In her most recent Netflix documentary, Not Just A Girl, Shania Twain is shown in London as she works on her sixth studio album.
What You Gonna Do With That Air is the song she records when she pulls up in a black cab with her hair wrapped up in a bun.
When she reaches the chorus of this upbeat pop song, Twain can’t help but punch the sky, although the inspiration was far gloomier.
The vocalist reveals, “It’s about the fear of running out of breath.
“I had a really serious case of Covid pneumonia, and it was extremely close to death. I was feeling like, oh my God, I just have to breathe.”
Shania Twain had already felt the tightness in her throat, which made the situation all the more terrifying.
When she was at the height of her celebrity in 2003, she was bitten by a tick and developed Lyme illness, which damaged the nerves in her vocal cords and rendered her voice unusable for almost 10 years.
Shania Twain only fully healed following open throat surgery, resurfacing in 2012 to perform the first of two hugely successful Las Vegas residencies with a fresh rasp.
Following Covid, Twain reemerged with a bang. What You Gonna Do With That Air poses the question, “What will you do with the extra time you’ve been given?” as well as celebrates life.
She grins and says, “The Super Bowl would be a terrific one,” referring to the well-known half-time performance. The target is an excellent one. I only have to decide which tunes to play.
The 57-year-old has consistently managed to survive.
Her harsh upbringing in Windsor, Canada, where she was born. She remembers “the embarrassment of coming to school unclean because we didn’t have water” and her parents not being able to purchase meals.
“To keep your chin up and function without letting it shut you down requires a lot of mental management.”
Violence also occurred inside the home. Twain described a night when her mother’s second husband knocked his wife out and then tried to drown her in the toilet in her autobiography. Twain seized hold of a chair and slammed it against his back. He delivered a blow to her jaw. She struck back. She was 11 years old at the time.
Shania Twain thanked God for music because it allowed her to “actually leave my situation.”
My instrument began to remind me of a teddy bear. Even now, all I want to do is sit and hold a guitar if one is present. It only serves as a sort of blanket, so I don’t need to do anything with it.
Music Industry
Twain’s mother encouraged her to perform as her skill matured. She would frequently be roused from bed at one in the morning to perform at nearby clubs, where licensing regulations prohibited her from singing while alcoholic beverages were being served.
Although she was gaining recognition, her goal was to provide Stevie Wonder with backing vocals rather than to become a famous singer.
She remembers, “I didn’t have any urge to be at the front.” I’ve always had awful stage fright.
She was 21 when cruel fate struck. Twain was compelled to accept a job singing in a nearby resort to support her younger siblings after her mother and stepfather perished in a car accident. That ultimately resulted in a recording deal, and she was thrust into the music industry’s quagmire.
“However, by the time I arrived in Nashville, I realized that I was not afraid of this. A few sexist men don’t scare me. Childhood was over, and the rest was much simpler.
She undoubtedly required resilience. She’s gorgeous, but can she sing? were among the early headlines, and the singer Steve Earle famously referred to her as “the highest-paid lapdancer in Nashville.”
Twain, though, got the final laugh. She was one of the first “crossover” stars, skillfully blending stadium rock bombast with country ballads.
The formula was created by her then-husband Robert “Mutt” Lange, the producer of Def Leppard’s Hysteria and AC/Back DC’s In Black, even though she sang Pat Benatar in a teen covers band while other country singers idolized Patsy Cline.
The Woman In Me, their debut album together, was certified 12 times platinum. Due in large part to the mega ballad, You’re Still The One and humorous, powerful anthems like That Don’t Impress Me Much, the follow-up, 1997’s Come On Over, sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. It continues to be the ninth best-selling album of all time in the US and the best-selling album by a female artist in the entire world.
She states matter-of-factly,
“I’ve been accused of forever altering the sound of country music.” But I’ve also been charged with destroying the nation. I’ve been charged with several different things.
Despite the complaints, Twain’s songs steer clear of rage and retaliation. On songs like Man! I Feel Like A Woman!, where she discusses feminism, the lyrics are upbeat and jubilant.
“It serves no use to be furious. We don’t get far with it,” she claims. “Male! Every man I see is singing. I Have a Womanly Feeling! Considering that was my aim, he or she is acting in good faith.
“Neither men nor women live in the same world. This is our world, which we must respectfully share.
But if I believe you have gone too far, I’ll speak up for myself and let you know.
When Twain had Lyme illness, she was in the midst of a global tour. She describes how the symptoms included “millisecond blackouts” that happened once every minute in her documentary.
“I was terribly dizzy on stage before I was diagnosed. I was concerned that I might drop out.
Shania Twain was confronted at that time with not just the end of her career but also the end of her marriage. They split in 2008 because Lange had an affair with her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. (Twain eventually wed Frederic, the ex-husband of Thiébaud; her documentary skillfully ignores this convoluted situation.)
These emotions all influenced her most recent album, Now, which was composed solely by her and published in 2017.
In the slow-burning ballad I’m Alright, she sang, “I tried to scream/But silence haunted/Me in my sleep/Oh, and probably always will.”
However, Twain’s unwavering optimism is back on her upcoming record.
I just really wanted to cheer myself up with the pandemic, she explains. As everyone is aware, it was a mentally and emotionally draining process that lasted for months and months and months.
“I just want to be happy, I thought. And to me, that represented resuming wordplay and writing upbeat songs.”
The album has not yet been given a release date, but the first single, Waking Up Dreaming, has already been added to BBC Radio 2’s playlist.
The song debuts as Taylor Swift, Avril Lavigne, and Haim sing Twain’s praises as a trailblazer and a feminist icon, helping to raise her profile.
Also a fan, Harry Styles asked the celebrity to perform a duet with him at Coachella.
She chuckles,
“It’s strange that I have classic music and I’m still alive. “It almost feels like it’s happening too soon.
“The funny thing is, all these little kids I remember seeing at my concerts all these years ago are now grown adults and the equivalent of Harry Styles and Taylor Swift.
Also Read: M. Shadows Married His Wife After A 6th-Grade Romance
