Metro caught up with the star about her Glastonbury slot, her favourite things about London, and her lasting impact on music (Picture: PinPep / SWNS)
Shania Twain’s impact on music is so indelible, that to reduce her to just another country artist would be like reducing The Beatles to just another band from England.
Not only does the five-time Grammy award winner’s 1997 album Come On Over remain the best-selling album by a female solo artist, Shania is unimpeachably among the best-selling and most culturally influential artists ever (can we get a ‘Let’s Go, Girls’?).
Now, the 58-year-old is gearing up to take on the legends slot at Glastonbury, a fitting jewel in the crown of the queen of country pop.
Speaking exclusively with Metro.co.uk, it becomes quickly evident that she’s bringing her famous laser focus to the festival, as she does to all her projects: ‘I’m treating it like an event, and I mean, of course, it’s a concert, but it’s the whole event that is also very exciting.’
Shania has been open about her ambition to play Glastonbury in the coveted Sunday afternoon slot for years, following in the footsteps of Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Kenny Rogers, among other country icons.
While she may not have anything left to prove, she’s still moved by the honour: ‘I mean Glastonbury is a wow in my life and I’m very excited. Everybody around me is very excited.’
Shania will be performing in the coveted legends slot at the iconic festival (Picture: Getty Images)
As for what we can expect from her set, the Man, I Feel Like a Woman singer prefers to remain secretive. ‘I’m still finalising on whether I will do any surprises yet. If I do, I wouldn’t want to share them anyway because that wouldn’t be a surprise anymore,’ she teases.
When asked which of the other headliners she would love to perform with, she explains that though she’s performed with Chris Martin before, she’s never seen Coldplay perform as a band, ‘so that would be a big one for me.’
Given how busy the superstar is these days (she recently began a residency in Las Vegas), it’s hard to imagine that there was ever a time when Shania thought a live performance like Glastonbury was an impossibility.
But in the late noughties, her voice was left in tatters from dysphonia, a vocal cord condition induced by Lyme disease, making her musical future more than a little uncertain.
Shania almost lost her voice for good following a battle with dysphonia caused by Lyme disease (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire)
Shania first rose to superstardom with her second album, The Woman in Me, in 1995 (Picture: Channel 4)
At the same time, her marriage to her artistic collaborator Mutt Lange fell apart as his affair with her best friend exploded across headlines.
But the singer, who fought hard to make a name for herself in the dive bars of Ontario when she was just a teenager, fought equally hard to hold onto her success.
After years of diligently rehabilitating her voice and her personal life, Shania’s comeback in 2017 was unnecessary to cement her as a legend, but it has gone a long way toward introducing her music to a new generation.
Now, as country music becomes more mainstream than ever and bleeds into the pop charts, Shania is getting the flowers she’s always deserved for her trailblazing genre-bending.
When asked about this legacy – and making careers like Taylor Swift’s possible – she humbly responds: ‘It’s a big compliment. It’s always been my wish to connect and relate to as many people around the world as possible. To be a global artist and not to limit my own self to write music and lyrics that have that international appeal.’
Shania says she’s thrilled about artists like Beyonce bringing country music into the mainstream (Picture: George Holz)
But the music industry didn’t always embrace the Canadian-born singer with open arms. At the beginning of her career, many country purists had a problem with her pop sensibilities and unapologetic sensuality.
Despite this, she remained focused on creating art that was true to her.
For Shania, music has always been about creating more seats at the table: ‘I’m a very open-minded person and for me it starts with the music, so my music is all inclusive. I don’t see myself staying inside a fence, so when the genre of country music spreads out, like the way it is again now – and it has gone through its phases – I’m excited about it.’
While she cops to being a lot of people’s original gateway into country music (‘My fans say; “Shania, I never listened to country music before I listened to you.” Or, “I didn’t like country before I listened to you” and so on.’) she’s thrilled to see the recent wave of pop artists, like Post Malone and Ed Sheeran, spreading the genre to larger fanbases.
The singer recently debuted her residency in Las Vegas (Picture: Getty Images)
‘I can’t speak for anyone else, but I very much welcome the more the merrier to any genre,’ she says.
‘Bring on the talent. Bring on the excitement. Bring on Beyoncé you know! She obviously loves country, she loves a good hoedown stomp, as I do, and it’s just time that it opens up more and I’m really happy to see that happening,’ she exclaims, making it clear that she’s among the legion of Cowboy Carter fans.
Now, as Shania prepares to spend more time in the UK in the lead-up to Glastonbury, she tells us about the decidedly cowboy chic way she likes to spend her time in London: ‘Well, I wanna go ride in the park on horses. I’ve done it more than once in Hyde Park, and I love it. So, that’s what I like to do, I mean that maybe it isn’t the typical thing to do when you come to London, but I love to do that.’
The singer is often credited for popularising country pop music (Picture: Getty Images)
When the global superstar isn’t astride a horse in the park, she says she just ‘likes to walk around the streets. I love the charm of the city.’
‘It’s my favourite city, actually,’ she surprisingly admits.
While Shania may be performing in the legend’s slot at Glastonbury, the unexpected anglophile is by no means a relic of a bygone era.
Her music is as vital and connective as it was 20 years ago, and in an industry landscape that is finally honouring country music’s wider appeal, her star power is brighter than ever.
Shania Twain is the latest guest on Meerchat, the brand-new entertainment show from Compare the Market’s Aleksandr and Sergei. Search ‘Meerchat’ on YouTube for the latest episode.
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