Shania Twain Is Having Her Best Moment Yet In Her ‘Making The Most Of Life’ Era

             

Photo Credit: Brian Bowen Smith

BY LAURA SCHREFFLER

PHOTOGRAPHY BRIAN BOWEN SMITH

STYLING ERIN MCSHERRY

STYLING ASSISTANT KARINA BOYLAN

HAIR DIMITRIS GIANNETOS

MAKEUP MELANIE HUGHES-WEAVER

SHOT ON LOCATION AT BAR LIS AT THE THOMPSON HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES

Shania Twain is having a party, and it ain’t just any kind of party… it’s going to be really, really hot.

I’m inclined to think of our cover shoot as a sneak preview of said sexy soirée. The five-time Grammy winner is giving her best Brigitte Bardot at Hollywood’s Bar Lis, smoldering at the camera from heavy-lidded, smoky eyes, transformed by a series of candy-coated, bubblegum pink and platinum blonde wigs, tilting her head seductively, and purposefully showing off her toned pins (sometimes in nothing more tha a pair of undies). Not that is anything new: Twain, 58, has always been playful with fashion. But there’s something different about her now, something truly fun, like a tightly coiled spool of yarn that has charmingly come loose.
And that right there, the “girl who wants to have fun” vibe, is what fans can expect this spring in Las Vegas as the iconic singer debuts her third Sin City residency, aptly named “COME ON OVER — The Las Vegas Residency — All the Hits!” A party for two it isn’t, but never mind, because this kind of experience is one that should be shared with many. It’s an invitation to enter Shania’s world, pop some champagne, and celebrate.

And she has a lot to celebrate at the moment. There’s the residency, which kicks off May 10 at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino’s Bakkt Theater; the 25^th anniversary of her third studio album, Come on Over, which was recognized by Guinness World Records as the top-selling studio album of all time by a female solo artist (it is also the best-selling country album, best-selling album by a Canadian artist, and the world’s eighth best-selling album of all time); and — perhaps most importantly of all — her new lease on life.

“I am,” she says, “in my ‘making the most of life’ era.”

The pink wigs seem to be a sign, or at least an indicator, of her current state of mind — and what fans should expect from her upcoming show. Twain promises it’s going to be a spectacle: lots of energy, outrageous costumes, and, of course, what Shania and Shania alone can singularly deliver: her hits.

This is the focus of “Come on Over.” Chart toppers like “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” “You’re Still the One,” and tunes from her latest album, 2023’s Queen of Me, are anticipated for the 24 Las Vegas performance dates that carry on through December. [To note, $1 of every ticket purchased will be donated to Shania Kids Can, a non-profit established in 2010, which provides services that promote positive change in children’s lives in times of crisis and economic hardship.] Every 90-minute show will feel fresh and new in that each will be effectively be a surprise: Twain plans on rotating her hits, so fans will always be treated to something different. Which is fitting for her given that the last thing she ever wants to be is predictable.

The music will be the focus of the show, naturally, but that’s about it when it comes to familiarity. In addition to a whole new look for Shania, surprises are certainly in store. “The visuals will be fresh; there’s nothing really nostalgic there,” she notes. “There will be a modern esthetic in contrast to the music.”

Fashion, too, will expectedly play a major part in her performances; Twain has never been one to shy away from taking sartorial risks. Who can forget the head-to-toe leopard print look she wore — snood included — in the 1998 music video for “That Don’t Impress Me Much” or the all-sequin black and white spotted cow print Harris Reed suit she wore to the 2023 Grammy Awards? Not I, that’s for sure.

She says now, “I’m definitely going to focus on fashion for the upcoming shows. It will be a different wardrobe than anyone has ever seen, but it’s also an entirely different show from anything I’ve done before. It’s going to be more athletic, more dynamic in terms of the talent on stage. It’s going to feel more energized than ever.”

