Shanialation: A Resurgent Legacy
Country’s late 20th century superstar returns to music, inspiring the new artists of today. #GuiltyPleasures
Public service announcement to millennials and middle-aged moms across North America: Shania Twain is making a comeback.
I don’t like to jump to hasty conclusions, but given that Shania — Canadian birth name Eilleen Regina Edwards — maintains her rank as one of the best-selling female artists in both country music and music in general, I would guess that a number of my fellow millennials out there also grew up on her country-pop legacy. My mom played Come On Over (1997) on repeat in her beige Chevy suburban throughout the end of the ’90s, and I repeatedly requested “You’re Still the One” and “From This Moment On,” a hopeless romantic from the start.
The genre icon disappeared into what appeared to be early retirement in 2004, around when I ceased watching Country Music Television for much of my spare time and she released her first greatest hits album. She had ridden a considerable tide to the top, and the disappointed public seemed to understand her apparent exhaustion. Then, in the 13 years since, Shania’s life steadily spiraled out of control due to circumstances unforeseen by the formerly ever-busy superstar.
Her primary humiliation was the publicized 2008 discovery that her husband of 15 years — producer John “Mutt” Lange — had been sustaining an affair with her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébeaud. At the time, she declared a desire to die in reaction to the devastating news. However, in a surprisingly-but-unsurprisingly dramatic twist, Shania married Marie-Anne’s husband Frédéric in 2011. Even while on musical hiatus, the singer certainly did not stay out of the entertainment headlines.
Nonetheless, the revolutionary country diva has mustered the moxie to return to the spotlight full time, with a largely positive vengeance. Incidentally, I first heard of Shania’s late September release, Now (2017), while watching an episode of my mother’s long-coveted Today Show, with its immortal Matt Lauer and Al Roker and seemingly unending rotation of women. As part of the morning program’s “summer concert series,” the 52-year-old strutted down a catwalk in heels measuring at least five inches to the rhythm of hit ’90s single “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” and new release “Life’s About to Get Good.”
The resurgence of country music’s queen has triggered nostalgia-laced creativity in some of today’s rising stars as well. The more recently renowned sister trio Haim — a group that has been compared to and favored by the likes of Stevie Nicks — released a stripped-down cover of Shania’s hit “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” which is known for snarky lyrical jabs like: “Okay, so you’re Brad Pitt / that don’t impress me much.”
Since the band’s rise to prominence in 2013, Haim has been revered as a symbol of female empowerment, much like its three members’ country-rooted muse. The cover does offer a convincing imitation of Shania’s voice, if not the same sass embodied by the leopard-print-clad star of the song’s original video, released the same year as Come On Over. As a substitute for the latter, I would have liked to hear some of Haim’s signature harmonies woven into the group’s rendition, as the near-crystallized perfection of three overlapping voices has become a trademark of its particular magic. But that’s just a side note.
I’ve long since abandoned my general country music fandom, but childhood memories are a difficult thing to outrun. Whether basking in the glory of Shania’s past influence or jamming out to Haim’s new interpretation of a 90s classic, it’s crucial that we love our ladies in music. Unless they support Trump. But that’s a different conversation.
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