Raider_Man
02-26-2008, 5:52am
Canadian recording artist Shania Twain is known for her fusion of country music with elements of rock and pop music. During Twain’s childhood, while her family struggled financially, she retained a positive outlook by pouring her energy into music. Twain’s devotion paid off in the 1990s when her songs climbed high on both the country and popular music charts. This 1998 profile from Current Biography describes the challenges Twain faced early in life and traces her rise to stardom.
Profile of Shania Twain
Shania Twain, whose second album, The Woman in Me, became the all-time best-selling recording by a female country artist, with more than 13 million copies sold worldwide, has been called 'the Cinderella of country music.' When she was in her early 20s and just starting out as a professional singer, both of her parents died in a car accident. Feeling a sense of responsibility toward her three younger siblings, she spent the next several years raising them while at the same time struggling as a singer at a resort in her native Ontario, Canada. Shania did not begin to aggressively pursue her music career until four years later, when the younger Twains were off on their own. Before long, she met her producer, who also became her husband, and was living a life quite different from the one she had led in Ontario. 'That all seems like another lifetime ago,' she said to Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun (February 6, 1996, on-line). 'But it's never that far removed that I couldn't do it again. And there's a comfort there. I think if you are ever in a desperate situation and you get through it, you have a confidence in life that you would otherwise not have. I realize that no matter what I ever lose, I'll be able to manage.'
Shania Twain was born Eileen Regina Edwards on August 28, 1965, in Windsor, Ontario, the daughter of Sharon and Clarence Edwards. When she was just two years old, her parents split, and Sharon Edwards moved to Timmins, Ontario, taking both of her young daughters (Eileen and Carrie-Ann) with her. There, Sharon met and married Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa Indian, who eventually adopted Sharon's two daughters. The young family also included another daughter, Jill, and later, two boys, Mark and Darryl.
Because Jerry Twain was a forester by trade, as a child Eileen learned how to hunt, trap, and operate a chain saw. When she was about 10, her parents bought her a guitar from a pawn shop, and the young musician began writing her own songs. In an interview with Anika Van Wyk of the Calgary Sun (June 4, 1998, on-line), Twain recalled, 'We were extremely poor when I was a kid and I used to just sing and play guitar in my bedroom as an escape.' She also told Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times (April 24, 1996) that music helped her get through some difficult times at school. 'If you don't have a lunch for school, then you've got to make up excuses why. At that time, if you were to tell the teacher that you don't bring a lunch because we can't afford it, maybe they would have had the children's aid come to our house and we're gonna get separated… Things like that don't allow you to just be a kid.… Instead of going out to play during recess, I went to the music room and kind of vented my energy there and kept things positive.'
By the time she was a teenager, Eileen's parents recognized her talent and arranged for her to sing at the Mattagami hotel in Timmins [in Ontario]. To get around the problem of her youth—because she was underage, she could not legally perform while alcohol was being served—her parents would wake her up at midnight so that she could perform at one in the morning, after last call at the hotel bar. 'It's awkward to sing in a bar when everyone's drunk and smoking, but I had to do it anyway,' Twain told Nicolas Jennings of Maclean's (August 28, 1995). The young singer also performed in various talent contests and on a few local television music shows. From the outset, her parents were 'obsessed' with her singing career, she told David Zimmerman of USA Today (June 19, 1995). She added that, although they are no longer living, 'it's their drive that got me here.'
Jerry and Sharon were killed when their car crashed into a loaded logging truck in 1987. Eileen Twain was 22 at the time, and she took on the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings, then aged 18, 14, and 13. At one point, things got so tough that the family had to wash their clothes by hand in a nearby river. Eventually, Twain landed a job singing at the upscale Deerhurst Resort, in Huntsville, Ontario. She bought a house in Huntsville and brought her siblings there to live with her. At Deerhurst, Twain took the stage name Shania (pronounced shuh-NI-ah), which means 'on my way' in the Ojibwan language.
About four years later, her younger siblings had all finished school and had begun their own independent lives. Although just in her mid-20s, Twain felt 'like a 45-year-old mom whose kids had gone away to college,' she told Zimmerman. Twain found that she had much more energy to devote to her career, and with the help of her agent, Mary Baily, she made a demo tape. Baily submitted the tape to several country music record labels, and eventually got a response from Mercury Nashville.
Because executives at Mercury Nashville did not consider her to be a great songwriter, Twain's self-titled debut album, released in 1993, was a collection of country tunes written entirely by other songwriters. The album was largely ignored, with the exception of the single 'What Made You Say That,' which reached number 55 on Billboard's country singles chart, and received significant airplay on country radio stations in Seattle and a few other cities in the western part of the U.S. and Canada. The accompanying video for that song showed her frolicking on a Miami beach with a male model. It was this video that caught the eye of the British rock-'n'-roll producer Robert John 'Mutt' Lange.