Photo Credit: Brian Bowen Smith

It’s also, currently, a work in progress. “I’m going to be working on this up until the very last minute,” she admits. “There are some things that won’t be narrowed down until the last weeks. I’m going to be very hands-on, adjusting things up until the end. So even if I were to give away anything concrete now, I’d be getting ahead of myself, because it’s not fully there yet.”

In addition to the fact that she’ll be singing her greatest hits, there’s at least one thing she can impart: those candy-colored hairpiece confections will have a major presence during her new residency. And not just because they’re cool, or fashion-forward: in her “making the most of life” era, Twain is truly down for anything that makes her feel good and empowered. And with this hair, she is truly transformed.

“It’s funny — the reason that I even experimented with [the pink] was because I’m going grey. And now I’m thinking that when I’m entirely grey, maybe I should just dye my hair at that point and rock the pink,” she muses.

After I agree (and mean it), she says, “It’s the way I feel when I have that color on. It makes me feel youthful. I don’t need to look younger in my own mind — it’s not a goal of mine — but I do like to feel refreshed, and the pink hair does that. It’s awesome.”
That cotton candy coif is more than mere hair — it’s a symbol, a state of mind, and with it, she feels unencumbered, courageous, and confident. “I’m getting less and less inhibited as I age,” she confides. “I like to do goofy things. Outside of experimenting with hair color, I would say that I enjoy being fearless — nothing really scares me. I’m not worried about wearing a hair color and not pulling it off. I’m not worried about the backlash… even in my own mirror. There’s no wrong thing to experiment with. You’ve just got to have fun — and being playful makes me feel more youthful.”

She doesn’t mean just in obvious ways, but even in the simplest things, things she’s taken for granted in the past or that she forgot to do while she was making other plans. “Things that you might think are so natural, I hadn’t done. But now, I dance around the house. In private, I go around naked. I don’t think I had ever done that before, but it felt so natural to forget the clothes. Now, I’m like, Oh my gosh, I’ve really been missing out. This is really liberating.”

And because this is a discovery, she — an award-winning, record-holding, musical icon — made only recently, in her fifties, it’s only natural that she’d be urging others to tap into that unearthed part of themselves much sooner, too. “It shouldn’t be a discovery,” she declares. “You should have the confidence and fearlessness to walk around naked if you want to. If I had any advice to impart on the youth, it would be don’t ever not do those things; don’t ever lose touch with those very basic, playful moments in your life. Don’t ever have the need to be reunited with that aspect of yourself, because you shouldn’t lose touch with it in the first place.”

She pauses, and says, “I think that discovery is an absolute luxury. When I see something or read something or hear something that I’ve never heard before, I’m impressed by it. [For the woman responsible for writing a song called “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” well, that should pretty much say it all.] Exploring never ends. We may run out of places on the map to visit, but we never run out of inspiration, you can never trap the imagination. That is the way I look at things; that’s the window to the world.”

Continuing with her stream of consciousness, she says, “I always think that the worst thing in life is to be a baby. Ever since I had a child, I always thought this it must be so difficult because you’re trapped in this little body, and you can’t express yourself. It’s like being a prisoner. If you soil yourself, you’re stuck with it until your parent realizes that you need your diaper changed. So, I’ve always thought that the only freedom you have when you’re trapped is your mind. That’s where a baby’s imagination must

develop the most. The happiest babies are the babies that self-soothe, because they’re entertaining their own escapism as they’re developing; their minds are already [figuring out] how to escape. That has always fascinated me. I lived a lot of my childhood escaping scenarios that I couldn’t otherwise get out of, so without my imagination, I would have been extremely unhappy or uncomfortable.”

Twain does not say any more about her upbringing, but at this time of celebration, there isn’t more than could or should be said. Her childhood was difficult, with little income coming into the home, scarce food, and the relationship between her mother and stepfather sometimes violent. She began singing in bars at the age of eight to earn money. No doubt, her vibrant imagination helped her escape into a fantastical world, a world that would, one day, become her reality.

