Shania was born August 28, 1965, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Shania is a singing star
performer-entertainer, and almost a legend in her own time. Her fame as a global superstar
is the biggest country success story of the '90s. It's also a story of luck in the face of hardship.
This charming Canadian singing star grew up in the mining town of Timmins. Shania Twain, born Eileen
Edwards in 1965, watched her father abandon the family when she was a toddler. Before her musical career
began, she planted trees with her stepfather as part of a forest crew. Humble, by even rural Canadian
standards, her family made great sacrifices to support her early career. When she was 22, her parents
were killed in an accident and she became the legal guardian of her two half brothers and sister,
putting her musical career on hold to care for them.
The aspiring singer took a job at the Canadian Deerhurst resort in northern Ontario. Shania was the
lead performer in a variety of musical productions at Deerhurst. She concentrated on country music,
and dazzled the crowds night after night. Five years later, she moved to Nashville. In 1991, Shania
cut a demo tape recorded in Nashville with songwriter and producer Norro Wilson and Buddy Cannon.
Her song, "God Ain't Gonna Get You For That", was the only part composed by Shania, but definitely
pointed the way to the future. The producers and the recording company disregarded the songs Shania
had written, and saddled her with second-rate material from the Nashville song mill.
In 1993, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, heard the potential in her voice, and contacted her. If not for
"Mutt" Lange, Shania might have continued to languish at the hands of her label's lackluster production
team. Later that year, Shania met Lange in Nashville, fell in love, and the couple married in December
1993, nine months after that first phone call.
The two dusted off the old material that Mercury had rejected and started working on Shania's next
project, "The Woman in Me". The album, and Lange's pumped-up arena-rock production, sounded like
no other country album before it. This isn't to say that "The Woman in Me" doesn't pack plenty of
pop punch. Just the opposite, the album consummated the pop-country revolution, won a Grammy for
Shania. This album sold more than 11 million copy's, and puts Shania in the same league as Whitney
Houston and Mariah Carey, and far above any previous country queen. June Carter Cash says, "With
Shania, I see progress, she has opened up a lot of space for future female country singers".
Crucial to the success of "The Woman in Me" was the re-packaged persona of Shania. Gone was the
outdoorsy and wholesome image she projected on her debut. In its place was the new sex-kitten
alluring country singer posing for male record buyers. Shania has become just as accustomed to
swirling gossip and rumors as she is to the sold out shows she performs. Her revealing stage
costumes, bare-belly button wardrobe and relentless drive, give her audiences what they have
come too see, Shania at her best!
1999 Shania Twain Live
1999 Shania Twain: Come on Over
1998 VH1: Divas Live
1998 Bellini's Drive
Shania Twain: Up! Live In Chicago
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Alyssa Milano
