|
|
| Birth Name(s) : Eilleen Regina Edwards |
Date of Birth: August 28, 1965 |
| Status:
Married
|
Partner:
Robert John Lange |
| Profession:
Musician |
Official Site
Go to the Shania Twain Official Homepage |
| << Add Shania Twain To Your Favorites |
Shania Twain Special Offers
|
Full Shania Twain Biography
Shania Twain was born as Eilleen Regina Edwards in 1965, the middle of three daughters to Clarence and Sharon Edwards (sister Jill is two years older and Carrie-Ann three years younger). When she was six, her mother remarried Jerry Twain, a full-blooded Ojibwa native from Timmins, Ontario, who adopted her as his own, making her 50% native in the eyes of the law. She started out singing in bars as a child after hours, and at 13, appeared on "The Tommy Hunter Show".
At 22, her parents were killed in an accident, and she became the legal guardian of her half-brothers (Mark, then 13, and Darryl, then 14) and sister, putting her musical career on hold to raise her family. In 1991 she changed her name to Shania (meaning "I'm on my way" in Ojibwa, it was the name of a co-worker), and signed a contract with Mercury Nashville that same year. Her first album went by without notice, but her second album (produced with Mutt Lange, who she wed in 1993) broke world records with its sales! |
|
Shania Twain Promotions
|
Additional Shania Twain Biography
Shania Twain, OC (born Eilleen Regina Edwards, August 28, 1965, Windsor, Ontario) is a Canadian singer and songwriter in the country and pop music genres. Her third album Come on Over is the biggest-selling album of all time by a female musician, and the best-selling album in the history of country music. She is the only female musician to have three albums certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America, and is also the best selling artist in Canada, with all three of her studio albums being certified double diamond by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. Twain has achieved both critical and financial success, having received five Grammy awards, nearly forty BMI Songwriter awards, and selling over 65 million albums worldwide to date.
Twain is the daughter of Sharon and Clarence Edwards, who divorced when she was two. Her mother then moved Eilleen and her sister Jill to Timmins, Ontario where her mother met and married Jerry Twain, a native Ojibwa Indian. He then adopted Eilleen, and her name was changed to Eilleen Twain. She has in the past referred to herself ancestrally as an Ojibwa Indian, but her background is Irish and French.
In 1984, she sang a duet performance on an album by Canadian musician (and present-day CKTB radio personality) Tim Denis.
Twain co-wrote only one of the songs ("God Ain't Gonna Getcha for That") on her self-titled debut album. The album's first two singles, "What Made You Say That" and "Dance with the One That Brought You" peaked at #55 on the Billboard Country Charts. By the end of 1993 the album had sold fewer than 250,000 copies.
In 1997, Twain released her follow-up album, Come on Over. This was the album that established Twain as a successful crossover singer. Slowly, the album started racking up sales. It never hit the top spot, but with the multi-chart hit single "You're Still the One", sales skyrocketed. Songs like "Don't Be Stupid", "Honey, I'm Home", "Man! I Feel like a Woman!", "That Don't Impress Me Much" and "From This Moment On" joined the 12 songs that eventually saw release as singles.
Twain's mainstream pop acceptance was further helped by her appearance in the 1998 first edition of the VH1 Divas concert, where she sang alongside Mariah Carey, Céline Dion, Gloria Estefan and Aretha Franklin and by VH1's 1999 heavily-aired Behind the Music treatment of her, which concentrated on the tragic aspects of her early life as well as her physical attractiveness and Nashville's early resistance to her bared-midriff music videos.
Up! was released as a double album, with three different "remix" discs - pop (a red CD), country (a green CD) and Indian/Asian (a blue CD). For North American markets, the pop disc was paired with the country disc and in international markets, the pop disc was paired with the Indian/Latin disc. The Indian/Latin disc was recorded in Mumbai, India. Up! was given 4 out of 5 stars by Rolling Stone magazine, and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart, selling 874,000 in the first week alone. It charted at the top for five weeks. The success of the albums pop version outide the US was equally amazing when "Up!" reached No.1 in Germany, No.2 in Australia and the Top Five in the UK and France. Especially in Germany it became a real longseller, certified quadruple platinum and stayed in the Top 100 for 1 and a half years.
The second European single became the mid tempo song "Ka-Ching!" (which was never released as a single in North America) with lyrics where Shania was criticising that money makes the world go around. The song eventually became another smash hit in the important European markets, reaching No.3 in Germany, the UK Top 10 and the Top 15 in France.
Due to the enormous European success of Up! and its first 3 singles, 2 more singles were released in the 2nd half of 2003 with up-tempo "Thank you baby" (No.11 in the UK, Top 20 in Germany) and just before Christmas the romantic, acoustic ballad "When You Kiss Me", at least a minor hit in both territories. The title track "Up!" also saw a single release in a limited edition of European countries, such as Germany, in early 2004.
In 2003, Twain participated in the Dolly Parton tribute album, Just Because I'm a Woman, covering Parton's classic "Coat of Many Colors", as a duet with Alison Krauss & Union Station. The cover peaked at #57 on the US Country charts as an album cut.
During the Super Bowl XXXVII halftime show Twain performed two songs, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and "Up!".
At the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 16, 2007, Twain said that she was currently writing songs for a new album, and that she is doing a "lot of soul searching" and "indulging in the writing". When asked with new music will come out she said "next year".
Shania married music producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange on December 28, 1993. The couple have a son, Eja D'Angelo (pronounced "Asia"). Twain and her family currently reside in Switzerland. She also has a ranch in New Zealand, where they own several horses. The Langes are vegetarians.
In November 2005, Twain appeared on an episode of the reality show The Apprentice. In September 2007, Twain released a second fragrance from COTY called, "Shania Starlight". |
|
| Add Shania Twain Biography (SuperUSERS) + |
| Add Shania Twain Review/Comment
|
HQ Shania Twain Pictures (418) | Random Shania Twain Picture
|
| << Back to the Shania Twain Homepage |
|