After seeing the video, Lange, who had produced best-selling albums for Bryan Adams, Def Leppard, the Cars, Billy Ocean, Michael Bolton, and AC/DC, got in touch with Twain, and began helping her with her songwriting. 'Every conversation we had was a good three hours long,' Twain told Zimmerman. 'I would prop the phone up on the pillow and play songs like 'Home Ain't Where His Heart Is Anymore,' and he would record it on the other end, and we would work back and forth on the telephone.' At first, Twain did not know that her collaborator was a famous producer. 'I thought he was a fan who was a very creative songwriter,' she admitted to Zimmerman. Later that year, when they met in Nashville, Twain pretended that she had known who he was all along. Three months after their first meeting, the couple married, in Canada.
Twain's The Woman in Me, released in 1995, was the first country album that Lange had ever produced, and is distinguished among country albums by its pop, rock, and rap overtones. In addition to co-writing and producing his wife's album, Lange sang backup vocals, and arranged for the husband-and-wife photography team of John and Bo Derek to create Twain's new music videos and album photos. While many country music insiders attributed Twain's sudden success to the help that her powerful husband was able to give her, Twain told Jennings, 'I don't want to be a product of anything—whether it's a photographer, a makeup artist, a record label, or even a producer. I just think Mutt's been able to bring out the best in me.'
The first song from The Woman in Me that became a hit on the radio, in January 1995, was the playful 'Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under.' Almost as soon as it reached the top five, another single, 'Any Man of Mine,' began its climb to the number-one spot. With catchy lyrics like 'Any man of mine better disagree / When I say another woman's looking better than me,' and 'I can be late for a date that's fine / But he better be on time,' Twain emerged as a country star with a feminist edge, an attribute that has made her overwhelmingly popular with female country listeners. Twain told Jeffrey Zaslow for USA Today (February 25, 1996) that she believes the difference between men and women 'is a mystery that doesn't need to be solved. If we focus on the things that come positively out of the differences, then we won't be angry feminists.'
With four more top-10 hits, 'The Woman in Me,' 'I'm Outta Here,' 'You Win My Love,' and 'No One Needs to Know,' Twain's album went on to sell more than 13 million units worldwide, and in 1996, surpassed Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits as the all-time best-selling album by a female country artist. Although the demand for a Shania Twain tour was exceedingly high, the singer decided against performing live. 'I made the decision a long time ago…,' Twain told Zimmerman (March 5, 1996). 'The reason is that we put so much into the album and it meant so much. I felt that if the music could stand on its own, then the music will sell the show later on.' Rumors began to circulate that Twain was not touring because of an inability to perform for live audiences, but she rebutted these claims in an interview with Jack Hurst of the Chicago Tribune (March 10, 1996), reminding naysayers that she had 'never gone a year, even a month, without singing somewhere since I was eight years old.' In 1996, Twain won a Grammy for best country album, beating out such veterans as Dwight Yoakam, Trisha Yearwood, and the Mavericks, and she also took home the Academy of Country Music's awards for top new female vocalist and album of the year.
Twain's third album, Come on Over, was released in November 1997, and debuted at number one on the Billboard country chart and number two on the pop chart. As of September 1998, two of the album's singles, 'Love Gets Me Every Time' and 'You're Still the One,' have topped the country chart, and the latter song also rose to the number-two spot on the pop singles chart. With the release of Come on Over, Twain also launched her first tour, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews for her performances in Canada. Come on Over has sold briskly, topping the five-million mark in U.S. sales in September 1998.
At five feet, four inches tall and weighing just 110 pounds, Twain is well known for her fabulous figure, and usually appears in public wearing sassy, tight-fitting clothing. When asked about the considerable media attention her appearance has garnered, Twain told Stevenson, 'The funny thing is I don't realize it stands out as much as it does. . . . If it does stand out, then I guess it's a compliment, but I just wear whatever feels comfortable. . . . The only reason that you do visual is solely for the visual. It doesn't sell your music for you.' Twain has also said that, as a teen, her body developed early, and caused her to feel a self-consciousness that she has never completely overcome.
Twain and Lange currently live in a 12,000-square-foot home on a 3,000-acre estate in Saranac Lake, in upstate New York. 'I have two horses, and two miniature horses, and two dogs, and I hang out with them,' Twain told Hurst. 'I shovel the stalls, I pick their hooves, whatever. I carry wood, make fires, cook, do my laundry, all those things. If I lived in a city or something like that I wouldn't be able to have that lifestyle, and I wouldn't be able to separate myself [from stardom] really. So I deliberately put myself in an environment where I can escape and just be normal.'
