20 March 2024 - Shania Twain - You’re Still The One

For four years, we've had this draft ready to go every March.

For four years, we've ignored Shania Twain (except for this cameo on a Anne Murray post two days into the first #MapleLeafMarch). 

Shania Twain is arguably the biggest hit singer to come out of Canada in a generation (arguable because Céline Dion is from the same generation) With over 100 million records sold, she is the biggest female country artist of all time.  Her 1997 album Come on Over is recognized as the biggest selling album by any female solo artist, ever, in any genre, and the eighth best selling by any type of musical artist, anywhere.

And yes, the best selling album by any Canadian artist.  

Shania Twain is a monstrous pop-country crossver superstar.  

This song is a huge part of all of that.  The 1997 ballad is far and away the biggest hit song she ever had - the one that truly crossed her over to a pop audience and out of her country pigeonhole.  The song, cowritten by Twain and her then-husband (more on that in a minute), producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, is a mandolin and pan flute driven track, a beautifully written love song.  It peaked at #1 on the country charts and #2 on the pop charts in the US, and was a top ten hit worldwide, including in her native Canada.  

The video was the first by a female country artist to be nominated for an MTV Video Music award - for Best Female Video in 1998 (she lost to "Ray of Light" which was admittedly a fantastic video that also won Video of the Year).  

She was, and is, a huge crossover superstar.

She, of course, became a worldwide superstar.  In this 1998 performance, the very large crowd at the Prince's Trust concert in Hyde Park knows every word.

In this acoustic performance of the song, she talks about her unlikely relationship with her husband - their 17-year age difference, their different cultural backgrounds.

Also, stick around to the end to hear Shania talk about her cleavage.

    

Twain divorced her husband in 2010 after reports he was having an affair with her best friend.  Her best friend's husband also divorced his wife.  That man, Frédéric Thiébaud, married Twain in 2011.  

I just love that story.  

Also in 2011, Shania was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, which she richly deserved, by her friend and fellow Canadian Bryan Adams.

Even though Robert wasn't the one for life, this song is, and she still performs it - she just doesn't mention who it's about.  In this performance from last year, she nailed it.