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[soft country music playing]
[woman] I believe every great leader of their own destiny is fearless.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
There is no other way to be.
Aware but fearless.
I am going to make my own decisions in life,
and I'm going to make my own money.
I'm going to buy my own car, make my own way.
I'm not going to depend on anybody else.
The minute you depend on somebody else, you lose something.
You lose the right to decide for yourself.
You've just got to go for it.
Taking the risks to do things your way can be scary.
So you got to be brave.
[audience cheering]
[cheering]
[cheering intensifies]
[upbeat music playing]
♪ Let's go girls ♪
[woman] Shania changed country music because she went like this,
"Oh, these are the lines? Cool."
♪ I'm going out tonight I'm feeling all right ♪
She was the first person to break that door open and go across the music genres.
She was that trailblazer.
Shania does it all. She plays guitar, she writes her own songs,
she has, like, insane live shows.
She was a strong female in country, which is hard because country music's, like,
the women don't make it.
You'd have to take a sledgehammer to knock her down.
Record sales. Not streaming.
[man] How many artists have followed huge records
with one more, much less two more?
[woman] She might not wear a banner on her hat that, "I'm a feminist."
She just did it.
Shania Twain shifted culture.
She paved the way not only for women in country,
but musicians everywhere.
[cheering]
Are you ready?
[cheering]
[Shania] I said…
are you ready?
[cheering wildly]
[cheering continues]
[guitar playing]
[Shania] I spent most of my childhood growing up
in what I would call a medium-sized mining town,
Timmins, Ontario.
[Shania] We were struggling as far as, you know, money.
So there was always a problem paying electric bills,
the rent, um…
Always a problem buying groceries.
So it was just this struggle all the time.
My mom loved music.
Both my parents loved music, so there was always music playing.
Mostly country music.
I mean, I listened to a lot of Dolly, you know, the Coat of Many Colors.
♪ My coat of many colors ♪
♪ That my momma made for me ♪
♪ Made only from rags ♪
♪ But I wore it so proudly ♪
♪ Although we had no money ♪
♪ I was rich as I could be ♪
♪ In my coat of many colors ♪
♪ My momma made for me ♪
So Dolly Parton was a big influence on me.
-My child, how you've growed. -I'm growin', ain't I?
[Shania] She had lived a life that was very interesting,
you know, grew up in a little shack.
With a bunch of kids, not a lot of money.
I was fascinated by her story, and I related and thought, "Well…"
"If she came from all the way there and ended up all the way over there…
I guess it's possible."
"Maybe I can…"
"Maybe I have a shot."
[radio stations changing]
[country music playing]
[Shania] I was kind of a radio channel hog.
I was the one that was always changing the channel,
finding music that I thought we should listen to in the car. [chuckles]
I would always go for the harmonies just constantly,
you know, singing along.
I think that's probably where my mother would have recognized
that I had a different…
ear for music than just the average kid.
She thought I should develop it and become a little singer.
At the age of three, my mom would put me up on the counter tops,
and I would sing for the people in the restaurant.
Sing along with the jukebox.
Pretty much anywhere that my mother could find an audience,
that's where she brought me to sing.
I started playing guitar at the age of eight years old.
My dad taught me my first three chords.
D, G, and A.
[chuckles] I remember clearly.
[guitar playing]
[Shania] It was my mother's dream for me to become a professional singer.
She'd say, "Okay, I'm going to come get you up, uh…
once your dad's asleep,
and then we're going to sneak out and…
go to the bar, and you're going to sing a set."
And, you know, sometimes we would get back, and he'd still be sleeping,
and other times he'd be waiting for us. Um…
That would not end well.
I was petrified to get up there and sing.
It was okay to go in there as a kid
once the bar was legally no longer serving alcohol,
even though everybody's tables were loaded with their last call drinks.
It was crazy. I had school in the morning.
My mother was obsessed.
There weren't any other kids singing in bars.
I mean, just period.
And it was not the norm. No.
I remember that I always tried to keep a hundred songs in my repertoire.
At a time.
So that if the band didn't know one song,
they'd know the other song or something like that.
And also I could take requests.
Growing up in a violent household
was…
horrible.
But I…
locked myself away with music
to block out everything else,
so that all I could see, hear, think, and imagine was music.
Probably hearing my mother
saying, "You can make it. You're going to make it."
I felt like that was going to save us somehow if I made it,
and it was more of a responsibility to be…
a performer, to do it as a career.
♪ And momma never wanted anymore Than what she had ♪
♪ If she did She never did say so to Daddy ♪
♪ He often left her all alone ♪
♪ And she didn't mind the stayin' home ♪
♪ If she did She never did say so to Daddy ♪
♪ And she never missed the flowers ♪
♪ And the cards he never sent her ♪
♪ If she did She never did say so to Daddy ♪
[woman] I was doing a concert in Northern Ontario,
and Shania was the opening act.
And this little girl, probably 11,
guitar was larger than she was, actually,
and sat down and sang, and I was in the wings and went,
"Oh my, I… I can't believe this."
♪ …so to Daddy ♪
♪ One morning we awoke ♪
♪ Just to find the note ♪
♪ That momma carefully wrote ♪
♪ And left to daddy ♪
♪ And as he began to read it ♪
♪ Our ears could not believe it ♪
♪ The words that she had written ♪
♪ There to daddy ♪
I mean, this sound, this voice, the control, way back then.
She brought tears to my eyes. That's how much emotion was in the voice.
Her mother was there, Sharon.
And Sharon asked if I would consider working with her.
I, I thought then, right from the get-go, that this little girl had a chance.
[band music playing]
[Shania] I just knew that I loved music.
I was always singing. I was always being musically creative.
By the time I was a teenager, yeah, I was on…
I was doing the odd little TV thing.
It's a pleasure to welcome her back, 15 years of age,
here's Miss Eilleen Twain! Let's make her welcome.
[audience cheering, whistling]
♪ Just walk on by ♪
♪ Wait on the corner ♪
♪ You know I love you But we're strangers when we meet ♪
♪ If I see you tomorrow ♪
♪ On some little place in town ♪
♪ Pardon me if I don't say hello ♪
♪ Hello ♪
♪ I belong to another ♪
♪ And it wouldn't look so good ♪
♪ To know someone I'm not supposed to know ♪
♪ Just walk on by ♪
♪ Wait on the corner ♪
♪ I love you but we're strangers ♪
♪ When we meet ♪
By the time I was 16, I was already…
really wanting to sing rock.
Which my parents did not like
because they thought I was going to sing "their country" for the rest of my life.
♪ Hit me with your best shot ♪
♪ Why don't you hit me With your best shot ♪
They wanted me to be the next Tanya Tucker.
I wanted to rock out, you know.
Wanted to use my energy and get out from behind my guitar.
It was a really tough transition because I was always such a shy singer.
I think, once I started singing rock,
I started developing my own style.
I was stretching out creatively, artistically,
and it was also affecting my songwriting.
Mare was a big support. She was encouraging me to keep writing songs,
make more demos…
It was at that time, I thought, you know, she really has it.
She really has something unique.
[vocalizing]
The idea was to make these demos for…
you know, to get producers and record labels interested.
