In an interview with Billboard during the development and start of her 2023 tour, Shania Twain shared a remarkably upbeat setlist that she had initially believed she would never perform again.
She’d worked hard to get back to singing, and now she had a demanding schedule of daily rehearsals while also being in charge of everything from lighting to costumes.
Though she acknowledged, “My days are very long,” Twain was up to the task. She has already experienced a level of suffering and heartbreak that would break most people.
And it all began when she was still quite young. From growing up in poverty to struggling against patriarchal attitudes in a field dominated by men, Twain’s life has not been without hardship.
Her triumphant album’s release and her subsequent return to the stage following a period that would have been a death sentence for the majority of musicians are testaments to an unbreakable and iron will. This kind can only result from a lifetime of pain.
Since the moment of her birth, Shania Twain has faced challenges. In her autobiography, “From This Moment On,” she discussed the doctor smoking a cigarette in front of her mother”.
After a long and traumatic breech birth, she broke the heartbreaking news that her daughter had died. Against all odds, the infant eventually took his or her first breath.
Her mother’s first child with her husband Clarence Edwards and second child overall was Mark Twain. Eilleen Regina Edwards was her given name at birth. Twain’s older sister, Jill, was born soon after their mother’s engagement ring perished in a car accident, and she and Edwards would not have a happy marriage.
Despite her mother’s assurances that her father had requested him to cut all ties with the family when her parents divorced when Twain was a young child, she couldn’t help but wonder.
She said, “I was aware of his existence growing up.
“I wondered if he was thinking about me and what he thought of me. ”.
When Twain’s mother wed the man she would later refer to as her father, she was just about to start kindergarten. Jerry Twain, an Ojibway Native, was described by her as having “a bright, charming personality with a playful character and plenty of jokes and pranks up his sleeve.”. She remembered that even as a young child she had realized that her parents had a violent relationship, despite her praise for her stepfather’s virtues.
Shania Twain has been incredibly open about the effects her family’s upbringing in extreme poverty had on them. During her “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” interview, she shared personal anecdotes about how difficult it was to grow up in Canada without having access to things like warm clothing and waterproof boots, as well as what it was like to have to come up with an excuse for skipping lunch.
Even though her stepfather held a succession of fluctuating minimum-wage jobs, Twain claimed in her autobiography, “From This Moment On,” that the family’s ongoing financial difficulties eventually led to physical violence.
She claimed that her stepfather once “slammed her [her mother’s] head against the side of the basin, knocking her out cold,” and that “it’s likely that my mother might have been nagging him about not having enough grocery money”. Jerry was repeatedly inserting and removing her mother’s head from the toilet bowl.
The police were called after Twain and her sisters fled to the snow-covered porch and screamed while doing so. When the police showed up, it is said that the fighting stopped and they said, “Until next time. ”.
Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800) 799-7233 if you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence. Additionally, their website contains additional resources, information, and help.
