I am so not into country music, but I do have a few songs from the genre that I've always loved. Whilst traveling, it has amazed me to find TV stations dedicated to country music in the States and Australia, and they weren't at all half bad to endure. But despite my liking some songs by The Judds and Dolly Parton, the country stars that most caught my attention are those who’ve crossed over to pop.
Among them is the biggest female cross over star: Shania Twain. It's for her 85+ million total record sales that she will be awarded with an Icon award by Billboard. The news of this has been buzzing for weeks and it was actually the first time in a long time I've heard her name drop again.
I actually was convinced she had partially retired, because I remember writing about her farewell tour for my own website and even then, I was surprised she was still at it because I hadn't heard new music in years. I just haven’t been keeping ‘up’ (pun intended).
The “Up” album is the last album I actually heard about and that’s only because I used to watch a lot of British television, at that time, and actually visited the UK often. She was still huge there, while in the Netherlands people were sort of moving on to the next craze. Regardless of her pop, rock and dance combination, the country tag probably just didn’t work in her favor in my region.
I think what separated Shania Twain from everyone else, at the height of her success, is the wit she showed in her lyrics. This was especially present in songs like “Man! I Feel Like A Woman”. But she just had it all. She was very versatile, jumping from that humor to sincere love songs like her hit “You're Still The One”.
I actually only recently found out I probably never heard the original versions of some of the songs from this era as the “Come One Over” album turned out to have been adjusted for the European market to make it less country than it was for the States. That explains why I liked it I guess. It had much more a pop and rock sound combined with country. It’s a combination that worked, especially put together with her fashion style and good looks.
After this highly successful period for her, “Up” still got enough attention, but I did lose sight of her until I saw billboards of her Vegas show when I was in Vegas. Later, when I heard about her retiring from touring, I assumed she would still be creating new music and she would be having plans to release new albums. With all the focus on her again, she has actually promised to do just that. I hope it’s not “when money grows on trees, people live in peace and everyone agrees.”