And…
then my parents died.
[soft piano playing]
[Shania] And nobody could really help me through that…
grief.
[Mary Bailey] It was a devastating time.
Her world was pulled out from under her.
She said, "Mary, I don't know what I'm going to do."
"I really don't know."
[Shania] At the time, I just really wanted to quit…
[clicks tongue] And…
get a real job.
I've got kids now. I've got kids to support.
How am I going to do it?
And Mary Bailey says, there's a singing job opening up at a resort
in a place called Deerhurst in Huntsville, Ontario.
Deerhurst was a resort that had shows.
They did sort of an Off-Broadway production of musicals.
And it was a gig. It was a job.
It was an opportunity to make some money to feed her family.
And it turned out that live performing was going to pay better,
even at this level, at that little level, than, um, working a regular day job.
I mean, it was pretty decent paying.
I was able to support my brothers. Um…
I was able to make enough money to put food on the table singing at this resort.
♪ I was the one… ♪
Once I was performing at Deerhurst,
the Vegas-style show
was a whole different thing.
It was the first time I had ever done anything like that.
[announcer] Miss Eilleen Twain. How 'bout it? Let me hear it!
[Shania] It was pretty scary. I didn't really know what I was doing at all.
I had no idea
how to sing and wear high heel shoes, for example,
at the same time.
I had to learn fast because this was now my new job.
♪ Did you ever know that you're my hero? ♪
Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I learned
to respect and appreciate that
I did have a talent that would be a shame to throw away and not pursue.
I was busy rehearsing, running the kids back and forth.
You know, before and after the show, I would go home and write.
There was no other way to get ahead except working my ass off, really.
That was it. No other way.
♪ And whoever said That opposites attract ♪
♪ I'd say they all know where is that ♪
All I could do was keep working, keep demoing, keep writing,
and hoping I would get a break.
[Mary Bailey] Shania started to focus more on, and understand
who she was, and the direction she wanted to take.
She called and said, "You know, Mary, I'm ready to do country."
[country music playing]
[announcer] Nashville 95, WSM-FM…
[cheering]
Well, my debut record was an experience that was pretty much
me as the newbie in town, in Nashville,
treading lightly, trying to find my way
as an original artist with all my own ideas…
without being, you know, kicked out of town.
Well, I was vice president of the A&R department
when I signed Shania.
I remember the sound of her voice, mainly.
She… She still does not sound like any other singer.
♪ You lay a whole lot of love on me ♪
Her songs, uh, I don't… mean this in a wrong way,
but some of her songs I thought were incomplete
at the time, and, uh…
they were not as country
as we were thinking about at that time.
So we started looking for other songs
from other writers and publishers in town.
[Shania] I was definitely coming from a spicier place as a songwriter.
And the A&R department,
just didn't think it was country enough,
and I kind of had to do a little reset on my expectations.
I didn't cry about it.
I accepted it.
There's not
really that much of my, you know, creative input…
[clicks tongue] …in the album at all.
Um, other than maybe just the way I sang things
or the way I phrase things, that sort of thing in the studio.
Even that didn't leave me any room, because they were three-hour sessions.
What could I do in three-hour sessions?
Jingle singers can do it in three-hour sessions.
But if you're trying to be creative… I had no room to experiment.
I had no room to grow into…
Uh, to grow into the project.
[country music playing]
You had a female artist and a female manager to start.
And I don't think that we were taken that seriously.
Shania, welcome to the show. You look terrific on camera.
-Really. -Thank you.
I think one of the important aspects of the business these days
is presentation, and looks play an important role in that.
And you have the looks to back up a wonderful song.
Is that true, this is the last one you recorded for the album?
-No, I lied. -[host] Oh, you lied?
[laughing]
-[Shania] No, it's true. -Good girl.
And this is the album called Shania Twain.
That's easy to remember because it's so unusual,
and there's a pretty picture on the cover.
Joining us now is Shania Twain.
Her self-titled debut album has been garnering its share of attention.
-Yeah. -You look great.
-Sound good too. -Thank you.
You have to work three times as hard as the average guy in country music,
in order to in order to get a shot.
To be relentless was the only way.
I think that's the only way to be taken seriously.
You have to kill yourself to get there. Is it worth it?
I don't know. I think that when you're young,
why not, right?
Women in country music,
specifically,
have sometimes been held to a different standard than their male counterparts
within country. Uh…
Johnny Cash could get away with singing about shooting a man in Reno
and drinking himself to death, and, you know, doing cocaine,
uh, and everyone would be fine with that.
Uh, and then women were expected to present kind of, maybe,
what would be considered, like, good Christian values.
[woman] I think, especially for a female, if you don't know who you are,
and what you want to say, and what you want to represent,
someone's going to tell you.
And that might not align with, like, what you actually want.
♪ Maybe tonight I'm gonna tell him ♪
♪ How I feel ♪
♪ Maybe I'll leave well enough alone ♪
The music video for, "What Made You Say That?" that was the moment
that I grabbed onto creatively,
and it was liberating.
And I liberated myself in so many ways.
Right from that very first video.
[Mary Bailey] She may have had limitations with the music that she could record,
but visually she really could be creative in all elements.
It was like freedom.
♪ …I heard a voice inside me say ♪
♪ What made you say that ♪
♪ Was it the moonlight Was it the starlight in your eyes ♪
♪ What made you say that ♪
♪ Have you been listening to your heart ♪
It was probably the biggest turning point for me as an artist,
that it was going to be hands-on from then on than anything else I've ever done.
Um, because it really set a tone.
[Mary] It's so fresh compared to the other things that were being shown at that time.
Look at it.
It's like, "Oh my God, how can we show this?"
I mean, this woman is very sensual,
and CMT initially wasn't too keen on that
because that was brand new, you know.
Women didn't really show their midriff that much
in country music.
I was a disruption to the image of country music.
Absolutely.
♪ What made you say that ♪
♪ Was it the moonlight Was it the starlight in your eyes ♪
[song playing on phone] ♪ What made you say that ♪
I mean, I love it. Also she's just like
feeling up on this super-hot, shirtless guy.
Like, she's like, "I… I run this town, don't worry about it." [chuckles]
And then, of course, Mutt. Mutt saw that video, and, um…
That was a journey unto its own too.
[rock music playing]
[Mary] I say to Eilleen, there's this guy by the name of Mutt,
he wants to talk to you about music.
She said, "Mary, for God sakes."
I said, "I don't know who he is. I think he's in music. He seems to know a lot."
I don't know who this person is. I don't know his success yet.
I just know that his name is Mutt Lange.
I kind of thought Mutt was a strange name. I just…
It was just funny. What kind of a name is Mutt? Mutt Lange.
It was just so funny for me.
I called him one night. It was one o'clock in the morning,
and I think that it was about 6:00 in the morning for him.
And we stayed on the phone for three hours.
Our conversation lasted three hours.
He was playing me some of his original music over the phone.
And then I was singing to him over the phone.
He said, "Listen, we really should get together and write."
"This could be a cool thing 'cause I love country music so much."
He says, "I love your voice, and I think it would be a cool combination."