Source: Copyright (c) 1998 All rights reserved. From Wilson Biographies, reprinted by permission of the H. W. Wilson Co.
From: Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
WOW! I didn't know that she was a hunter girl :)
Profile of Shania Twain
Shania Twain, whose second album, The Woman in Me, became the all-time best-selling recording by a female country artist, with more than 13 million copies sold worldwide, has been called 'the Cinderella of country music.' When she was in her early 20s and just starting out as a professional singer, both of her parents died in a car accident. Feeling a sense of responsibility toward her three younger siblings, she spent the next several years raising them while at the same time struggling as a singer at a resort in her native Ontario, Canada. Shania did not begin to aggressively pursue her music career until four years later, when the younger Twains were off on their own. Before long, she met her producer, who also became her husband, and was living a life quite different from the one she had led in Ontario. 'That all seems like another lifetime ago,' she said to Jane Stevenson of the Toronto Sun (February 6, 1996, on-line). 'But it's never that far removed that I couldn't do it again. And there's a comfort there. I think if you are ever in a desperate situation and you get through it, you have a confidence in life that you would otherwise not have. I realize that no matter what I ever lose, I'll be able to manage.'
Shania Twain was born Eileen Regina Edwards on August 28, 1965, in Windsor, Ontario, the daughter of Sharon and Clarence Edwards. When she was just two years old, her parents split, and Sharon Edwards moved to Timmins, Ontario, taking both of her young daughters (Eileen and Carrie-Ann) with her. There, Sharon met and married Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa Indian, who eventually adopted Sharon's two daughters. The young family also included another daughter, Jill, and later, two boys, Mark and Darryl.
Because Jerry Twain was a forester by trade, as a child Eileen learned how to hunt, trap, and operate a chain saw. When she was about 10, her parents bought her a guitar from a pawn shop, and the young musician began writing her own songs. In an interview with Anika Van Wyk of the Calgary Sun (June 4, 1998, on-line), Twain recalled, 'We were extremely poor when I was a kid and I used to just sing and play guitar in my bedroom as an escape.' She also told Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times (April 24, 1996) that music helped her get through some difficult times at school. 'If you don't have a lunch for school, then you've got to make up excuses why. At that time, if you were to tell the teacher that you don't bring a lunch because we can't afford it, maybe they would have had the children's aid come to our house and we're gonna get separated… Things like that don't allow you to just be a kid.… Instead of going out to play during recess, I went to the music room and kind of vented my energy there and kept things positive.'
By the time she was a teenager, Eileen's parents recognized her talent and arranged for her to sing at the Mattagami hotel in Timmins [in Ontario]. To get around the problem of her youth—because she was underage, she could not legally perform while alcohol was being served—her parents would wake her up at midnight so that she could perform at one in the morning, after last call at the hotel bar. 'It's awkward to sing in a bar when everyone's drunk and smoking, but I had to do it anyway,' Twain told Nicolas Jennings of Maclean's (August 28, 1995). The young singer also performed in various talent contests and on a few local television music shows. From the outset, her parents were 'obsessed' with her singing career, she told David Zimmerman of USA Today (June 19, 1995). She added that, although they are no longer living, 'it's their drive that got me here.'
Jerry and Sharon were killed when their car crashed into a loaded logging truck in 1987. Eileen Twain was 22 at the time, and she took on the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings, then aged 18, 14, and 13. At one point, things got so tough that the family had to wash their clothes by hand in a nearby river. Eventually, Twain landed a job singing at the upscale Deerhurst Resort, in Huntsville, Ontario. She bought a house in Huntsville and brought her siblings there to live with her. At Deerhurst, Twain took the stage name Shania (pronounced shuh-NI-ah), which means 'on my way' in the Ojibwan language.
About four years later, her younger siblings had all finished school and had begun their own independent lives. Although just in her mid-20s, Twain felt 'like a 45-year-old mom whose kids had gone away to college,' she told Zimmerman. Twain found that she had much more energy to devote to her career, and with the help of her agent, Mary Baily, she made a demo tape. Baily submitted the tape to several country music record labels, and eventually got a response from Mercury Nashville.
Because executives at Mercury Nashville did not consider her to be a great songwriter, Twain's self-titled debut album, released in 1993, was a collection of country tunes written entirely by other songwriters. The album was largely ignored, with the exception of the single 'What Made You Say That,' which reached number 55 on Billboard's country singles chart, and received significant airplay on country radio stations in Seattle and a few other cities in the western part of the U.S. and Canada. The accompanying video for that song showed her frolicking on a Miami beach with a male model. It was this video that caught the eye of the British rock-'n'-roll producer Robert John 'Mutt' Lange.
