The time since the October 1997 release of Shania Twain’s Come On Over has been among the most fulfilling of her career. The achievements comprising this recent chapter in Shania’s work are staggering: She won two Grammy Awards for Come On Over’s smash single "You’re Still The One." Come On Over has been RIAA certified nine times Platinum, with over nine million CDs sold (and counting). Her first ever World Tour, one of the biggest successes of 1998/99, recently sold its one millionth ticket. A great deal of hard work and faith have led to Shania’s
emergence as one of the most prominent forces in music today.
Come On Over features sixteen songs written by Shania with her husband and producer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange. "I love to write stories," says Shania Twain, "Songwriting is my favorite part of what I do. I like to give every song its own personality and attitude and to sing each one in
its own style." This CD is Shania’s first release since the phenomenon known as The Woman In Me. That album, which was recently RIAA certified for U.S. sales of over 11 million copies, has sold another three million copies outside the U.S. When The Woman In Me received its ‘11 million’ certification, Shania become one of only four women in the history of recorded music to accomplish such a feat.
For her achievements around the release of The Woman In Me, Shania earned Billboard honors as 1996's #1 Top Country Album Artist. Her 1996 Grammy award for Best Country Album was echoed by the Academy of Country Music and her native Canadian Country Music Awards (both Album of the Year); and she was variously named Favorite New Country Artist or Favorite Female Country Artist by the American Music Awards, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Canada’s JUNO Awards, World Music Awards, and so on. Her videos earned similar awards from CMT (Country Music Television, U.S. and European outlets), ABC Radio Networks and others. One of the most telegenically accessible figures on the planet, her promo video clips were compiled on The Complete Woman In Me video collection.
The honors for Come On Over are equally impressive. In addition to winning two Grammy Awards, Shania has also won the Billboard Music Awards’ Female Artist of the Year, Hot 100 Singles Artist of the Year, Best Selling Country Single of the Year ("You’re Still The One"), and
the American Music Awards’ Favorite Female Country Artist. Shania’s video for "You’re Still The One" was nominated for an MTV Video Music Awards’ Best Female Video and won the VH1 Viewer’s Vote Sexiest Video Award.
Shania appeal is beyond question. She was the subject of the a VH1 Behind The Music special, which became the channel’s highest rated produced program. VH1 Divas Live, which also featured Shania, was the network’s highest rated program ever. At the same time, magazine
profiles over the past few years have included covers of Rolling Stone, TV Guide and Cosmopolitan (as their ‘Fun, Fearless Female of the Year’ for 1999). When Shania appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone in 1998, she became the first country music female artist in over 18 years to accomplish such a feat. Other Come On Over coverage includes a USA Weekend cover story, and being named one of Entertainment Weekly’s "1998 Entertainers of the Year." Shania has been the subject of major features in publications as diverse as McCall’s, Newsweek, and the New York Times. Her highly-rated first prime-time network television special, "Shania Twain’s Winter Break", aired March 3rd on CBS and featured Elton John and the Backstreet Boys. The special became the week’s second highest rated program among the 18 to 49 year old age group. Shania has performed at the CMA Awards, the AMAs, the Grammys, the Billboard Music
Awards, World Music Awards, the Gala for the President at Ford’s Theater, "The Late Show with David Letterman," "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The Rosie O’Donnell Show" and much more.
Shania’s ability to connect with her audience is evident throughout Come On Over: "Love Gets Me Every Time" is typical of the fun-loving sense of humor that Shania lets loose on the CD, on such titles as "Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)" and "That Don’t Impress Me Much." Fans will appreciate her good-natured "Honey, I’m Home," "Man! I Feel Like A Woman," and the house-shakin’ "Rock This Country." She also draws serious attention to herself as one of today’s strongest ballad writers and singers in "From This Moment On," "You’re Still the One" and "When"; the Tex-Mex/Cajun-flavored "I Won’t Leave You Lonely"; and the final track, "You’ve Got a Way." Shania achieved incredible pop success in 1998 when "You’re Still The One" reached as high as #2 on Billboard’s ‘Hot 100 Singles’ chart, while holding the #1 spot on the ‘Adult Contemporary Chart’ and the #3 spot on the ‘Hot Dance Music Maxi Singles Sales Chart’ simultaneously. The song was also the #1 country single. The beautiful ballad "From This Moment On" reached the #4 spot on the ‘Hot 100 Singles’ chart and #1 on the ‘Adult Contemporary Chart.’ The song has also started to become a wedding anthem.