I didn't want to be
too forward,
but in my mind, I'm saying,
[whispering] "Oh, wow, if this guy…
[in normal voice] …made my music sound like that,
that would be the dream. Like…
whoa."
The first record that came out in 1993, I think,
um, we didn't do very well with it.
I think we put two singles,
it went to 55 on the country chart, or something like that.
She was perceived as another, kind of,
female country wannabe, you know?
[Shania] Lewis, the record label head, was like, "We need to have lunch."
"We need to talk about what is going on here because
you could get dropped at this point if you're not serious about this."
"So you'd better prove to me that you're doing something really awesome."
So I said, "Okay."
"I'm working with this rock producer named Mutt Lange."
Like, as if I had to confess something. [chuckles]
It really felt like a confession, and…
he was stunned.
And said, like, probably, "Holy fuck," or something like that.
And then I think… I was… I'm thinking it could be like, "Holy fuck… no way,"
or "Holy fuck, that's incredible."
[clicks tongue]
Thankfully, he thought it was incredible.
Mutt, he was one of my heroes. The guy who produced Back in Black,
and Def Leppard and stuff. Being a rock guy, I loved those things.
I knew about him, and I knew a bit of his history.
He was pretty well aware of country music more than anybody probably knew.
[man] And one, two, three…
[country music playing]
♪ Mind if I sit down? ♪
♪ Can I buy you a round? ♪
♪ I haven't seen your face before ♪
♪ Are you new in town? ♪
♪ It's the same old line ♪
♪ Oh every time ♪♪
♪ Are you here alone? ♪
♪ Can I take you home? ♪
The fact that I was now writing for the purpose of recording my own music
was the dream. That was the dream.
That was the dream that I went to Nashville
hoping to find and didn't find it right away.
I was super motivated and very inspired.
You know, all of a sudden, now I've got Mutt, who's really into my ideas.
At the very end, do you think you should just wait.
Like, if I went, "I'm outta here." Beat.
Just a beat between.
We wrote the album very, very quickly.
During that whole process, we got together and
started a wonderful personal relationship.
So, to put it all in a nutshell,
we… we met,
we fell in love,
we're engaged, wrote an entire album,
uh, all in six months.
[chuckles] And married in that six months as well.
So we did so much in a six-month period, it was a very intense time for me.
Mutt listened to her,
and then in turn knew how to make her
louder. And knew how to bring out things of her that she hadn't brought out yet.
And so to find someone that you trust with that,
and that, you know, not only isn't going to, like, judge you,
but is going to help you shape it,
to make it great, and make it unique, and make it you.
That's why it's one of the greatest partnerships in music.
You hear Shania be Shania with a megaphone.
♪ Whose bed have your boots been under? ♪
[barking]
♪ Whose bed have your boots been under? ♪
And whose heart did you steal I wonder?
♪ This time did it feel Like thunder, baby? ♪
♪ Whose bed have your boots been under? ♪
I wanted to lead with "Any Man of Mine."
I wanted that to be the first single off The Woman in Me album,
but everybody else agreed that
"Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" would be the safest
to lead with because it was more country-sounding,
which was true.
If I would've fought for it, I would've got it.
They would have done it. I know.
I wanted to kick the door down, you know what I'm saying?
I didn't want to just shuffle through it.
But I thought, this is a deeper album than one song.
And I knew that when the public heard "Any Man of Mine,"
they would then get radio on side.
Proof is in the pudding, kind of thing. I thought it was super strong.
[audience clapping]
[country music playing]
♪ Woo ♪
Yay!
♪ Woo ♪
♪ Any man of mine better be proud of me ♪
♪ Even when I'm ugly He still better love me ♪
♪ I can be late for a date that's fine ♪
♪ But he better be on time ♪
♪ Well, any man of mine'll say It fits just right ♪
♪ When last year's dress Is just a little too tight ♪
♪ Anything I do or say better be okay ♪
♪ When I have a bad hair day ♪
[Luke] If you do what I've done in my life,
peddling records, basically,
you know when you got one.
You don't have to have golden ears or…
be a genius.
You just know.
Enough so that I could go to my boss in New York and say,
"Hey, I'm going to spend more money than you're comfortable with on this
'cause I think we got a huge one."
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Yeah, I like it that way ♪
♪ Any man of mine ♪
♪ Better walk the line ♪
♪ Better show me a teasin'… ♪
[woman] She came to us…
When I say us, my husband who's deceased now, John Derek,
um, was known for his photography, especially when it came to women,
and beautiful women.
I said, "We're gonna shoot this girl. She sounds interesting."
He said, "Is she beautiful?" I said, "Yeah, she looks beautiful."
♪ Woo ♪
♪ Well any man of mine better… ♪
[Bo Derek] His process was so unusual, and a lot of girls couldn't take it.
It was all about getting the beauty for him.
And he didn't pussyfoot and talk around, trying not to hurt your feelings.
He would really cut to the chase and say, "Uh, your nose is crooked."
"And now I got to change all the lighting and the camera angle."
If he were shooting me, he'd say, "Stop that, you look like you're smelling shit,"
or, "Your mouth looks like a chicken's ass,"
or, you know, whatever it is, which would send some girls home crying.
And I thought, "Okay…
you're going to have to get over this and take it and move on
'cause there's a job to do, a video to make,
and the sun is going down."
♪ He's gotta be a heartbeatin' Fine treatin' ♪
♪ Breathtakin' earthquakin' kind ♪
♪ Any man of mine, woo ♪
[Bo Derek] There was a funny moment on this, when
John wanted her to do something kind of hokey and corny and she didn't want to.
We were nose-to-nose at one point, arguing about this.
He wasn't good at being told no.
She was great. She really stood up for herself.
And he could be a little difficult.
I had a vision about how I wanted it to look,
and how I wanted to present myself.
[Bo Derek] She said, "This is my video. This is my money."
"I'm going to get what I want."
[Shania] That was actually a tense moment.
I thought he was going to leave and quit the video at that point.
Then he turned on the camera and said, "You want it, you got it."
He clicked the button and looked away. He was such a brat.
♪ Any man of mine ♪
♪ Woo ♪
He respected me from that moment on more than I expected.
And we had a wonderful friendship after that. [chuckles]
[Bo Derek] That's a lesson it took me years to learn.
That if you stand up for yourself,
he'll fight you to the end and then respect you more.
It's not an accident she became such a big star.
[Shania] I had a one-track mind as far as my career went.
And as the label started to realize that I was going to
go the extra mile to make this work,
they did pull together very hard and very well.
They were used to a different pace, a different level of commitment.
But I'm like, "This is do or die."
We're not going to eat as much as we normally do,
we're not going to sleep as much as we normally do.
I'm still waking up. This isn't fair!
-[laughs] -[cheering]
Hey, this is Shania Twain. My new song is coming up soon,
so keep it right here on the KISS FM top 30…
Hits don't make themselves. Not consecutive ones.
And videos certainly don't make themselves. [chuckles]
So, it's just so much work.
Bye!
I do remember Luke Lewis saying, "Listen…"
"I think you should do your next video in Egypt."
"In Cairo, at the Great Pyramids."
I'm like, "What?"
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
I mean, this was a dream. It was surreal.
