Q&A: Shania Twain talks rebuilding confidence with new album
Q&A: Shania Twain talks rebuilding confidence with new album
LOS ANGELES -
Shania Twain felt the need on her new album to empower herself the same way she has uplifted listeners with hits like "Man! I Feel Like a Woman" and "She's Not Just a Pretty Face."
So she set aside all feelings of self consciousness -- appearing braless for the album's artwork and letting listeners unabashedly hear her surgically repaired voice -- on "Queen of Me." Throughout the album's 12-tracks, the 57-year-old country pop superstar confronts her physical vulnerabilities with authority in ways meant to uplift fans, and herself.
Twain's sixth studio album is her first since having open-throat surgery in 2018 to strengthen her vocal muscles after a long battle with Lyme disease. During the pandemic, the singer said she went into her "writing cave" at home to hone her songwriting skills and penned three albums worth of music with a clear understanding that her powerful vocals might not last forever.
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Twain spoke candidly about the album, which is out Friday, regaining her confidence, singing during throat surgery and preparing for her global upcoming tour, which kicks off April 28.
Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
------
AP: How do you define your new album, "Queen of Me"?
TWAIN: Self empowerment is about managing your mindset. Controlling your own mood. Your frame of mind. It just turned into "Queen of Me." I'm my own boss. I'm the boss of me. I have to tell myself how to think. What to think. It became the theme of the whole album. It ended up representing that uplifting mode of myself.
AP: Before I listened to your album, I was expecting ballads. But it's a more upbeat experience. What made you choose that route?
TWAIN: It was all happening in a mode of lifting my own spirit up. I wanted music that was going to make me want to dance. Even some of the songs that are a little more, for example, "Brand New Me" or "Pretty Liar." Those are songs that would have maybe stayed more in the melancholy vibe more ballady. But because I was really relying on my songwriting during that time to make me feel a positive energy, everything pretty much turned into this more poppy, dancey, beat-driven, upbeat-driven sounding album."
AP: You seem liberated on your album cover. Was that your intent?
TWAIN: That was the entire intention. You know, throw away the bra. I did a lot of nude photography in that session. That's obviously a partial nude. I wanted to be on a horse. One of the places I feel most liberated is riding a horse. You can fly. It's very empowering. It's like you take this unbridled posture to bridle your freedom. It's like facing a fear, facing something that's uncomfortable, getting myself out of my comfort zone -- especially on a horse. That's freedom.
AP: I heard you sang during surgery. Is that true?
TWAIN: Yes, I had to be awake, so that I could sing and speak. It was horrible. I'm not going to lie. But there was no way around it. It was the only way. The decision to do the surgery was quick for me, but the recovery was quite long and very very painful. They literally had to stretch the larynx, move everything over and put these crutches in there. You're singing and you speak, so they understand that you have symmetrical closure -- which I didn't have before.
AP: What's been your thoughts after the surgery?
TWAIN: I may not have it forever. Just with age, the effect of it just might not stand up. So I've got to take advantage of it now, enjoy it, get out on the stage, make more records, because I'm not sure I would go through it again.
AP: I'm sure that's tough to hear. Do you think about when your voice might go again?
TWAIN: I don't think about it. I don't worry about it. I focus on how to manage my voice the way it is now. For example, before the surgery, it was like a two-hour warmup and so much physical therapy. I just couldn't sustain it. That's why I decided to have the surgery. The surgery has reduced all of that to about 20 minutes, which is very normal. That's ideal. But if I'm not singing for even a week or maybe two weeks, it takes me two to three days to get that voice going again. It's more work than I had to do before, but it's worth it.
AP: What was the first sign of your singing confidence?
TWAIN: The true confidence was three weeks after the surgery. I made a sound and there was resonance. Instant resonance. I'm like, "Oh, my God. I feel it. I feel it working." It was a small window, but that kind of put the fire under my butt, too, and I said, "All right, no more excuses." You've got this and you've got the best technology available. Top notch surgeon. All the physiotherapy education you need. Get out there and do it.
AP: With your retooled vocals, how are you mentally getting ready for your tour?
