Come again?
I turned on the Shania Twain documentary on Netflix recently, Shania Twain: Not Just A Girl, and while I’ll admit that I really didn’t learn anything that I already didn’t know about Shania (I guess I’m a die-hard Shania fan), it was great to take a look back at her incredible career.
I mean, it’s kinda hard to fathom the kind of numbers she was doing back then, and to this day, she remains the greatest selling female recording artist of all time. Her 1997 album, Come On Over, has sold over 40 MILLION copies… for comparison, Taylor Swift’s highest selling album, Fearless, sold 12 million.
Granted, streaming wasn’t a thing back then so you had to buy an album, but still… an absolute powerhouse of a recording artist.
A nasty bout with Lyme disease derailed her career for the better part of a decade beginning in 2004, so it’s hard to imagine just how massive Shania could’ve been if she didn’t take so much time off.
But thinking back on some great Shania moments, I was reminded of this hilarious story from back in 2018, on an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
Shania Twain revealed that she had pissed her pants multiple times on stage, something that NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Blaney also told us was common in the race world.
“The show must go on…”
She explained the clever way that she pulled it off:
“I stood up from my chair to get up and sing, I peed myself, and the puddle… I just knocked my glass of water over.
I was wearing a skirt, thank goodness… I stood up, it all came out, I was dry and the glass of water on the seat.”
As a dude (it’s easier to pee pretty much anywhere as a dude), I’ve peed on many a tree, many a building, many a dumpster, etc… but cannot fathom having to piss so bad on stage that I’m forced to take a leak right there in front of the audience. And then being able to play it off without anyone noticing?
Kelly Clarkson famously recalled a similar (more gross) situation where she, and this is a direct quote, “grabbed this poor trash can and boy, I destroyed it,” just off the stage during the middle of a show.
Not quite the same as peeing your pants on stage, but what’s worse? Peeing your pants on stage when you’re covered in sweat anyways or dropping heat in a trash can sidestage? I’m thinking the latter…
But kudos to Shania for secretly getting the job done and not missing a beat. That’s why she’s one of the best entertainers country music has ever seen.
Ok, that’s not really why… but… a veteran move nonetheless.
If you get the chance, check out the documentary, Shania Twain: Not Just A Girl, on Netflix.
It’s worth the watch:
Shania Twain Says She Was Called “America’s Best Paid Lap Dancer”
How is anybody gonna hate on Shania Twain?
A ’90s country legend, one of the highest selling artists of all time, in any genre… I mean, I had a poster of her on bedroom door when I was like 9 years old for fuck’s sake.
You know how hard it was to land that coveted bedroom door poster real estate? Pretty damn hard. Michael Jordan, Sammy Sosa, Shania Twain… we’re talking elite company here.
Anyways, on her Apple Music radio show, Home Now, Shania got to talking about some of the early criticisms in her career, and some of the more hurtful comments that she remembered reading after her breakout single “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” blew up in 1995.
And shocker… the bulk of her criticism was centered around her looks, as if that was the extent of her talent.
“I was criticized as an artist. I’m surprised I ever had any hits actually when I read them now.
So for example, part of the quote from one of my reviews was: ‘She’s America’s best paid lap dancer in Nashville. She’s hot, but can she sing? Is Shania just a flash in the pan? The most famous midriff in Nashville.’
So yeah, I ended up having hits anyway. Very satisfying.
And what I just quoted were all quotes based on that first single from the ‘Woman In Me’ album. I wrote the song. And I was a little bit hurt, I guess, at the harsh critics, not focusing on the music.
And the fans just wiped all of that hurt away and made the song one of my biggest hits. Thank you, fans.”
If you want to make the argument that Shania was “too pop” for country music, fine… you’re probably not alone in that sentiment.
But these comments came after “Whose Boots,” very early in her career, and not after some of her more pop material like “That Don’t Impress Me Much” or “Man! I Feel Like A Woman.”
But in the end, Shania went on to become an absolute powerhouse in the music world… so who’s laughing now?
She also added the one song that she wish more people knew:
“There’s a song off the Now album called ‘Who’s Gonna Be Your Girl.’
I just enjoy listening to that song as a listener, a music listener. It’s very easy going. It reminds me a little bit of the song ‘Forever And For Always.’
I’m a very acoustic guitar writing songwriter, and I like to jangle on the guitars. I’m figuring out melodies. So the songs that often go to that rolling over acoustic finger jangle are always the songs that resonate most with me.”
Welp, let’s give it a listen:
