Shania Twain Profile

Profile: Shania Twain

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 Shania was 21, her mom and stepdad died in a car wreck. Left to raise her two younger brothers, the aspiring singer took a job at a Canadian Deerhurst resort in northern Ontario. She was the lead performer in a variety of musical productions at Deerhurst. She concentrated on country music, and dazzeled 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 one part composed by Shania, pointing the way to the future. The producers and the recording company passing on the songs Shania had written, saddled her with second-rate material from the Nashville hit 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 A&R team. Later that year, Shania met Lange in Nashville, fell in love, and got married. 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, went on to move more than 11 million copy's, more than twice that ever sold by a female country star. 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 bypassed the industry machinery, on her way to the bank, she is a true super star celebrity.