Country music icon Shania Twain had her fair share of ups and downs, as her heightened career produced the best selling country album of all times, Come On Over, as well as harbored her heartbreaking 2008 split and later divorce from former husband Robert “Mutt” Lange. While Lange helped the star craft her highly successful 1997 album, the marriage tragically crumbled when Twain learned of her husband’s romantic feelings for her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. However, this bombshell was far from being over, as the singer sought comfort and love in Thiébaud’s ex-husband, essentially committing the “spouse swap” of the century and living happily ever after with her new love, Frederic. Yet, this exceptionally emotional and difficult time led the singer to endure personal conflicts and embark on new levels of stress and anxiety.
Despite Twain’s remarkable career and record breaking accomplishments, the singer opened up to Rolling Stone about her significantly dark times that inspired her upcoming album, the first in nearly 15 years. She admitted that the writing process has been significantly therapeutic, saying, “It helped me come to terms with a lot of things emotionally. It’s sort of like when you finish crying. When you’re done, you’re done and you move on.”
One song in particular, “Who’s Gonna Be Your Girlfriend”, is a direct interpretation of her emotional downfall from the collapse of her marriage to Lange. She confided in the Rolling Stone by explaining, “[The song is] about feeling unappreciated and knowing that you are secondary. Having to live with someone that has different priorities and accepting that you’re not the most important thing in a person’s life.” However, while the singer’s prospective album is brimming with dark references and the attempt to move beyond her emotional demons, Twain has also penned a variety of songs that address overcoming pain and reaching towards the light at the end of the tunnel.
In addition to Twain’s personal life mishap, she was also diagnosed with dysphonia, a vocal disorder that inhibits one’s voice due to affliction of the mouth, tongue, or vocal chords. Although enduring therapy and desperately struggling to overcome this medical hurdle, the “Up” singer admits that she finds her new sounds virtually unrecognizable and, essentially, new. “I’m a different singer now,” Twain spoke. “There was a lot of coming to terms with that.”
While the highly-regarded singer’s album in the works has yet to secure a name, Twain is nothing short of hopeful and optimistic in light of getting herself back into the rodeo that is country music.