain says she feels right at home the UK. “I love being in the UK - it’s very much a sister culture for me coming from Canada," she said. “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.”
A synopsis of the show from ITV reads: "In each episode, viewers will see contestants undergo the ultimate ‘superstar experience’, shedding their normal personas to become global icons, all courtesy of an elite team of glam and stylists overseeing an extraordinary on screen transformation."
But that's not all - as they take to the stage, performing alongside them will be two other contestants also dressed as the same superstar and singing the same song, taking it in turns to perform sections from the hit. The judges must then decide out of the four teams who has performed the best before the audience decides who should go through to the final and be in with a chance of winning £50,000.
Watch Starstruck on ITV1 at 8pm on Saturday, February 18.
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