Before Shania, the only female country singers I know of were Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell and Patsy Cline. I wasn't really into country music via women country singers.
However, a few years back, Shania popped into the country music scene. It helps if you have a pretty face, and Shania's fans know she's different from the others. Her voice has a distinct tonal quality that separates her from her peers and her predecessors.
There are some songs which are Shania's own and nobody can take that away from her. I am talking about "You're Still The One" and "Man, I Feel Like A Woman".
It is not a secret that Shania has experienced some bad times in her teenage years. She has made no secret of it.
Those were the days when she woke up hungry in the morning and hungry when she went to bed. The things she didn't mention were those days when she cried over how she was going to feed her brothers and sister.
Shania was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Her parents were Sharon and Clarence Edwards. Her parents went separate ways when she was still a toddler at two. Her mother remarried and her second husband was Jerry Twain.
So Shania grew up as Eilleen Twain in Timmins, Ontario. As Eilleen, she got her first taste of the pop world when she appeared on CBC TV show Tommy Hunter. She was 13 at that time.
In school, Eilleen sang for a local group called "Longshot". It was certainly a long shot from what was to be her future. Before all that glamour fell on her lap, Eilleen took a double blow when her mother and her step-father died tragically in a road accident on Nov 1, 1987.
Things just went downhill pretty fast for her and her two brothers, Mark and Daryl, and her sister Carrie-Ann. Overnight, she became the sole breadwinner of the shrunken household. It must have been a terrifying time for her. No mum, no dad and alone with three young mouths to feed.
Eilleen soon found herself singing at local tourist spot called Deerhurst Resort. For four years, Eilleen struggled. The winters which came and went seemed desperately long and cold. Money was scarce, and good food, if any, were even rarer. Then in 1991, fortune began to smile on her. An entertainment lawyer from Nashville, Tennessee, took a liking to her voice and requested a demo tape. That same year, she secured a recording contract with Richard Frank of Mercury Nashville Records.
As it was, and still is, with the entertainment industry, a person's birth name is almost never good enough for the masses. So Eilleen became Shania (shu-nye-uh). It has been said that Shania's adopted father was a full-fledged Ojibwa, and Shania simply means "I am on my way." I guess Shania thought that suited her circumstances quite well.
There have been reports that Shania is part Ojibwa. Not really true. It was her step-dad's heritage which she adopted to indicate her resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.
Initially, Shania's debut album didn't go down well with the country folks. Nashville music scene can be quite unforgiving. Shania was basically a nobody and she had to play second fiddle to others and other unknown song writers.
The sunshine peeked over the mountain top for her when a song producer Robert "Mutt" Lange heard her voice and offered to write songs for her. And so it came to past in June 1993, Shania and Lange met at the Nashville's Fan Fair. It was one of those inescape destiny's moments when two souls meet.
Before the year is over, Shania and Lange were married. It quickly proved to be a fruitful relationship. Shania began to sing songs written by herself and her husband.
Her second album entitled The Woman In Me was produced in 1995.
It quickly became a hit with songs like "Whose Bed Your Boots Have Been Under" and "Any Man Of Mine". For months thereafter, The Woman In Me stayed on top of the country charts. Then it crossed over to the main charts. It hit a high of No. 5 and garnered 12 million sales before the dust settled.
It was indeed a turning point for Shania Twain. Poverty which had a vise-like hold on her for so long has finally began to loosen its grip. Grammy Award for the Best Country Album went to The Woman In Me.
The Academy of Country Music for Album of the Year also went to Shania. To top it all off, Shania was selected as Best New Female Vocalist by the Academy. It was as if all those years of plodding in darkness to find the next meal had suddenly become surreal and a distant memory.
Shania came out with her third album Come on, Over in 1997. The album never made it to the No. 1 spot but it climbed to No. 2. But the single "You're Still The One" rocked the country world. Other songs like "Don't Be Stupid, Honey, I'm Home" and "From This Moment On" kept the album in the charts for the next 48 months.
It was indeed a heady time for Shania Twain, the former struggling resort singer of no particular importance. In time, Come On, Over sold an impressive 20 million copies in the United States and 39 million around the world.
"You're Still The One" chalked up its run as the Best Country Song. Shania also took home the title of Best Female Country Performer.
In 1998, her appearance in the VH1 Divas Concert, details of Shania's early years were released. These were about her hardcore poverty background and the initial rejection by the Nashville music industry. Coupled with her appealingly fresh and attractive looks, the entire country began to fell in love with her.
In 1999, Shania Twain was voted Entertainer of the year by the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. It was a double firsts for Shania who had indeed come a very long way from Timmins, Ontario, Canada to Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Today, Shania enjoys her hard earned success with her husband and son Eja in Switzerland which has become her home. Her second home is that much publicised Motutapu Station (farmland) in Wanaka, New Zealand. It's a 17-hectare sheep land where she and her hubby hope to build their second home.
A TV biographical account of Shania Twain will be aired in about a week's time over CBC on Nov 7, 2005. It's called Shania: A Life in Eight Albums. Meredith Henderson will star as Shania Twain.
I have a soft spot for Shania. She's a great beauty and an excellent singer. Sometimes, in life, people like Shania gets their lucky breaks. Not many do. Shania's idol is Dolly Parton. That's my next topic when I find the time.
Meanwhile, we the fans are praying for Shania's continued good fortune. It gives up hope to see that life is fair at times even if most of us don't think so.
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