Shania Twain is Canadian singer-songwriter who was born Eileen Regina Edwards on August 28, 1965 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada to Sharon and Clarence Edwards who also had two other children, Jill and Carrie Ann. Twain’s parents divorced when she was two. After the divorce Sharon moved to Timmins with her daughters. Soon after settling in Timmins Sharon met Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa from the nearby Mattagami First Nation. Sharon and Jerry later married, and had a son named Mark. Jerry also adopted Shania and her sisters and officially changed their surname to Twain. Her childhood was quite difficult; her parents income wasn’t always enough to pay for the family’s necessities. By age eight Twain began using her musical talent to assist her family by performing in bars. She would take the stage between midnight and 1 am, this was the time when the establishment stopped serving alcohol.
When Twain was 13 she was invited to perform on the Tommy Hunter Show which was a weekly TV show that showcased country musicians. The Tommy Hunter Show aired on CBC television from 1965 to 1983. At about this time she was also the lead singer for a band named Longshot which was a cover band that performed Top 40 music. Longshot stopped performing after Twain graduated high school. Twain would now go on to perform with a new cover band named Flirt. Shania and her new bandmates began touring throughout Ontario.
On November 1, 1987 her mother and stepfather were killed in a car crash. The accident forced her to move back to Timmins to take care of her younger siblings; she moved her family to Huntsville, Ontario, where she supported them by earning money performing at the Deerhurst Resort.
A few years later, when her siblings were old enough to take care of themselves, she got the opportunity to present her material to record executives and soon after she signed a recording contract with Mercury Nashville Records; at this time she changed her first name to Shania.
Her self-titled debut album was released on April 20, 1993 and reached number 67 on the Country Albums Chart in the United States. That same year Twain won Country Music Television Europe’s “Rising Video Star of the Year” award. Twain captured the attention of rock music producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange who offered to produce and write songs with her. After several telephone conversations Twain and Lange finally met in person at Nashville’s Fan Fair in June 1993. Their friendship grew into a romance and they were married on December 28, 1993. Shania Twain’s second album, The Woman in Me was released on February 7, 1995. Twain and Lange co-wrote most of the songs on that album. “No One Needs To Know” was one of the tracks recorded on The Woman In Me and was featured on the soundtrack for the 1996 film Twister.
Some of Shania Twain’s follow up albums include:
- Come On Over (released on November 4, 1997)
- Up! (released September 29, 2017)
- Now (Released on September 29, 2017)
- Queen of Me (February 3, 2023)
Shania Twain and Robert Lange divorced on June 9, 2010. Twain and Lange had one child together; a son named Eja(pronounced Asia). Twain married Swiss Nestle executive Frédéric Thiébaud on January 1, 2011.
Shania Twain has won several awards over the years; including:
- Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year(1999)
- Canada’s Walk Of Fame(2003)
- Hollywood Walk Of Fame(June 2, 2011)
- Canadian Country Music Association Generation Award(2018)
- Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame Inductee(October 2022)
In 2010 Twain created a charity she named Shania Kids Can. This is a charity designed to address the needs of neglected children. Shania Twain has overcome many personal tragedies in her life and has risen to become one of the most successful and influential recording artists of all time.