[Luke] That wasn't cheap.
I'm still pissed I didn't go. I mean, you have no idea. [chuckles]
They're riding horses around the pyramids, and I'm at home, going,
"What the fuck am I doing?"
♪ 'Cause I'm a woman in love ♪
♪ And it's you I run to ♪
♪ Yeah, the woman ♪
♪ In me ♪
♪ Needs the man in you ♪
I'm telling you, this was an experience I will never forget.
I sensed that that was the beginning of
the chance to be truly competitive on a global scale.
[Mary] There was no question.
There was absolutely not a doubt in my mind that this album
would change the face of country music.
And it did.
It absolutely did.
Well, Shania Twain is without a doubt Canada's leading country music superstar.
Is it exhausting, or is it exhilarating?
It's exhilarating! Hi!
Congratulations. That's yours.
[chuckling]
I'll take it!
[audience clapping]
[Shania] When The Woman in Me album took off,
there was a deep sense of accomplishment.
It felt really good.
I'm excited about the way it's moving.
It's, it's, uh… It's not running away from me,
but at the same time I'm thinking, "Wow, slow down."
"I just want to enjoy this a little bit." You know?
Maybe because it's happening so fast, I'm not absorbing it.
But it is the wildest thing, I gotta say.
It's the coolest thing.
[cheering]
Hello.
It's my first platinum party, so I don't know what to expect.
Thank you all, again. This is really special for us, I can't tell you.
-Thank you for joining us here. -Thank you!
[reporter] Tonight, Canada's country sweetheart was given a diamond award
for her country sales.
Hot on the heels of her Grammy win last week.
But the awards don't stop there.
The album of the year is, The Woman in Me, Shania Twain!
Wow, I wasn't expecting that at all. Yes!
"Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?"
Shania Twain.
"Any Man of Mine," Shania Twain!
-Shania Twain! -Yes!
Shania Twain!
[audience cheering]
I'd like to start with the two people that have worked
harder than anyone
to get me where I am today,
and that are my parents.
They aren't with us anymore, but…
[audience clapping]
…they sacrificed the most to get me where I am today.
[Mary] Shania sold,
in less than six months, over six and a half million albums.
I mean, that is just…
unbelievable at that time.
Unbelievable.
I mean, it was like,
"Holy moly."
You had to run to keep up.
You had to run.
I'm overwhelmed, I can't tell you.
-[audience cheering] -[chuckling]
[Mary] It just got to be too much.
[soft guitar playing]
[Shania] You know, I was alone so young,
and so I spent all of my twenties with Mary as a guide in my life,
and on a personal level too.
So it makes it difficult to
say goodbye to an element of your relationship,
uh, which is what we were doing.
But I also knew that I…
That everything that even her and I had worked together for,
there was so much more to come of it.
I'm not even nearly there yet.
It's great, but it's only great for country.
It's not great compared to Michael Jackson.
It's not great compared to The Rolling Stones.
I needed to go much further down the road.
She interviewed quite a few people,
or a handful of people when she was looking.
But when she asked me about Jon,
I'd been at CBS forever and worked Springsteen records from way back,
from the first two records.
And I'd seen him in action.
[man] She wanted somebody who was a superstar manager,
and it turned out the reason why was
she was planning on being a bigger superstar than she was.
We had to meet in person and make sure that that was a click,
but just the fact that, even after the first reach out, he was
open to the idea, really, really excited me.
[Jon] Well, we clicked right away.
And I said,
"There is nothing we can add to what you have done in the world of country."
"But what do you really want? What… How can we help?"
So she said there were three things.
She wanted to cross over to pop,
she wanted to be an international superstar,
and she wanted to be an absolutely top touring artist.
Those three goals, clear as a bell, first time I talked to her.
And I said, "Well…"
"I think we can help there."
[band practicing]
[Shania] I was reminded by everyone,
basically, that there was a lot of money not being made
by not going on tour after The Woman in Me was out.
She left a lot of money on the table.
She could have gone out behind that record
and spent another two years touring behind it.
I knew that getting out on the road was only going to
distract me from writing better songs.
I'm thinking, I need to use this time.
Reflect.
Write more songs.
I can't even say that I was right about that decision. It was just a risk,
but it was strategic.
I had to get busy writing enough hits that,
on the next album, I would be able to do a whole concert of all my own songs.
[upbeat music playing]
♪ You're so complicated ♪
♪ You hang over my shoulder When I read my mail ♪
♪ I don't appreciate it ♪
♪ When I talk to other guys ♪
♪ You think they're on my tail ♪
♪ I get so aggravated ♪
♪ When I get off the phone ♪
♪ And I get the third degree ♪
♪ I'm really feelin' frustrated ♪
♪ Why don't you take a pill? ♪
♪ And put a little trust in me ♪
♪ And you'll see ♪
That sounds a lot, a lot better. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. A lot better. Sounds great.
♪ Relax ♪
When it just feels great?
[cheering]
[Shania] Thank you!
[chuckling]
I could sense that there was an energy stirring.
♪ I don't need a shrink To tell me what to think ♪
♪ There ain't no missing link In my love life ♪
♪ It's all right ♪
♪ Huh, I ain't that uptight ♪
I did a lot of the melody writing on my own, and then…
It was really a tag team thing, to be honest, I mean.
We'd both sit there with our guitars and jam around the chord progressions.
He always kept ledgers of lyrics,
so it was loaded with all kinds of really cool lyrics.
I would feed off those ideas.
I would come up with these one-liners and then just carry on telling the story.
♪ So I'm holdin' on ♪
♪ I'm feelin' strong ♪
♪ Baby, you're the one for all my life ♪
How was that, Mutt?
[laughing]
Okay, one more time.
♪ … All my life ♪
[man] Shania Twain is an incredibly hard worker,
and a wonderful artist, wonderful songwriter.
[shouts]
Close, but no cigar.
I just kind of see her as an all-around human being, person-wise, you know?
She's down-to-earth, but, yet, when she comes into a room
she kind of draws everybody's attention.
"Wow, she's… She looks like a star."
[laughing]
Look at him. You gotta feel it, man. You gotta be like…
-[man] I really tried hard on that one. -[laughing]
-I swear, man. -[woman] That was hysterical!
[man] I know I rushed it too.
[laughing]
[car honks]
[sirens blaring]
[Jon] One night, we were both in New York City together,
and they sat there,
and they had a boombox
with all the tracks for what became Come on Over.
And they sang it to me right there.
They played the track.
She would sing.
Mutt sings the harmonies, which he does a lot on the records.
They went through the whole album.
[Mutt] ♪ From this moment on ♪
♪ I have been blessed ♪
[Shania] ♪ I live only ♪
♪ For your happiness ♪
[Mutt] ♪ And for your love ♪
[Mutt and Shania] ♪ I'd give my last breath ♪
♪ From this moment on ♪
I was shaking, 'cause… [chuckles]
Two things.
This is fabulous music.
This cannot miss.
Cannot miss, okay?
To my ear, and I'm pretty good at this,
every song was a hit.
[chuckles] It was just as simple as that, you know?
So, uh, we started to roll.
We started to roll.
