Singer Shania Twain has a lot of achievements. Her 1997 CD Come on Over became the best-selling country album and the most successful album ever recorded by a woman. But at first, the life of our heroine was not very pampered …
She was born on August 28, 1965 in the Canadian province of Ontario under a completely different name – Eileen Regina Edwards. A very young girl and her mother were left by her father. But with their stepfather Jerry Twain (an Indian from the Ojibe tribe), they were lucky. The family lived in poverty, but – soul to soul. Noticing Eileen’s talent, her parents encouraged the girl to study music from childhood . She early began not only to sing and perform on stage, but also to compose her own songs.
Unfortunately, in 1987, the girl’s mother and stepfather died in a car accident. The burden of caring for her younger brothers and sister fell on Eileen, and she almost gave up music. Nevertheless, in the early 1990s, one of the labels noticed her talent and even signed a contract with her. She was urged to choose a sonorous pseudonym , and Shania Twain was born. According to the singer herself, she got her new name from the language of her stepfather’s tribe, where “Shania” means “Standing on her way.”
Despite the pseudonym, the young singer could not stand her ground. She was not at all interested in label bosses as an author. Her first album in 1993, with the exception of one song, consisted entirely of covers, and even commercially failed … Everything changed when Shania phoned the famous producer Matt Lang (among his wards were AC / DC , DEF LEPPARD , Bryan Adams ). The girl sang several compositions of her own composition to Matt right on the phone, he became interested and offered cooperation. After several meetings, a strong sympathy arose between the singer and the producer, which ended on December 28, 1993 in an official marriage.
The couple deliberately got married in the Canadian homeland of the bride in the dead of winter to protect themselves from the eyes of the paparazzi. Nevertheless, the media could not ignore this event and became the unwitting instigators of the most famous musical hit in the work of Shania. “You’re Still The One” (1998) No one believed that the marriage of an aspiring provincial singer and a famous producer, who was also 17 years older than her, would last any long. And now, 4 years later, Shania answered these doubts with a whole ballad with the eloquent title “You’re Still The One” (“You are still my only one”).
Shania Twain
: “We were from different parts of the world (Matt – originally from South Africa – S.K.), we have different backgrounds, different music. We were two opposites. So this song is about us and it makes me feel like a champion in love. As if I won and received this marriage as a prize.
Matt was not only a producer, but also partly a co-author of his wife. It was he who convinced Shania not to be afraid to go beyond the style of country music and work together with her husband at the intersection of genres. So “You’re Still The One” was arranged in a more commercial pop style, and Lang himself performed backing vocals on the recording.
The song was released in January 1998 and became the first single from the already mentioned Come on Over album. The single did not reach the top of the American hit parade a bit, taking the 2nd position. But he grabbed as many as 2 Grammys – for “Best Female Performance” and as “Best Country Song”. Only Celine Dion with her famous “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie “Titanic” could prevent Shania from getting the main prize – “Song of the Year “.
But even without that, “You’re Still The One” was destined to have a long life. Largely because they passionately fell in love with it at weddings – the content of the song about fidelity and eternal love was ideal for the first dance of the newlyweds. In 2004, on the Oprah show, a pleasant surprise was prepared for one such couple. Shania Twain personally showed up at the live-streamed wedding to perform her “marriage” hit. The romantic flair around “You’re Still The One” faded somewhat in 2010, when Shania and Matt unexpectedly announced their divorce. Many superstitious people felt that now the song is ill-suited to the role of a symbol of unbreakable promises. Which, you see, is strange – the marriage of the singer and producer lasted 17 years, and for the world of show business – this is a solid period. Shania herself immediately stated that one should not tie the meaning of the song too much to specifics.
Performing “You’re Still The One” today, the singer dedicates it to her mother and stepfather, whose strong love is no longer in doubt. “From This Moment On” (1998) But we ran far ahead … And then – in 1998 – the love of Twain and Lang was still in full bloom. Her next anthem was another romantic ballad called “From This Moment On” (“From Now and Forever”). It’s funny that the singer wrote it in Milan at … a football stadium – a place, I must say, not very suitable for creativity. In fact, Shania was completely indifferent to football, she simply kept company with her husband, an avid fan. According to the singer, during the match, her thoughts drifted in a completely different direction – that’s the song was born. When she returned, she recorded a sketch on a cassette, but then the composition did not seem to her something special …
Lang did not agree with this and arranged “From This Moment On” so well that all doubts were dispelled. The idea was born immediately – to record this song as a duet with some famous performer. After deliberation, singer Barry White was chosen for the part .
Shania Twain:
“He has the best voice in country music. And out of country too! He is an excellent singer. He was needed for this song, because the song seems to soar, it requires it. It requires dynamics.”
True, when “From This Moment On” was decided to be released as a separate single, White and his managers opposed this. Like, a modern pop ballad can spoil the image of a traditional country singer. As a result, the duet version remained only on the album, and for the single and the video clip, Shania had to sing the missing parts herself. However, this did not greatly affect the success of the song – “From This Moment On” became No. 4 in the US.
“That Don’t Impress Me Much” (1998)
The fact that everything was more than good in Shania’s life can be understood from other songs of “Come on Over” – a very happy and optimistic album. Even the caustic “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, which cruelly trolls narcissistic men, lifts the mood. So one hero of the song is proud of his cool car, the second – a beautiful hairstyle, and the third – a high IQ. And the singer gives the same answer to each of them: “OK, you are the spitting image of Brad Pitt , but it doesn’t impress me . ”
Shania Twain:
“Guys love to show off – guys with cool cars always get dates, don’t they? I wanted to come up with a very “unimpressed” expression that would say “So you have a car? I’m surprised!“ This guy in the song treats his car like it’s Batman’s car. Big deal! The heart is important, not material things. … This character is fictional, but he embodied a stereotype that most women in their thirties have encountered at least once during their searches, so I was sure that I was writing about a real-life type.
For example, the line “You make me take off my shoes” inspired Shania’s sister’s husband, forcing the girls to take off their shoes when they got into his luxury car. True, the singer declares that overly self-confident men are unlikely to be able to recognize themselves in the heroes of the song (and they will even say: “Well, this guy is a goat!”).
The content of “That Don’t Impress Me Much” perfectly reflected the video clip, where Shania played the role of a chic hitchhiker in a leopard print jumpsuit. The characters mentioned in the song take turns offering the girl a ride, but she refuses all of them – even the handsome John Deveaux, who has already starred in the clip “You’re Still The One”. True, something tells me that most of the girls who were in Shania’s place would hardly have been so picky. After all, you can forever get stuck in the middle of the Mojave Desert.
Energetic, almost danceable “That Don’t Impress Me Much” was released as the third single from the album to show that Shania succeeds not only in love ballads. A funny PR stunt was invented to promote the song.
Special promotional singles were sent to the radio station, differing from each other in one feature – instead of words about Brad Pitt, the singer sang the name of a particular DJ. By the way, on the Shania Twain – Greatest Hits compilation there is also a longer version of “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, where, in addition to Brad Pitt and Elvis, other supermen are mentioned – like Tarzan, Captain Kirk and John Wayne.
