Welcome on the Shania Twain Page at surf.to/MartinKers. Here you will find info about Shania's life and some exclusive pictures.

Name:

Eileen Regina Edwards

The chosen name Shania is the Ojibwa Indian word for "I'm on my way."

Twain is the surname of her adoptive father

Born:

August 28, 1965

Windsor, Ontario,

Canada Fan Club Info:

Canadian Shania Twain Fan Club

P.O. Box 1150

Timmins Ontario, CANADA

P4N 7H9

U.S. Shania Twain Fan Club

9 Music Square South

Nashville, TN 37203

Shania was born in Canada on August 28, 1965, the second oldest of five siblings. Shania was raised in Timmins, Ontario (about 500 miles due north of Toronto), where her stepfather, an Ojibway Indian, and mother had both been raised. It was a proud but, at times, impoverished existence. There may have been a struggle to keep enough food in the cupboards but there was always an abundance of music in the household. Shania often grabbed a guitar and retreated to the solitude of her bedroom, singing and writing until her fingers ached. "But I loved it! I grew up listening to Waylon, Willie, Dolly, Tammy, all of them," she recalls. "But we also listened to the Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters, the Supremes and Stevie Wonder. The many different styles of music I was exposed to as a child not only influenced my vocal style but, even more so, my writing style." Mom noticed her daughter's talents, and Shania was soon being shuttled to radio and TV studios, community centers, senior citizen homes, "everywhere they could get me booked." Part of the legend has eight year-old Shania being dragged out of bed at midnight to sing with the house band at a local club after the nightly liquor curfew went into effect. Later, she spent summers working with her father as the foreman of a dozen-man reforestation crew in the Canadian bush, where she learned to wield an axe and handle a chain saw as well as any man. In the winter season, she would sing in clubs and do television and radio performances as often as her schooling would allow. At age 21, Shania lost her parents in an auto wreck. She then took on the task of handling her parents' affairs as executrix and the responsibility of bringing her three younger siblings to live with her. She managed to keep the household going with a job at Ontario's Deerhurst Resort, which not only provided for her new family responsibilities but also gave her an education in every aspect of theatrical performance, from musical comedy to Andrew Lloyd Webber to Gershwin, and experience quite different from the bar gigs she grew up doing. After a couple of years the kids came into their own, lightening the load of her responsibilities. It was 1990, and she was on her own. Shedding her real name, Eilleen, she adopted the Ojibway name of Shania, pronounced shu-NYE-uh, meaning "I'm on my way." Shania's way resulted in a demo tape of original music and a road map to Nashville. Although Shania was signed on the basis of her original material, her self-titled debut album of 1993 featured only one of her songs, the feisty "God Ain't Gonna Getcha For That." It took a phone call from a distant admirer, rock producer Mutt Lange (AC/DC, Cars, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and many others) for Shania to find a true believer, both in her voice and her original songs. Shania and Mutt met face to face in 1993 and were wed in December, by which time they'd written half an album's worth of tunes together. As the following year unfolded, they traveled (and wrote) their way across the U.S., Canada, England, Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. They began to lay down basic tracks for the new album in Nashville, later recording overdubs and mixing in Quebec. The first results of the labor, "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" entered the Billboard Country Singles chart in January 1995; The Woman In Me debuted on the Country Albums chart the following month. The single rose to #11 and The Woman In Me was certified RIAA gold. Its flip side, "Any Man Of Mine," hit the charts in May and became the first of four consecutive number ones for Shania, every one of which spent the requisite 20 weeks on the list, including "(If You're Not In It For Love) I'm Outta Here!" (b/w "The Woman In Me (Needs The Man In You)"), "You Win My Love," and "No One Needs To Know." Two more singles were released in late '96, "Home Ain't Where His Heart Is (Anymore)" and the lullaby-hymn "God Bless The Child," with proceeds donated to Kids Cafe/Second Harvest Food Bank in the U.S. and the Canadian Living Foundation which provides meals for underprivileged children there. Altogether, Shania's run on the singles chart spanned well over 100 weeks, an amazing achievement for one album with no touring. But with the completion of Come On Over, Shania has turned her attention to her maiden tour, which promises to be the premiere event of 1998. "When I get out on tour, I'll be able to do a full show of original songs that people will be familiar with. It's going to be ideal, almost like I couldn't have planned it better, even though I didn't really plan it at all. I'm glad I waited, and I'm going to give it all I've got to make it everything the fans have been waiting for."

Made by M. Kers

Copyright 1999

All rights reserved.

ICQ: #37090435