Country music icon Shania Twain will return to Las Vegas next month for the next leg of her third residency, titled “Come On Over,” at Planet Hollywood. The new residency pays tribute to her landmark 1997 album of the same name, which remains the best-selling album of all time by a solo female artist.
Twain was always very involved in the styling and set design of her plays. Early in her career, she had to be resourceful.
“I just didn’t have the budget for styling, so I did it myself. The wardrobe for ‘Any Man of Mine’ and ‘Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under,’ I went to Target. And then the denim on denim, which has become a pretty fun thing for fans to wear, was just out of my closet,” Twain said.
Twain’s musical career began at an early age. She began performing in country bars in Ontario, Canada, at the age of 8.
“I was very uncomfortable with it,” she admitted. “And I might have performed in adult-only venues.”
Most of the bars where she performed were equipped with cages, and despite her discomfort, she performed because she felt compelled to. The adults around her thought she should become a star, like the next Tanya Tucker. But Twain wanted to be a veterinarian or an architect-engineer.
“Music was a passion. It was not a profession in my mind. It was something I liked to do when I was alone,” Twain said.
Twain, who sang covers as a child, wanted to perform her own songs. Even after the success of “The Woman in Me” in 1995, she refused to tour, insisting on writing her next album first.
She considered this decision her greatest act of rebellion, as it allowed her to focus on creating an album entirely on her own terms.
“A lot of people lost a lot of money because I didn’t tour. But I didn’t care. By focusing on the writer in me, I wrote a better album,” she said.
It paid off. Her follow-up album, “Come On Over,” became the best-selling album of all time by a female artist. With hit songs like “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”, “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “You’re Still the One,” the album’s legacy is enduring.
Twain overcame personal traumas, including throat surgery, a public divorce, and the sudden death of her parents when she was 22. Twain said these challenges gave her perspective on her stage fright.
“I just decided there were so many other things that were definitely worth being afraid of – being on stage wasn’t one of them,” she said.
During her Las Vegas residencies, Twain enjoys spending time on a ranch, where she owns five horses.
“It’s a little oasis in a park where I can just go out and do whatever I want,” she said. “It’s so calming and peaceful.”
Now one of Las Vegas’ most celebrated performers, Twain still prefers to hear other artists sing her songs. She was particularly “blown away” by a recent cover of Teddy Swims’ “You’re Still the One.” She said she considered it the best version she’d ever heard.
As a songwriter, she says she feels proud to hear someone else perform her song.
“If other people had recorded my songs and made them the hits they became, it would have brought me more joy than if I had done them myself,” she said.
Shania Twain’s “Come On Over” residency at Planet Hollywood resumes August 23 and runs through December.
Anthony Mason
