Shania Twain Describes Her Tough Battle With COVID
Shania Twain revealed that she had a bad bout with COVID during the pandemic that had her a bit concerned. She told InStyle in a new interview, “I had a…
Shania Twain revealed that she had a bad bout with COVID during the pandemic that had her a bit concerned. She told InStyle in a new interview, "I had a very bad battle with COVID, and my lungs were filling up with COVID pneumonia, and I was losing my air. I survived it, but it was iffy."
Shania said that when she had COVID, she was writing the new song "Inhale/Exhale Air" and that a simple video clip and a breathing exercise evolved into that song. She explained, "This minister, he just starts breathing in through his nose, out through his mouth. And I'm like, 'I still identify with this.' He says, 'Air. What are you going to do with it?' What are you going to do with it? It's free; it's there, don't take it for granted. I celebrated it by writing a song about it." She added, "Air is in everything. Air is in the bubbles in our champagne. What would we do without air? If we didn't have air, we wouldn't have champagne. I know it's simplifying it. This is having fun with wordplay. We wouldn't have balloons if we didn't have air. Obviously, we wouldn't be alive without air. But I take a playful perspective on it, and it becomes celebratory."
Twain says that it was while the world was locked down and she was recovering from COVID that she wrote the songs for her new album Queen Of Me. "I was writing all these songs in my pajamas."
After the bout with COVID and her vocal surgery, she says she was writing so much because she may be on borrowed time. (She also dealt with lime disease in 2003.) She said, "It's a reminder, don't take time for granted. Don't take the opportunity for granted. It's possible I might lose it, that it may not last. I guess any prosthetic or support that you get that is synthetic, your body still may give out around it. It could happen."
Shania changed the face of country music in the late 1990s and her influence is still felt today as many country superstars like Kelsea Ballerini, Carly Pearce, Taylor Swift, and more cite her as a major influence.
To celebrate all things, Shania, we're counting down her 13 finest songs that we just can't get out of our heads.
13. "Endless Love" (Lionel Richie featuring Shania Twain) – 2012
UMGThis is a remake but done so nicely by Twain and Richie who recorded it at Shania’s home in the Bahamas. Lionel Richie told me in an interview later that she was the hardest person to pin down when he decided to record his country collaboration album, Tuskegee. He also said that he was so happy with the final result of the duet.
12. "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" – 1995
IMGReally the song that started it all for Shania who splashed onto the scene like a hurricane in 1995. Still a solid song to this day. Shania never misses a chance to sing this now classic in her concerts.
11. "The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You)” – 1995
UMGThis is another song Shania wrote with her then-husband and producer Robert “Mutt” Lange. It was her third number-one single on country radio. The music video for "The Woman in Me" was shot in Cairo and Saqqara, Egypt. It was filmed during the first week of July 1995 and released on August 9, 1995 on CMT. In the video, Twain is riding around on a horse through the desert by the pyramids and riding a boat down the Nile River.
10. "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!" - 1995
UMGHer fourth number one song and the first single promoted with several different mixes. "I'm Outta Here!" was later included on Twain's 2004 Greatest Hits package, and has been performed on all of her tours.
9. "God Bless the Child" – 1996
UMGA touching song that showed Shania’s softer side. Her eighth single from her ‘Woman In Me’ album, the video features two choirs. One included the Fisk University Jubilee Singers, and the second was a local performing arts choirs singing along with Twain in a hangar at the Nashville airport.
8. "Love Gets Me Every Time" – 1997
UMGThe lead single from Twain's third studio album "Come On Over."Twain developed the song at first and brought it to Lange under the title, "'Gol Darn Gone and Done It", which derived from a country expression. The name made Lange burst into laughter when he first heard it, and the couple completed the song together.
7. "Any Man of Mine" – 1995
UMGThis song was nominated for both Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance at the 1996 Grammy Awards. It won Single of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards.
6. "Honey, I'm Home" – 1998
UMGThis one is freaking catchy. I’ve been singing it since I started this list. Is it fair to say the lyrics are super simple? Well, they are, and maybe that’s what appeals to me. The song became Shania's seventh, and to date, her final number-one single on the Billboard Country singles chart.
5. "That Don't Impress Me Much" – 1998
UMGAny song that mentions that Brad Pitt doesn’t “impress me much” is a winner for me. Yeah, I love Pitt, but this song has it all, and what a beat. In 2017, during a listening party for her fifth studio album Now, Twain revealed the reason behind using Brad Pitt's name instead of other male celebrities. She said that after she heard about the scandal between Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow and the subsequent leaking of Pitt's naked photo in Playgirl magazine, she was left unimpressed by all the fuss as she felt that it was normal to see naked people.
4. "From This Moment On" – 1997
UMGWhat an emotional love song! This song was written during a soccer game in Italy. “My husband loves sports. I don't know the game that well, so my mind drifted, and I started writing." Initially, Shania thought that "From This Moment On" would be perfect for singer Celine Dion.
3. "No One Needs to Know" – 1996
UMGI have always loved the rhythm and the words of this song. She plays the song live in concert with just a twelve-string guitar. It is featured in the 1996 movie Twister.
2. "You're Still the One" – 1997
UMGSo very good. "You're Still the One" was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 1999, winning two. It won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Tim McGaw recently called it one of the best love songs ever written.
1."Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" – 1999
UMGAn epic anthem and the song that closes out every one of Shania’s shows. My son wasn’t even born till 2007, almost ten years after the song came out, and well, because of his mom, he knows every word.