[electric guitar playing]
♪ Hm… ♪
♪ Ah… ♪
♪ Life was going great Love was gonna have to wait ♪
♪ Was in no hurry ♪
[reporter] Shania Twain's last album sold more than 12 million copies worldwide.
This is the first single off her new CD, called Come On Over.
This album is much more directly what I really think and feel,
and how I would say things.
I think that happened because I wanted to take a very conversational approach.
♪ Gol' darn gone and done it ♪
♪ Gone and done it ♪
♪ Guess I fell in love ♪
[reporter] If you're expecting a collection of slow-paced cowboy ballads,
you won't find them on this disc,
but you will find lots of love songs and songs about relationships.
[Shania] Well, what changed between The Woman in Me and Come on Over,
really more than anything,
the intention.
And the intention was to now graduate from a domestic success
to a global success.
[cheering, clapping]
[Shania] And that was going to mean making the music move more into a poppier sound.
["You're Still The One" playing]
[vocalizing]
♪ Looks like we made it ♪
♪ Look how far we've come my baby ♪
♪ We mighta took the long way ♪
♪ We knew… ♪
Putting out "You're Still the One," I remember thinking
this is a big risk.
This will be the first ballad off this album,
and my biggest hits so far have been upbeat.
And I knew it was a make-it-or-break-it moment.
I thought, if this as a ballad doesn't work,
I thought that could be that could be it, you know.
♪ You're still the one ♪
♪ You're still the one I run to ♪
♪ The one that I belong to ♪
♪ You're still the one I want for life ♪
♪ You're still the one ♪
♪ You're still the one that I love ♪
♪ The only one I dream of ♪
♪ You're still the one I kiss goodnight ♪
It was a powerful song that people bonded to…
and reminisced to.
And yeah, I can't say that I realized how powerful that… And how…
attached people would become to…
to the meaning of that song in their lives.
"You're Still the One" applies very much to…
to my life,
Uh…
in the sense that I think…
my marriage, my relationship with my husband,
was something that I think, most people thought was unlikely
or unlikely to succeed. [chuckles]
Well, when I wrote the song, I was thinking, uh…
the age gap between Mutt and I, the world gap, the culture gap.
And I really did feel that a lot of people didn't believe… in it.
Um, I… I sensed that in interviews journalists would
refer to him as a Svengali and, you know, how could all of this
phenomenal stuff
come out of this girl from nowhere?
I guess they just didn't believe it.
[interviewer] There have been a lot of questions lately about how much
you owe your success to the way he packaged you.
How do you respond to that?
It's a real partnership between you and your husband.
Tell us about that relationship, and how he helps you with your career.
Of course, if I had been a guy,
it just would not have been seen the same way.
It's a sexist point of view.
There's no question about it.
You can't take away his contribution for a minute.
You know? Not for a minute.
But, listen, it was collaborative from the get-go.
And I think he would… If you could get him to speak to it,
and I don't know that he ever would, he would say the same thing.
Creating another great work,
to me, was the proof in the pudding
that this was just a really genuine and authentic relationship
that had nothing fake or strained about it.
♪ Look how far we've come my baby ♪
[Jon] Well, "You're Still the One" was rising like a rocket.
I mean, that song was a pop hit.
But there was another fact with Shania, which is
her creative sense, visually, was spectacular.
And so when you make a single, you make a video.
And the videos were dynamite.
[rock music playing]
♪ Aw ♪
[man] I used to always watch her videos and just thought she was awesome.
She was one of the few artists that was able to really cross over on…
She had some of her videos on MTV 2 as well,
not just only on CMT on the Country Countdown,
but she was an artist that really crossed over,
and, uh, she was beautiful.
Everybody wanted her to be their girlfriend.
She was, like, the… America's most wanted female.
You know, with all her videos,
uh, we had great directors, and when it was done with the shoot,
she would just say, "Send the footage to me."
She edited them all herself.
She knew what she wanted.
♪ You think you're special ♪
♪ You think you're something else ♪
♪ Okay, so you're a rocket scientist ♪
♪ That don't impress me much ♪
With music videos, I'm always trying to do something new and different.
I like stepping into different personas,
but they've always gotta work for me.
So…
I guess I start with just how I want to look.
♪ That don't impress me much ♪
I would always gravitate toward the leopard print, in any color.
Oh, and I wanted midriff.
It had to have midriff, this video.
I wanted it to be kind of sporty-sexy.
Glam.
[man] I know that Shania loved leopard, and I loved leopard print myself.
So, we decided to do a complete leopard look.
She used fashion,
and clothing, and costumes very much to her benefit,
because she created,
you know, some of the most iconic looks ever.
♪ Okay, so you're Brad Pitt ♪
♪ That don't impress me much ♪
[vocalizing]
She really played with fashion in music videos,
and she really played with being confident in her body as a woman.
The way that she owns her own sexuality in that video
is very feminist.
You know, it was Shania walking through this expanse in the desert,
addressing the entire, sort of, patriarchy, I guess,
but in a way that didn't feel heavily politicized
or angry.
It was… It was celebratory.
♪ You're one of those guys That likes to shine his machine ♪
♪ You'll make me take off my shoes Before you let me get in ♪
For some reason, during that time,
I don't know, I just enjoyed singing with attitude,
singing about being a strong woman.
It's part of my personality. It really is my genuine personality.
So, I have my point of view,
I want to get it across.
I expect to get it across,
but I am not out to piss anybody off in the process.
♪ That don't impress me… ♪
So, to me, Shania Twain is an epic country singer.
Her songs are relatable.
She writes.
She writes about being a woman from a woman's perspective.
You know, anything from, like, being the one, to having a bad hair day,
to a dress not fitting, to…
needing a cold one after a hard day of work,
which is something I can relate to.
[Kelsea] I think that Shania takes these universal ideas of love,
and of confidence,
and of discovering who you are as a young woman,
and of the push and pull of bad days and good days in life,
and all these things that are universal topics for songwriting,
and she makes them sound like they've never been written about before.
There's something about, like… Of course, there's all these songs
about feeling good as an empowered woman,
but then there's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!"
You know what I mean? Like, it's just, that's the song.
♪ Let's go, girls ♪
♪ Come on ♪
[upbeat music playing]
Shania Twain brought a rebel spirit to the genre
that hadn't existed for a couple of decades.
Even just the fun of that line, "Let's go, girls,"
that's her rallying cry.
Like, come join me.
Come be part of my gang.
Come do things the way that I do things.
Don't be shamed into not expressing yourself
because you're a beautiful woman who might be too much for someone.
♪ Oh, oh, oh, go totally crazy ♪
♪ Forget I'm a lady ♪
♪ Men's shirts, short skirts ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Really go wild, yeah ♪
♪ Doin' it in style ♪
Well, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" is pretty self-explanatory
in the sense that it's…
[clicks tongue]
It's obviously and expression, you know, "Man!"
"It's great to be a woman today. Now."
♪ Man! I feel like a woman ♪
So it's really just a celebration song. It's…
I hate to come from the angry feminist standpoint
when I write about these things.
And I like to have fun with the fact that, "Yeah, um, I like to write about…"
I wouldn't say the battle of the sexes, but I like to write about
the differences and the fun in the differences.
