Birthname: Eilleen Regina Edwards; she later adopted the first name Shania, which means "I'm on my way" in the Ojibwa Indian Language.

Birthdate: August 28, 1965

Birthplace: Windsor, Ontario

Grew Up: Timmins, Ontario

Height: 5'4"

Hair: Brown

Eyes: Green

Weight: 110

Shoe Size: 6 1/2

Spouse: Robert John "Mutt" Lange, married December 28, 1993

Parents: Adoptive father Jerry Twain and mother Sharon, who were killed in a car crash in 1987; Clarence Edwards (birth father)

Family: Older half sister Jill; younger sister Carrie-Ann; younger half brothers Mark and Darryl

Heritage: Irish and French-Canadian, raised with Ojibwa Indian Culture

Previous jobs: Foreman of reforestation crew; singer at resort

Favorite performers/influences: Gladys Knight, Dolly Parton, Karen Carpenter, The Mamas & The Papas, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tammy Wynette, The Supremes

Loves: Outdoors, animals, traveling

Favorite foods: Vegetarian

Favorite sport: Skiing

BIOGRAPHY

Shania (shu-NYE-uh), an Ojibway name meaning "I'm on my way" -- an appropriately beautiful moniker for an extraordinary talent who is definitely on her way. In fact, Shania has been on a musical path practically since she could walk.

Born in Windsor and raised in Timmins, Ontario, where both her father (an Ojibway Indian) and her mother were raised, Shania's was not the typical upbringing one would expect from living in a rural environment. The second oldest of five children, the talented little girl's life was not filled with Barbie dolls and fingerpaints.

"I pretty much missed my childhood," she says. "I've always been focused. My career has always been very consuming. It probably consumes me less than it did as a child. I liked to escape my personal life through my music. Music was all I ever did. I spent a lot of time in solitude with just my guitar, writing and singing for hours. I would play 'till my fingers were bruised, and I loved it! But I never enjoyed the pressure of being a performer. My parents forced me to perform, which in the long run was the best thing because I was naturally quite a recluse. If not for my parents I'd still be singing in my bedroom and be quite content, mind you."

Although being forced is a rather harsh description, nonetheless her folks were, let's say, "enthusiastic" about their daughter's obvious gifts.

"I used to be dragged out of bed at 1:00 am and they'd bring me to the local club to play with the band. You see, they couldn't allow me in a liquor premise before 1:00 a.m. when they stopped serving. I'd get up and sing a few songs with the band and before I knew it, I was actually doing clubs professionally. From the age of eight, I was doing weekends, the odd gig here and there. I did everything my parents could get me on. Every TV station, ever radio station, every community centre, every senior centre," she laughs. "They had me doing everything!"

One would wonder why her parents, as Shania puts it, "were so obsessed" with creating a musical career for their child.

"My mother lived for my career. We were extremely poor when I was a kid, and my mother was often depressed with five children and no food to feed them. She knew I was talented and she lived with the hope that my abilities were my chance to do something special."

Along with pursuing the music, Shania spent many a summer working with her dad as a foreman for a 13-man reforestation crew in the middle of the Canadian bush. This petite woman can wield an axe and handle a chainsaw as well as any man twice her size.

Her delicate appearance also belies a tough little survivor. That inner strength was put to the ultimate test at the tender age of 21, when both of her parents were killed in an automobile crash. This unfortunate incident propelled the young artist even further into her musical career. Now, however, it was not as an escape from, but as a headlong plunge right smack-dab into reality.

"My personal life changed drastically. When my parents died, my brothers and younger sister were still living at home. My brothers were only 13 and 14 years old and I became sister/mom. I had responsibilities, so I couldn't just go around getting gigs here or there, or writing only when I felt like it. I took a job singing at a resort, I bought a house, a family truck and settled down -- I thought, forever."

The position at the Deerhurst resort ended up to be the most educational period, as a performer, in her career. She did everything from musical comedy theatre to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Gershwin. About three years later, one by one, her siblings got on their feet and went their own ways.

"When they left, I felt like a 45-year-old woman whose kids had gone away to college. I was like `WOW!' I have my whole life to live now. I had all this time on my hands. I didn't have to cook and clean for anybody. Didn't have to pay any bills but mine," she explains, her voice picking up speed. "Didn't have to go to school meetings. Didn't have to pick them up after work and take them to teen dances. Drive 'em here. Drive 'em there. It was like `I'm FREE!!' I said `now what am I gonna do with my new life?' I decided I wanted to go for it!"

When it was time to really go for it, Shania was packin' the goods.

"I put together a demo of original music and didn't even go to Nashville right away. My manager (longtime buddy Mary Bailey) arranged for Richard Frank, a Nashville lawyer, to come to a showcase in Canada. He got the ball rolling, setting up a meeting with producer Norro Wilson. He introduced me to Buddy Cannon, who was in A&R at Mercury Nashville at the time, and he handed my tape over to the head of the label. That was it!"

