Shania, nee Eileen, is one of the new generation "country" singers. She was born in Timmins, Ontario in Canada 31 years ago, raised by her adopted parents. Music, or more specifically, country music had always been a part of her life. She told the story that she started performing in bars when she was five, where she performed hits by Dolly Parton and other songs like "Delta Dawn" and "Country Roads".
Her father ran the family afforestation business, by the age of 17. Shania was helping her father in running the business by leading team of men into the forest. She talked of the isolation in the forest, where they would go in for months and only go for groceries about once a fortnight.
"It was so secluded that, you would not dare to put any fragrance on you, this mean no soap and definitely no perfume, otherwise the mosquito would eat you alive! Being so isolated, I would sit alone in the forest with my dog and a guitar and just write songs."
When she was 21, her parents were killed in a car crash, the job of raising her younger brother fall on her lap. A bread and butter gig took her away from country music to another genre. Gershwin songs and other Broadway tunes, it paid the mortgage and provided the "best education she ever had". It was at that time she adapted the name "Shania".
"During the years in the resort, I've met a dresser in the show who was also half Ojibway. Her name was "Shania", I thought that it was so a beautiful name and I could really related to it. When I first got started in radio, they were calling me "Arleen", "Irene", "Elane", everything but Eileen. Therefore I though "Shania" is not going to be that difficult to get wrong!"
When she talks, her personality almost bubbles. Especially when
she is talking about her husband Mutt Lange. Who also produced
Bryan Adams, AC/DC, Def Leppard to name but a few of the artists
to his production credit. When Lange was in England, he always
had CMT Europe on. He would be producing a track while watching
CMT Europe in silence, Shania caught his eye in the video "What
made you say that" and asked one of his friend to send him
a CD of her. He worked out to her music every morning, became
a fan of her voice. He later made contact with her via Mary Bailey,
Shania's manager at the time and they started to write songs over
the phone, Mutt Lange almost fell out when Shania sang the chorus
of her song "Home ain't where his heart anymore". After
that they decided to meet at Fanfair '93 and discovered that they
were borderline soulmates. Not long after that, they got married.