So this is just one of those songs, and so…
Hey, it's great to be, uh, a woman today
and raise your voice and have some fun doing it.
-[Shania shouts] -Yeah! With the spiral and everything.
[vocalizing]
♪ The car won't start ♪
♪ It's falling apart ♪
♪ I was late for work And the boss got smart ♪
She's one of the top female artists in country and pop,
and Shania Twain isn't slowing down at all.
In fairness…
there were a lot of hits.
We just had the hits. The hits just kept on coming.
We would have stopped if we were not succeeding, you know?
I mean, it just kept rolling.
♪ Hey, hey… ♪
♪ Honey, I'm home… ♪
[Luke] I don't know that there's that many albums to have
that many hit songs on them.
I'm pretty sure we charted 12 singles.
That's a lot of great songs on one record. That's a good deal if you're a consumer.
You know? That's a really good deal.
It's a better album.
Come On Over.
The Woman in Me's a great album.
Come On Over is so…
You know, is once in a lifetime.
[sighs] ♪ That feels much better ♪
She desperately wanted to go on tour
because there'd been that undercurrent
because she hadn't toured on The Woman In Me,
you know, "Can she really do it?" etcetera, etcetera…
[country music playing]
♪ Cool ♪
[audience cheering]
[Shania] Well, because I had waited quite a long time to tour,
I felt the pressure to make this great.
♪ You're so complicated ♪
[Jon] She was not only ready to tour,
she knew she had to tour,
and she had tremendous confidence in herself.
[Luke] You know, at that point if she had gone out and it wasn't, like, first-class,
knocked-out show, she would have taken some shit.
[Shania] I wasn't worried about being able to prove that I could do it.
I'd been singing all my life, and singing in bars is
way more taxing on your voice than singing two hours in a show.
Then, of course, once she got out there, they realize, "She can actually sing."
So, uh, all that was put to rest.
♪ Don't be stupid ♪
♪ You know I love you ♪
♪ Don't be ridiculous ♪
[Jon] The band that she put together was so world class,
and now we're just hitting home runs every night, every night.
♪ Oh, no, no ♪
♪ I'm mad about you ♪
♪ I can't live without you ♪
♪ I'm crazy 'bout you ♪
♪ Don't be stupid ♪
♪ You know I love you ♪
-You've come a long way, baby. -[chuckles]
You're going even further, so there you go.
[audience cheering]
[Jon] It was monstrous and worldwide.
We made it over to Australia. We were in Canada.
We made it to Europe.
[reporter] You're massive in America, you're conquering Europe,
a lot of our listeners are in Asia and Africa.
What are your plans for those two continents?
I plan on going there.
This was just non-stop.
Woo!
♪ This country ♪
♪ Right outta this world ♪
♪ Ah-ooh ♪
[Jon] Recognition comes in a lot of different ways.
She'd been recognized by this enormous audience,
that span all of country and all of pop.
[Shania] When you get such a unanimous response over something,
and it's positive, and it's even healing to a lot of people,
now you're like, "Whoa!"
That's a moment when you're like, "Gee, like…"
"I didn't realize how much impact this lyric could have."
"Or that expression could have."
It's not about the numbers anymore. It's really more about
the effect you're having on people.
[audience cheering]
[laughing]
Are you ready, Miami?
It was really clear just from fan feedback
that the fans…
You know, the fans were so diverse.
There was no one type of Shania Twain fan.
I'm speaking to kids.
-Do you like to sing? -Uh-huh.
-And what do you like to sing?
I don't know.
[Shania] I'm speaking to parents. I'm speaking to grandparents.
I'm speaking to people that were already hearing about me from other countries.
Um, people from all walks of life, really.
[electric guitar playing]
[Eve] There's a reason why Shania also has a huge LGBTQ following
because anyone that sees that level of confidence and self-ownership,
and comes from a place of struggle and oppression, is, um…
is completely turned on by that.
Because that is their permission to do…
to flaunt it in exactly the same way as Shania does.
I think one of the reasons Shania does have a huge following
with the LGBTQ+ community
is because of her costuming, and the things that she wore
because that particular community, which I'm part of,
totally relates to image.
I mean, from Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz to Shania Twain,
is these striking images that are memorable.
These are the things that we retain.
These are the things that we love.
You know, I've always said that I think
country music, just in general,
it's always surprised me that there haven't been more
openly gay country musicians.
Because I think at the heart of it, country music is about
disappointment, heartbreak,
uh, feelings of inadequacy, feelings of loss.
And, you know, that is, sadly, kind of the gay experience
for everyone at some point.
I mean, definitely, it was for me for… for a long time.
And I think when you can find a musician who
can tap into that, and
write a song that speaks to that,
and also do it in a way that is
colorful and camp and playful,
and even humorous, like, even laughing at one's self,
I think that is also a very important
experience of gay culture as well.
She reached through the stereo and made me feel
I guess safe when I was, like, a young kid.
[soft piano playing]
[reporter 1] At the top of entertainment tonight…
[reporter 2] Shania Twain is one of the best-selling female singers ever.
She and her husband, Robert Mutt Lange live in Switzerland,
where they're working on her fourth album.
It's not known how far along Shania is in her pregnancy.
She's 35.
We're going to take another quick break…
[Shania] I'd always wanted to be a mother,
and there was a long gap between the Come On Over album and the Up! album,
so…
I had time to focus on having a baby
and resting after so many years of hard work.
You have to put everything else aside in order to build a career,
and I never wanted to be a mother that was
absent and distracted by career.
Career could never come first over my child.
Do you sing lullabies for him?
I do.
Could you please sing a little one?
Okay, I'm going to sing you my own lullaby…
-Yeah? -…that I made up for him.
Okay, his name is Eja,
Eja D'Angelo,
so it's Eja D, I always call him, so… It goes…
♪ Eja D, can you count to one, Two, three? ♪
♪ Isn't anybody as lovely As my Eja D ♪
[interviewer] Wow!
[cheering]
[chuckling]
[Shania] I didn't spend as much time in the studio during the making of Up!
because I had Eja, I was nursing, I nursed, you know, for 14 months.
And when he would finally go down at night,
then I would go into the studio and do vocals.
I'd have about four hours once he was sleeping.
Of course, you know, Mutt was the stronghold in the studio.
Made everything happen around my availability.
And now, you know, he's a dad, so he's sensitive to it as well.
It was all to, um, our advantage to be going through that
together and trying to balance everything.
[engine revving]
[country music playing]
♪ Let's go ♪
♪ Mmm… ♪
♪ Don't want you for the weekend ♪
♪ Don't want you for a night ♪
The intention was to stay very positive, hence the title Up!
The goal was to write songs that would keep carrying me, basically, as an artist,
and that wouldn't just all fall away,
which is, I'm sure what everybody would have maybe expected.
Very few people have three diamond albums in a row, so…
Uh, that was… It wasn't a pressure, but it was certainly the goal.
♪ So don't try to run, honey ♪
♪ Love can be fun ♪
Listen, how many artists have followed huge records
with one more, much less two more? Know what I mean?