TWAIN: When I now go out on that stage, I am not afraid of the criticism. I'm not going to be perfect. My voice is not what it used to be. I sing differently. There'll be holes in it. I'm not the same body I used to be. All these things. But I go out there with the confidence that I'm the best I can be and that I've worked hard to be my best. I just am not afraid of the criticism. I'm there for the people that are embracing me for who I am. I will get out there and do my best to make everybody happy, as I always do.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
Serious money is heading for Canadian industries looking to reduce emissions after the federal government unveiled its answer to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
Gwyneth Paltrow's highly publicized ski collision trial is shining a spotlight on the unspoken rules that govern behaviour on the slopes. Testimony over the last six days has repeatedly touched on skier's etiquette -- especially sharing contact information after a collision, and ski turn radiuses -- in what experts have said is the most high-profile ski collision trial in recent history.
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned six per cent increase.
A newly released survey finds nearly all Canadian adults had antibodies against COVID-19 for about half of 2022, with most acquiring them through a previous infection.
Montreal police say they have identified two more victims found in the rubble of a fire in Old Montreal 12 days ago. Charlie Lacroix and Walid Belkahla, both 18, are the sixth and seventh victims of the fire.
The mother of a five-year-old girl said her daughter was allegedly bullied so badly she was left with a partially amputated finger from an incident in the washroom.
New Brunswickers suffering from a mystery neurological disorder are calling for an investigation into potential environmental causes of the health problems they've been living with for more than two years.
Rima Rifai thought her furnace had exploded Monday when the house across the street burst into a ball of fire, sending 10 people to hospital with serious injuries.
An influx of asylum seekers into Canada via unofficial border crossings has prompted the federal government to relocate refugees from Quebec as far as Atlantic provinces, some more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) away, and hire a risk mitigation company to deal with the record surge.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
Six people were killed at a small, private Christian school just south of downtown Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the building containing about 200 students, police said.
A Maryland court did not give the family of the murder victim in the case chronicled in the hit podcast 'Serial' enough time to attend a court hearing in person that led to Adnan Syed's release, a Maryland appellate court ruled Tuesday, and it ordered a new hearing to be held.
France's highest court ruled Tuesday against extraditing 10 former far-left militants who were convicted of attacks in Italy carried out in the 1970s and 1980s.
Migrants fearing deportation set mattresses ablaze at an immigration detention centre in northern Mexico, starting a fire that killed at least 40 people, the president said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest events ever at a Mexican immigration lockup.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
Serious money is heading for Canadian industries looking to reduce emissions after the federal government unveiled its answer to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.
Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. is moving away from its medical cannabis distribution business and preparing to transfer patients to a platform run by biopharmaceutical company Avicanna Inc.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
An Australian company lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.
It's a surreal moment in an already surreal war: the grave but calming baritone of actor Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker of 'Star Wars,' urging people to take cover whenever Russia unleashes another aerial bombardment on Ukraine.
Five-time Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell and Estonian composer Arvo Part have won the 2023 Polar Music Prize, a Swedish music award.
Prince Harry returned to a London court Tuesday for a second day of hearings to see if the phone hacking lawsuit he brought with Elton John and other celebrities can withstand a challenge from the publisher of The Daily Mail.
The U.S. Federal Reserve's bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bank's management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said Tuesday, but its managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problems.
Flair Airlines said Monday it has reimbursed virtually all 1,900 passengers whose flights were cancelled after the seizure of four of the carrier's planes earlier this month, but some customers say they are owed more money.
Tucked into the 2023 federal budget unveiled on Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals have announced plans to explore implementing a standard charging port across Canada, in an effort to save Canadians some money and reduce waste.
It may seem improbable - even impossible to some - but each day for the last three years, a 71-year-old Toronto woman has laced up her shoes, put one foot in front of the other, and headed out for a run
Alex Jung found his way back to the water in 2018 and began instructing other trans swimmers. But, he says, it was a 'challenging pursuit' without a community. Now creating that sense of support is becoming more mainstream at local fitness centres.
The brother of the late New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez is facing criminal and motor vehicle charges in Connecticut, accused of throwing a brick onto the ESPN headquarters campus and eluding police during brief pursuits in other towns.
Shohei Ohtani is among several players going into their final seasons before they are eligible for free agency. There is still time for signatures and press conferences before opening day, but history shows a new contract becomes less likely once the real games begin.
U.S. highway safety regulators have opened yet another investigation into problems with Teslas, this time tied to complaints that the seat belts may not hold people in a crash.
California lawmakers on Monday approved the nation's first penalty for price gouging at the pump, voting to give regulators the power to punish oil companies for profiting from the type of gas price spikes that plagued the nation's most populous state last summer.
Craig Pollock's latest project, Formula Equal, would be the first team in the sport that's 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women, he says, with that equal split applying across the whole organization -- from the cockpit to the engineers to the boardroom.