Songs such as "Black Eyes, Blue Tears" (an upbeat tribute to rediscovering self-esteem and freedom in the wake of an abusive relationship) and "If You Want To Touch Her, Ask" go a long ways toward explaining Shania’s decision to maximize the impact of her CD. "There was so much that I wanted to achieve," she insists, "I couldn’t have done it in any less than 16 songs -every one of them makes this album feel complete to me. Maybe it’s because of the time I was given, I just felt like I couldn’t leave any one of them out."
Shania’s story may well be the great American dream, that is, the great North American dream since Shania was born in Canada on August 28, 1965, the second oldest of five siblings. Shania was raised in Timmins, Ontario (about 500 miles due north of Toronto), where Shania’s stepfather, an Ojibway Indian and mother had both been raised. It was a proud but, at times, impoverished existence. There may have been a struggle to keep enough food in the cupboards but there was always an abundance of music in the household.
Shania often grabbed a guitar and retreated to the solitude of her bedroom, singing and writing until her fingers ached. "But I loved it! I grew up listening to Waylon, Willie, Dolly, Tammy, all of them," she recalls. "But we also listened to the Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters, the Supremes, and Stevie Wonder. The many different styles of music I was exposed to as a child not only influenced my vocal style but, even more so, my writing style." Mom noticed her daughter’s talents, and Shania was soon being shuttled to radio and TV studios, community centers, senior citizen homes, "everywhere they could get me booked."
Part of the legend has eight year-old Shania being dragged out of bed at midnight, to sing with the house band at a local club after the nightly liquor curfew went into effect. Later, she spent summers working with her father as foreman of a dozen-man reforestation crew in the Canadian
bush, where she learned to wield an axe and handle a chainsaw as well as any manjack. In the winter season, she would sing in clubs and do as many television and radio performances as often as her schooling would allow.
At age 21, Shania lost her parents to automobile accident. She then took on the task of handling her parents affairs as executrix and the responsibility of bringing her three younger siblings to live with her. She managed to keep the household going with a job at Ontario’s Deerhurst Resort, which not only provided for her new family responsibilities but also gave her an education in every aspect of theatrical performance, from musical comedy to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Gershwin, an experience quite different from the bar gigs she grew up doing. After a couple of years the kids came into their own, lightening the load of her responsibilities. It was 1990, and she was on her own. Shedding her real name, Eilleen, she adopted the Ojibway name of Shania, pronounced shu-NYE-uh, meaning "I’m on my way." Shania’s way resulted in a demo tape of original music and a road map to Nashville.
Although Shania was signed on the basis of her original material, her self-titled debut album of 1993 featured only one of her songs, the feisty "God Ain’t Gonna Getcha For That." It took a phone call from a distant admirer, rock producer Mutt Lange (AC/DC, Cars, Def Leppard,
Foreigner, Bryan Adams and many others) for Shania to find a true believer, both in her voice and her original songs.
Shania and Mutt met face to face in 1993, and were wed in December, by which time they’d written half an album’s worth of tunes together. As the following year unfolded, they traveled (and wrote) their way across the U.S., Canada, England, Spain, Italy, and the Caribbean. They began to lay down basic tracks for the new album in Nashville, later recording overdubs and mixing in Québec.
The first results of their labor, "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" entered the Billboard Country Singles chart in January 1995; debuted on the Country Albums chart the following month. The single rose to #11, and The Woman In Me was certified RIAA gold. Its flip side, "Any Man of Mine," hit the charts in May and became the first of four consecutive number ones for Shania, every one of which spent the requisite 20 weeks on the list, including "(If You’re Not In It For Love) I’m Outta Here!" (b/w "The Woman In Me (Needs the Man In You)"), "You Win My Love," and "No One Needs to Know."
Two more singles were released in late ‘96, "Home Ain’t Where His Heart Is (Anymore)" and the lullaby-hymn "God Bless the Child," with proceeds donated to Kids Cafe/Second Harvest Food Bank in the U.S. and the Canadian Living Foundation which provides meals for underprivileged children there. Altogether, Shania’s run on the singles chart spanned well over 100 weeks, an amazing achievement from one album, with no touring.
But with the completion of Come On Over, Shania turned her attention to her maiden tour, which has been a premiere event of 1998/99. The tour, which recently sold its millionth ticket, was something Shania looked forward to for some time. Before the concerts started, she said: "When
I get out on tour, I’ll be able to do a full show of original songs that people will be familiar with. It’s going to be ideal, almost like I couldn’t have planned it better, even though I didn’t really plan it at all. I am glad I waited, and I’m going to give it all I’ve got to make it everything the fans have been waiting for."