♪ I'm gonna getcha While I got you in sight ♪
♪ I'm gonna getcha if it takes all night ♪
The fact that it ended up being the third diamond album
was just a great, awesome, rewarding feeling.
It was obviously a, you know, highlight achievement in my career,
and I knew that it was for anyone.
You know, there were three versions of it released at the same time.
That was very exciting.
There was obviously a country version, which we call the green version,
the red version, called the pop version,
and then a blue version, which was international,
which had never been done before, honestly.
And I just found it so, like, inspiring and pretty clever.
[Shania] The video making was also getting, for me, more fun.
[Jason] All these enormous looks that came along with it.
The motorcycle video, which was one of the most expensive videos of all time
at that time.
[glass shatters]
[Jason] I feel like it was a home run.
I mean, we had a lot of hit songs off that album.
-[audience cheering] -[cheers]
All right, Chicago! [chuckles]
♪ Up, up, up, can only go up from here
♪ Up, up, up, up Where the clouds gonna clear ♪
♪ Up, up, up There's no way but up from here ♪
♪ Even something as simple as ♪
♪ Forgettin' to fill up on gas ♪
♪ There ain't no explanation why ♪
♪ Things like that can make you cry ♪
♪ Just gotta learn to have a laugh ♪
For the Up! tour, I was now getting a new influence
from big rock band show production,
like Metallica, because now my management is Q Prime.
And they had huge experience in doing major rock shows
with pyro and all of that stuff.
So, it was great for me to now get more epic.
I think it just got more in the vein of big-ass rock show, you know.
[cheering]
[audience cheering]
[Shania] See you on the tour, good night!
[audience cheering]
[Jason] From the first time we met,
throughout the entire campaign of Up!,
she and I became really, really close.
And when you're with someone like that all the time,
you can't help but, you know, be a part of the highs and lows.
And I started to see a little bit of it as sort of Up! was winding down.
[somber music playing]
[Shania] It was nearing the end of the tour, very much at the end of the tour,
I was out horseback riding, and I was bit by a tick.
The tick was infected with Lyme's disease.
I did get Lyme's disease.
I mean, my symptoms were quite scary because
before I was diagnosed,
I was on stage very dizzy, I was losing my balance.
I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage,
and the stage is quite high.
So I was staying far from the edge, I was adjusting what I was doing.
Um…
I was having these very, very, millisecond blackouts, but regularly, like, every…
Every minute, or every 30 seconds.
I had everything that was on the Lyme's disease checklist
to follow up on medically.
I… I was fine.
But my voice was never the same again.
It just…
went into this strange flanging,
you know, lack of control of… of the airflow.
I… I didn't understand it.
But I thought I'd lost my voice forever, I thought that was it.
I would never, ever sing again.
That was… You know, that was agonizing to watch.
You know, I don't know, I've never felt for anybody so much.
Um…
I've dealt with a lot of artists that have had problems.
She came to Nashville. She went to experts everywhere in the world.
[somber music playing]
In that search to determine what was
causing this lack of control with my voice and this change in my voice,
Uh…
I was facing a divorce.
My husband leaves me for another woman.
This was your best friend. Allegedly, she had an affair with your husband,
that infidelity led to divorce.
[Shania] Now I'm at a whole other low…
and…
I've…
I just don't see any point in going on with a music career.
[Jason] I was at my house here in Nashville when she called me
and told me that she felt like she and Mutt were going to get divorced.
It was a really sad…
sad, sad time.
I… I remember it, unfortunately, very well.
[sighs]
When I lost Mutt, I guess I thought…
I was thinking, um, that the…
the grief of that was…
It was similarly intense to losing my parents.
And…
you know, it was like a death.
It was… It was like the death. It was the end,
a permanent end to so many facets of my life.
Um…
And I never got over my parents' death.
So I'm thinking, "Shit, I'm never going to get over this." Like…
How do you get over that?
[clicks lips]
So all I can do
is determine how I'm going to carry on from there.
How am I going to crawl out of this…
you know, hole
that I've fallen in?
Just like that, you know?
I had to take baby steps.
Songwriting being the first.
Just being able to listen to myself back…
[vocalizing]
… um, on my writing tapes was difficult.
And there were always just little milliseconds of
getting it.
[soft guitar playing]
Lionel Richie reached out to my management
to say, "I'm making this album, and I want country music artists to,
um, re-record them."
We were down to "Endless Love."
[chuckles]
"Who do you want?"
"I want Shania Twain."
Not realizing Shania's story at that time.
Just realizing that that's my choice for…
for "Endless Love" and my partner in that song.
Uh, and of course, I made the phone call.
I didn't… I didn't feel comfortable putting myself under that pressure.
I said no. I declined.
But he kept coming back, like, several times requesting it.
I said to her very simply, "I'll meet you in Nashville."
"No, I can't come to Nashville."
"All right."
"I'll have you come to California."
"Nope. Can't come to California."
"Where would you like to meet?" is my next question. [chuckles]
I'm on the phone, and I'm like…
[sighs]
"You know, Lionel, I… I just… I can't do it."
"I'm so sorry. I… I want to do it."
"I wish I could sing well enough to do it, but I… I just can't."
"I'm so sorry."
[clicks tongue]
And before that call ended, he convinced me to do it.
And, of course, she said, "Listen, let's meet in the Bahamas."
Now, of course, I've recorded in a lot of places,
but the Bahamas would be the last place on Earth I would think about that.
I finally get there,
and as I walk in the door,
she wants to talk to me privately out by the pool.
She's trying to assure me that she cannot do it.
I'm sort of cursing under my breath, like, "How could you get me into this?"
This is the worst day of my life. I'll never be able to do it. I'm so stressed.
♪ Forever ♪
[vocalizing]
♪ I… I… I… ♪
Lionel was not going to give up. He was not going to give up, and I knew it,
but it was such a gentle… It was such a kind pressure.
But I thought, well, if I fail,
I'd rather fail with somebody that is forgiving and sweet and kind about it.
[chuckles]
I said, "We'll go in this room in a minute,
but I need you to walk in there with me."
"You know what's going to happen?"
"We are going to discover something."
"Lionel Richie and Shania Twain are gonna show up."
♪ And yes ♪
♪ You'll be the only one ♪
♪ 'Cause no one can deny ♪
♪ This love I have inside ♪
♪ My love ♪
♪ My endless love ♪
It was a lot of pressure. Oh, boy, that day was so stressful.
[sighs]
I'm so glad that's over, and it ended well.
It took me a lot of encouragement
from around me to get me truly
doing it for real.
And Lionel Richie was a big part of that.
David Foster and Michael Bublé, another big part of that.
Oprah Winfrey was, you know, part of that journey.
Another great encouragement for me was meeting Gladys Knight.
She's probably my favorite female vocalist ever.
She told me you just got to get on the mic and do it.
Do it and do it and do it.
I learned that if I could get my voice into a certain place,
with a lot of effort,
it would sustain for at least long enough to, you know, do a great vocal.
[pop music playing]
Thank you. Yeah!
It was a huge commitment to decide to do Las Vegas,
but it was exactly what I needed.
It's been very, very long time coming.
It's been over ten years since I've been on the live stage.