“You can go anywhere in your imagination,” she says now. “You can be anything. Nothing can stop you from going or being or doing anything. That’s why I spend so much time now daydreaming.” She pauses and says with her typically smoky purr, “Just know this: [when I dream] I do it on purpose.” Was there ever any doubt?

“I don’t tend to look back a lot,” Shania Twain declares. “I’m always looking forward.”

Photo Credit: Brian Bowen Smith

It’s too bad, then, that our interview happens to fall on the 25^th anniversary year of Come on Over, one of the best-selling country albums in the world, and one that solidified Twain as the queen of pop-country music. Naturally, we’re going to be looking at her past.

That said, the realization that her baby had turned 25 was a significant realization for Twain, too, and one she was almost forced to contemplate. “It’s a reflective experience, because it’s been 25 years of moving on from it,” she admits. “It’s a rebirth, or a reunion, in a way. I’m being reunited with my fan base, of all different ages. All the children that grew up with my music are now adults; they’re starting to have their own children. The music is also a reunion for me; the songs are like old friends.”

Twain, known as the trailblazer of the country-pop crossover genre, employed this in spades on her third studio album. As produced by her ex-husband, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, the songs contained traditional country elements like acoustic guitars, pedal steel, and fiddles, as well as electric guitars and rock riffs for a less traditional sound. There was even an international version of Come on Over that felt predominantly pop. The OG version reached number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, was nominated for Album of the Year and Best Country Album at the 41^st Annual Grammy Awards in 1999, and spawned 12 singles and three Billboard Haute 100 top-ten singles in “You’re Still the One,” “From This Moment On,” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” It sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, was certified 20x platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and was named the best-selling studio album of all time by a solo female artist.

In the interim, she released another three studio albums, gave birth to a son (Eja D’Angelo Lange, now 22), got divorced, and remarried to now-husband of 13 years, Swiss businessman Frédéric Thiébaud, who is a calm and supportive presence on our set, watching the couple’s tiny Pomeranian, Sapphire, while Twain gets camera-ready. So, though the album’s release marked an important period in her life, it’s been some time since she connected with it —but it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“It’s like a family or high school reunion — it’s wild,” she notes. “It’s got a whole lot of ‘wow’ moments. I keep thinking, I can’t believe all that’s happened since then, and time really flew by. But now, I can laugh at things without getting emotional about them. Reliving it is fun when I can absorb it more.

“At the time [of release], I wasn’t able to fully be in the moment and enjoy it,” she continues. “There were so many singles, so many videos, and so much work involved that I didn’t really take it all in. Now, looking back, I’m experiencing certain things for the first time. I’m being reminded of things that I may not have been able to take in at that moment.”

Now, with 25 years of space from it, she recalls how Come on Over came to be — and where it took her when she didn’t have to try quite so hard to be a success. “Before [Come on Over], I’d already felt like I’d achieved everything that most artists can ever achieve. My previous album, The Woman in Me, had surpassed diamond status. I remember thinking, This probably won’t happen again, lightning doesn’t strike twice, and that I was just going to have fun with what came next. So that’s what I did. You can hear it in the album: I experimented more, I stretched boundaries, but I was more relaxed about it. And so, Come on Over became a celebration album; it was joyous, it was playful, it was more adventurous. When you let your guard down, you unleash a lot of inhibition, and there’s a freedom in that. But I can appreciate the courage I had back then, because Come on Over was ahead of its time in a lot of ways for females in the country music genre. It ended up being a crossover, and it took me to other genres. Plus, it made me feel more confident in being as original as I wanted.”

Photo Credit: Brian Bowen Smith

Looking back, Twain realizes that she was charting a virtually unknown course, not just for female singers, but for country music itself. Lauren Alaina, Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini, Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, and even Taylor Swift, owe their start, in part, to Twain.