But with the extensive experience Shania had recently received in musical theatre and a talent so versatile that she could handle just about any style of music, why did Twain gravitate towards Nashville and country music?

"My parents were obsessed with country music," she explains. "I grew up listening to Waylon, Willie, Dolly, Tammy, all of them, but I also used to listen to the Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters, the Supremes, the Jacksons and such. But, as a child performer it was always country, so that's how I developed."

The tape and meetings resulted in a record deal and Shania's self- titled debut album. Not only did the release prick up ears in Canada and the U.S. (with cuts like "What Made You Say That" and "Dance With The One That Brought You"), it also enjoyed a great deal of success overseas, earning Shania CMT Europe's Rising Video Star of the Year award.

This brings us to The Woman In Me, a truly international project written in Spain, Italy, the Caribbean, England, Canada and the United States -- and recorded at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec.

Once again, this latest step in Shania's career is intertwined with her personal life. Through her art she met the love of her life, producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who is now her husband. Here's how it happened:

"Mutt's a huge country music fan," she says, smiling. "I may be the princess in his life, but Tammy Wynette is the Queen! The steel guitar is his favourite instrument. He was a fan of mine through my first album and wanted to meet me. We first talked on the phone several weeks before we met in person. He got a hold of me through my manager. I had no idea he was a world famous record producer. I didn't read the back of pop and rock albums, which was good because I wasn't intimidated by him. Otherwise, I don't think I would have been able to express myself creatively without any inhibitions. It worked out really well. We became good friends over the phone, we were even writing songs and exchanging ideas. Creatively we were very in sync with each other. The first time I actually talked to him face to face was in Nashville during Mercury's Fan Fair show in '93, and we haven't wanted to be apart from that moment on."

Ahh, l'amour! She continues,

"We ended up writing half the album, mind you, before we even became romantically involved. Creatively, romantically, it's a wonderful, wonderful marriage. My husband Mutt is the producer of my dreams and the love of my life. They are two separate entities, but at the same time what more could any girl ask for?"

As a songwriter, Shania's muse comes from a very childlike perspective.

"Writing's like colouring," she thoughtfully pauses. "Kids like to colour, they don't need to have a reason to colour -- they just like it. Why do they use orange instead of pink, or green instead of blue? I don't know... they don't know, they just do. They have no inhibitions. They are totally open to be creative. That's how I feel about songwriting. It's a chance to just create without inhibitions."

Shania is very proud of the work she and Mutt put into this project, having together written or co-written every cut on it.

"`Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under' is something I've been kicking around for the last couple of years," she says. "I'm proud of this one because the title and the hook seem to be getting everybody's attention. I'm not a new writer, but I am kinda new on the scene. It's really cool to be able to come up with a hook that someone like Mutt believes in. He feels it's a hit song. That excites me!" Canadian radio programmers feel it's a hit, too -- it debuted at 33* on The Record's Country Chart.

"The chorus to `Home Ain't Where His Heart Is (Anymore)' is something I had written a couple of years ago, and sang to Mutt over the phone during our first conversation. That's when he realized I had writing potential he wanted to tap into. It's the first song we ended up completing together, the first song we demoed, the first one we recorded in the studio in Nashville and the first song we mixed and completed. So we thought it would only be appropriate if it was the first song on the album."

Several of the songs on The Woman In Me blend Shania's country sensibility with Mutt's famous over-the-top production.

"`Any Man Of Mine' is also something that I've been working on for quite a while. Mutt and I finished it together as well. I think it could be the impact song of the album. It is an excellent combination of the two of us. It's got everything that he's known for as a producer and a writer, yet it's so me it's not funny. The title cut is another good example of a collaboration of our two backgrounds. It really is the two of us right down the middle."

Another song that holds a special place in Shania's heart is "God Bless The Child."

"That song is a lullaby I wrote after my parents died. I would go for long walks in the bush by myself with this song swimming around in my head. I really didn't know where the melody came from. When I met Mutt, I sang it for him and he said `Wow -- that's beautiful!' we didn't even change it. There's no chorus, no verse, just a thought... no story, no hook, nothing commercial at all about it. It's just a true sincere thought and emotion."

Shania's hope is to be perceived as an all-around artist, known not only for her singing but also for her ability to write.

"I don't want to be seen as just a pretty face with a pretty voice, that type of thing. For me, not singing my own material, is just so awkward. I'm in control of my career now. I enjoy it because I want to do it, not because I have to."

Shania has also come to a place in her life where she has found that delicate balance between her career and her personal life.

"I won't neglect my personal life. I wouldn't be able to write the songs or play the music, or even be a responsible artist in any way, shape or form if I'm not happy as a person. So my personal life comes first."

With a clear head and her smart new album The Woman In Me, Shania Twain is well "on her way" to realizing her hopes and fulfilling her mother's dream for the little girl who grew up in her own magical musical world. Indeed, what more could a girl ask for?

This Page was Last Updated on November 15, 1999.

Page origination date: October 26, 1997