Let me hear you.
[audience cheering]
♪ That don't impress me much ♪
♪ So you got the looks But have you got the touch ♪
Diving into the obligation to Caesars Palace,
that was a huge pressure.
But I feel like the only way that I would achieve something
vocally from it was to put myself under the gun.
[Luke] You'd have to take a sledgehammer to knock her down,
then she'd get up.
She would get up.
[Cory] I think she took it as a challenge.
She saw it as an opportunity, like, "I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna show people."
And the next thing was recording a record on her own.
♪ You let me go ♪
♪ You had to have her ♪
It took a long time to be ready to write and record again.
I was afraid to
get back into the studio without Mutt.
So it was really more about
taking independence for myself,
and it was an exercise of…
saying, "Okay, look, you can't just not ever make music again…
because you don't have Mutt."
"You gotta just dive in."
And I was petrified. I really was.
I don't know where I'm going. I'm leaving the studio. I quit.
[chuckling]
I'm just kidding.
So now I said, "Okay, listen, I'm going to not only
get back into the studio without him, I'm going to write all the music alone,
and just discover myself again as an individual creative."
Like I'd been all of my youth.
It's actually a beautiful day here.
And, uh, I don't know, I was thinking maybe we could have a barbecue.
Oh.
Maybe not.
There was a vulnerability to it, and I think, you know, for anyone
in music it's such a… It's like a therapy, really, for a lot of people.
For her it was definitely a moment where she could open up
and talk about things she hadn't spoken about before.
♪ Because of you, I'm me ♪
♪ All of a sudden I'm something I wasn't ♪
♪ Because of you, I see ♪
[Jake] Shania's talking about lyrics and things that really matter to her.
And I'm going, "Look, it's fine. Like it's okay. It's good."
"It's important to say these things. People need to hear this side of you."
Um, and I think that in itself gave her that confidence to actually go,
"Okay, yeah. Brilliant. Cool. Let's move forward with it."
♪ Poor me this. Poor me that ♪
[cheering]
♪ Poor me this… ♪
That was so beautiful.
[chuckling]
♪ Poor me this. Poor me that ♪
It was a great experience.
Now is my favorite
recorded work that I've done so far that I enjoy listening to still.
[chuckles]
You know what?
Life is about to get real good.
♪ Life's about joy ♪
♪ Life's about pain ♪
♪ It's all about forgiving ♪
♪ And the will to walk away ♪
♪ I'm ready to be loved ♪
♪ And love the way I should ♪
♪ Life's about ♪
♪ Life's about to get good ♪
♪ Oh, life's about to get good ♪
[Kelsea] I say all the time,
I do not think that I would have
the career that I have,
and the career that I want to continue to have,
had Shania not been Shania.
To me, Shania Twain is a superstar
that I had the privilege of singing with on stage when I was 14 years old.
And she had a huge hand in me getting recognized
and noticed as a young female Canadian singer.
Hi, Shania. Do you remember me? [laughs]
[Eve] You know, you look at the diversity of artists who she has influenced,
her tentacles have reached so far and wide.
♪ Oh, oh, no, no ♪
♪ Now don't get me wrong ♪
♪ Yeah, I think you're all right ♪
♪ But that won't keep me warm In the middle of the night ♪
[Orville] Shania never let where she was from,
who she was, the fact that she was a woman,
I don't think she let any of those things define what she wanted to do,
which was make art and make music and do it her way.
♪ Legends never die ♪
♪ Oh, legends never die ♪
[Kelsea] She did it different. I mean, she really kicked that door open.
And I think it shows in the careers like Taylor Swift,
and it shows in the careers like mine, where we followed that pattern.
Shania's been that woman to tell you that you don't have to adhere to the genres.
If the label says do this,
your heart says do something differently, follow your heart. She's just awesome.
It's awesome that she keeps doing it too. Not taking a break. I love that about her.
[soft guitar playing]
[Shania] I like to get out on the water and chill, contemplate.
Um, I have to bring the guitar and of course the dog.
Sometimes I just anchor out and, um…
get inspired.
[guitar playing]
♪ I'm not a girl ♪
♪ I'm not a boy ♪
♪ I'm not a baby ♪
♪ I'm not a toy ♪
♪ 'Cause I'm a queen ♪
I was always very bold and straightforward about what I thought,
and my point of view on things as a woman,
particularly.
My point of view in relationships,
the way I felt that that women should be treated, respected,
and I still feel the same way.
So I'm just going to carry on with that message.
I mean, I'm the boss of me, man. I take responsibility for
what I think, what I say,
um, what I do and…
And I'm not going to be pushed around. I'm not going to get bullied.
And I'm going to speak my mind.
♪ I'm not a girl ♪
♪ I'm not a boy ♪
♪ I'm not a baby ♪
♪ I'm not a toy ♪
♪ I'm a queen ♪
I am here in London finishing my album and getting with some great UK talent.
Creatives.
And, um, enjoying being in the same room
with other people.
And creating music. It's really, really great. Great feeling.
♪ …Other amazing things to do ♪
♪ I will follow my dream… ♪
So Mark Ralph is a writer-producer,
who has this incredible, unique style of working.
He's got a lot of really great electronic sounds in his productions.
I was expecting that we would write that way,
but you get in the room with Mark Ralph, and it's really super organic.
There's no beat, there's no electronic sounds or nothing like that.
There's nothing.
So I'm in the background at normal speed,
and he's just, like, zipping around. It's awesome.
♪ What are you gonna do with that? ♪
♪ Come on get down and dance to it ♪
♪ What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? ♪
I'm bopping around and having a blast,
and I think the fans will enjoy it.
And it's also very much… It's uplifting. It's still a lot of female point of view.
[vocalizing]
[Shania] I'm more swinging back into this space of,
I don't even want to say female empowerment, but more self-empowerment.
I mean, I'm a woman, but I'm just feeling very good in my own skin
and less apologetic than ever.
I'm feeling good, I don't feel…
Unless something else knocks me down along the way, but…
Like I always do, I think I'll just get back up again.
[vocalizing]
["Man! I Feel Like A Woman" playing]
♪ Let's go girls ♪
[cow moos]
Shania Twain had no business going this hard on this song!
I don't care what y'all say!
♪ I'm feelin' all right ♪
♪ Gonna let it all hang out ♪
♪ Wanna make some noise ♪
♪ Really raise my voice ♪
♪ Yeah, I wanna scream and… ♪
Me too, Shania!
♪ Uh ♪
♪ No inhibitions ♪
♪ Make no conditions ♪
♪ Get a little outta line ♪
♪ I ain't gonna act politically correct ♪
♪ I only wanna have a good time ♪
♪ The best thing about bein' a woman ♪
♪ Is the prerogative To have a little fun ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, go totally crazy ♪
♪ Forget I'm a lady ♪
♪ Men's shirts, short skirts ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, really go wild ♪
♪ Yeah, doin' it in style ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, get in the action ♪
♪ Feel the attraction ♪
♪ Color my hair, do what I dare ♪
♪ Oh, oh, oh, I wanna be free ♪
♪ Yeah, to feel the way I feel ♪
♪ Man, I feel like a woman ♪