“It wasn’t like I intended on being a trailblazer or anything; I never even realized I would be,” she admits. “I was just trying to be original, my authentic self, and to do it with conviction. I’m an expressive person, and I put that into my music. I was saying it with attitude and with confidence because I meant it. Yes, I see it as a great compliment when someone calls me a trailblazer, but it’s not like I set out to do so. I was just being myself, and I think that’s served me very well.”

Although the country music community wasn’t on board with her hybrid sound back then, Come on Over was a risk she was willing — even needed — to take. “I already felt like I had taken a lot of risks with The Woman in Me, and I managed to succeed. Country music was resisting my liberated spirit, but they didn’t kick me out, did they? I felt like I was established enough that I had more freedom to explore, so I was open to taking that risk.”

Which is why, when the subject of pride arises, she dismisses the concept. “I wouldn’t say I’m proud of anything I’ve done. Pride is not a great word for me, because I don’t think you can take credit for creative gifts if you were born with them; you can only take credit for developing them. What I would say I’m proud of is that I had the courage to take risks, that I could be so hard-working and dedicated.”

She references Taylor Swift as a perfect example. “That girl is working her butt off. She is living an exhausting existence, but she’d dedicated and committed to herself, to her art, and her work. It isn’t even about ambition, though I’m sure that most people would call her ambitious. She’s an extremely hard worker, and I’m sure she’s got giant goals. But it’s not all about ambition: it’s about passion and committing yourself to your passion. [Like Taylor], I was and am someone who does that, and that’s what really reaps rewards. So, I would say that I’m most proud of my perseverance, and that I didn’t waste my talents.”

That, dear Shania, is putting it mildly. In addition to those five Grammy wins and placement in the Guinness Book of World Records, she’s sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and was the first artist in history to release three consecutive diamond-certified albums. Her 2004 album, Greatest Hits, was certified 4x platinum. In 2022, Netflix released Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl, a career-spanning documentary on her life and career, with an accompanying Highlights album. She is a force.
Yet, it is then, not now, that she refers to as her “Shania era.” She defines this phase by the signature leopard print she always wore back then, boldly, making a statement. Before Katy Perry, it was Shania Twain you could hear roar.

“I was telling a story, then, of a woman who decides to put her masculine foot forward, and at the same time, in tandem, a feminine foot. It was me saying ‘I have esthetics and a brain, and they are both here at the same time.’ It was a statement period, the Shania era, but I didn’t realize it at the time.”

Her current life phase, the aforementioned “making the most of life” era, is exactly as it sounds. She’s soaking it all in, saying ‘yes!’ to life, like Molly Bloom.

“I’m not wasting a minute,” she declares. “I’m taking more time to reflect, imagine, and dream. I’m being self-focused, but not self-ish. And ironically, by knowing myself better and spending more time on myself, I’m only now realizing what I achieved 25 years ago. I’m absorbing it and appreciating it now more than I did then… and there’s something to be said for reflecting. It’s an indulgence, a luxury I didn’t have 25 years ago. I could easily be doing the same thing, spending my time the same way, never stopping for a minute, but I think that now, I have more to give than I ever have before.”

Twain, in all her resplendent, pink-haired, vivacious glory, pauses. Every strong, female-focused hit plays (metaphorically) as the closing soundtrack to our chat. “I’m Gonna Getcha Good,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” “Any Man of Mine,” “Don’t Be Stupid,” “I’m Outta Here!” They are messages, they are mantras, they are the words of wisdom that Shania Twain has imparted to change an industry, and to empower women everywhere. And now, at least, she can finally fully see it.
She says, “I read a quote once, a graffiti thing, that has always stuck with me. It said, ‘If you’re not living on the edge, you’re probably taking up too much space.’ And I thought, Yeah, that’s exactly right. That says it all for me.”

Consider the mic officially dropped.  

Photo Credit: Brian Bowen Smith