After seeing the video, Lange, who had produced best-selling albums for Bryan Adams, Def Leppard, the Cars, Billy Ocean, Michael Bolton, and AC/DC, got in touch with Twain, and began helping her with her songwriting. 'Every conversation we had was a good three hours long,' Twain told Zimmerman. 'I would prop the phone up on the pillow and play songs like 'Home Ain't Where His Heart Is Anymore,' and he would record it on the other end, and we would work back and forth on the telephone.' At first, Twain did not know that her collaborator was a famous producer. 'I thought he was a fan who was a very creative songwriter,' she admitted to Zimmerman. Later that year, when they met in Nashville, Twain pretended that she had known who he was all along. Three months after their first meeting, the couple married, in Canada.
Twain's The Woman in Me, released in 1995, was the first country album that Lange had ever produced, and is distinguished among country albums by its pop, rock, and rap overtones. In addition to co-writing and producing his wife's album, Lange sang backup vocals, and arranged for the husband-and-wife photography team of John and Bo Derek to create Twain's new music videos and album photos. While many country music insiders attributed Twain's sudden success to the help that her powerful husband was able to give her, Twain told Jennings, 'I don't want to be a product of anything—whether it's a photographer, a makeup artist, a record label, or even a producer. I just think Mutt's been able to bring out the best in me.'
The first song from The Woman in Me that became a hit on the radio, in January 1995, was the playful 'Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under.' Almost as soon as it reached the top five, another single, 'Any Man of Mine,' began its climb to the number-one spot. With catchy lyrics like 'Any man of mine better disagree / When I say another woman's looking better than me,' and 'I can be late for a date that's fine / But he better be on time,' Twain emerged as a country star with a feminist edge, an attribute that has made her overwhelmingly popular with female country listeners. Twain told Jeffrey Zaslow for USA Today (February 25, 1996) that she believes the difference between men and women 'is a mystery that doesn't need to be solved. If we focus on the things that come positively out of the differences, then we won't be angry feminists.'
With four more top-10 hits, 'The Woman in Me,' 'I'm Outta Here,' 'You Win My Love,' and 'No One Needs to Know,' Twain's album went on to sell more than 13 million units worldwide, and in 1996, surpassed Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits as the all-time best-selling album by a female country artist. Although the demand for a Shania Twain tour was exceedingly high, the singer decided against performing live. 'I made the decision a long time ago…,' Twain told Zimmerman (March 5, 1996). 'The reason is that we put so much into the album and it meant so much. I felt that if the music could stand on its own, then the music will sell the show later on.' Rumors began to circulate that Twain was not touring because of an inability to perform for live audiences, but she rebutted these claims in an interview with Jack Hurst of the Chicago Tribune (March 10, 1996), reminding naysayers that she had 'never gone a year, even a month, without singing somewhere since I was eight years old.' In 1996, Twain won a Grammy for best country album, beating out such veterans as Dwight Yoakam, Trisha Yearwood, and the Mavericks, and she also took home the Academy of Country Music's awards for top new female vocalist and album of the year.
Twain's third album, Come on Over, was released in November 1997, and debuted at number one on the Billboard country chart and number two on the pop chart. As of September 1998, two of the album's singles, 'Love Gets Me Every Time' and 'You're Still the One,' have topped the country chart, and the latter song also rose to the number-two spot on the pop singles chart. With the release of Come on Over, Twain also launched her first tour, and received overwhelmingly positive reviews for her performances in Canada. Come on Over has sold briskly, topping the five-million mark in U.S. sales in September 1998.
At five feet, four inches tall and weighing just 110 pounds, Twain is well known for her fabulous figure, and usually appears in public wearing sassy, tight-fitting clothing. When asked about the considerable media attention her appearance has garnered, Twain told Stevenson, 'The funny thing is I don't realize it stands out as much as it does. . . . If it does stand out, then I guess it's a compliment, but I just wear whatever feels comfortable. . . . The only reason that you do visual is solely for the visual. It doesn't sell your music for you.' Twain has also said that, as a teen, her body developed early, and caused her to feel a self-consciousness that she has never completely overcome.
Twain and Lange currently live in a 12,000-square-foot home on a 3,000-acre estate in Saranac Lake, in upstate New York. 'I have two horses, and two miniature horses, and two dogs, and I hang out with them,' Twain told Hurst. 'I shovel the stalls, I pick their hooves, whatever. I carry wood, make fires, cook, do my laundry, all those things. If I lived in a city or something like that I wouldn't be able to have that lifestyle, and I wouldn't be able to separate myself [from stardom] really. So I deliberately put myself in an environment where I can escape and just be normal.'
Source: Copyright (c) 1998 All rights reserved. From Wilson Biographies, reprinted by permission of the H. W. Wilson Co.
From: Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
WOW! I didn't know that she was a hunter girl :)