50 facts about Shania Twain: learned to wield an axe and handle a chain saw

Shedding her real name, Eilleen, she adopted the Ojibway name of Shania, meaning "I'm on my way."

1. Shania Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on August 28, 1965, the second oldest of five siblings.

2. She was raised in Timmins, Ontario, about 500 miles due north of Toronto, where her adoptive father, an Ojibway Indian named Jerry Twain, and mother, Sharon, had both been raised.

3. Twain often grabbed a guitar and retreated to the solitude of her bedroom singing and writing until her fingers ached. "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."

4. Her mom noticed Twain's talents, and soon the youngster was being shuttled to radio and TV studios, community centers, senior citizens' homes, "everywhere they could get me booked."

5. An 8-year-old Twain was often pulled out of bed to sing with the house band at a local club but only after alcohol sales ended at midnight.

6. Later, Twain spent summers working with her stepfather 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.

7. In the winter season, she would sing in clubs and do television and radio performances as often as her schooling would allow.

8. In 1987, at age 21, Twain lost her parents in an automobile accident.

9. She took on the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings. 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.

10. Three years later, with her brothers grown enough to take care of themselves, Twain was on her own.

11. Shedding her real name, Eilleen, she adopted the Ojibway name of Shania, meaning "I'm on my way." Twain recorded a demo tape of original music and set her sights on Nashville.

12. Although Twain landed a record deal with Mercury Records on the basis of her original material, her self-titled 1993 debut album featured only one of her songs, the feisty "God Ain't Gonna Getcha for That."

13. It took a phone call from a distant admirer, rock producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange (AD/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and many more) for Twain to find a true believer, both in her voice and her original songs. Twain and Lange met face to face in Nashville at Fan Fair in 1993 and married six months later, by which time they'd written half an album's worth of tunes together.

14. As 1994 unfolded, they traveled and wrote their way across the United States, Canada, England, Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. They began to lay down basic tracks for a new album in Nashville, later recording overdubs and mixing in Quebec.

15. The first results of their labor, "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under," entered the Billboard country singles chart in January 1995, peaking at No. 11. Twain's second album, The Woman in Me, debuted on the country albums chart the following month. The collection has sold 18 million copies, making Twain the best-selling country female artist of all time.

16. The single "Any Man of Mine," hit the charts in May and became the first of four consecutive No. 1 hits for Twain, including "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!," "You Win My Love" and "No One Needs to Know." The project won a Grammy for country album of the year and was named album of the year by the Academy of Country Music in 1995.

17. Twain's third Mercury collection, Come on Over, was released in 1997, two years after her last album.

18. The sassy "Man! I Feel Like a Woman," a Top 5 country hit, helped secure the singer a contract with cosmetics company Revlon, which used the tune in TV ads featuring Twain. Come on Over has sold 11 million copies to date.

19. The singer finally mounted her first major tour in 1998 following the release of Come on Over. The highly anticipated outing helped earn Twain entertainer of the year trophies from the ACM and the Country Music Association in 1999.

20. Twain has won a total of five Grammys, including two for best country song ("Come on Over" and "You're Still the One") and two for best country female vocal performance ("Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and "You're Still the One").

21. She also has taken home trophies from the Canadian Country Music Awards, Canada's JUNO Awards and the American Music Awards.

22. In 1999, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) named Twain both country songwriter of the year and pop songwriter of the year. Her ballad, "You're Still the One," was named BMI's country and pop song of the year.

23. At the top of her game, Twain retreated to her home in Switzerland with her husband at the end of 1999.

24. She and Lange welcomed their first child, a son named Eja, together in the summer of 2001 while preparing her 2002 release Up!, featuring the hit single "I'm Gonna Getcha Good."

25. Twain released her "Greatest Hits" album in the fall of 2004.

26. She was also featured on the "Desperate Housewives" soundtrack in 2005 and sang a duet with Canadian legend, Anne Murray, in 2007.

27. In 2008, Twain and Lange divorced.

28. On January 1, 2011, it was announced that Twain and Swiss businessman, Frederic Thiébaud, were married in Puerto Rico. It is the second marriage for both.

29. On June 8, 2011, at a press conference at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Twain announced that she will headline Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for two years.

30. Outside of her show at Caesars Palace, Twain performed two concerts at the Calgary Stampede in Calgary, Alberta on July 9 and 10, 2014.

31. Alongside her Calgary Stampede shows, Shania also headlined a show on Labour Day weekend at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

32. On March 4, 2015, Twain announced on Good Morning America she will be going on tour for the first time in 11 years, and will begin June 5 in Seattle, Washington.

33. Twain also announced this will be her last tour before her fifth studio album, which she intends to release while she is 50.

34. In an interview on Global Television Network's The Morning Show on March 6, Twain confirmed that she is not retiring from her music career after the tour.

35. In an interview with Radio.com published on March 5, she stated that she has found several producers for her upcoming album, describing it as "soul music".

36. Twain's mainstream pop acceptance was further helped by her appearance in the 1998 first edition of the VH1 Divas concert where she sang alongside Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Carole King and Aretha Franklin, and also by VH1's 1999 heavily aired Behind the Music, which concentrated on the tragic aspects of her early life as well as her physical attractiveness and Nashville's early resistance to her bare-midriff music videos.

37. After Divas, Shania Twain wrote and/or sang background vocals with her then husband Robert John "Mutt" Lange the songs, "If Walls Could Talk" and "Goodbye's (The Saddest Word)" for Celine Dion.

38. On November 12, 2008 Twain made her first television appearance since her split from ex-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange, where she appeared as a surprise presenter at the 42nd CMA Awards.

39. On August 17, 2009, Entertainment Weekly announced that Twain would be a guest judge on American Idol in Chicago, for the show's August 30 and 31 episodes.

40. In April 2010, Twain announced plans for her own TV show, titled Why Not? with Shania Twain. The show debuted on May 8, 2011 on OWN.

41. Twain returned to American Idol as a guest mentor for a week where the top 6 contestants showcased her songs.

42. After the conclusion of the ninth season Twain was very close to becoming a judge but ultimately it was Jennifer Lopez who got the job.

43. The city of Timmins Ontario, renamed a street for her, gave her the key to the city, and built the Shania Twain Centre in her honour.

44. Twain joined Canadian singer Anne Murray on the song "You Needed Me" on Murray's Anne Murray Duets: Friends and Legends album released November 13, 2007 in Canada, and on January 15, 2008 in the U.S.

45. In July 2011, fellow Canadian superstar Michael Bublé confirmed in a live video chat with fans that he recorded a duet of 'White Christmas' with Twain for his 2011 Christmas album.

46. In January 2005, Twain joined Scentstories by Febreze to create a limited edition scent disc with the proceeds going to America's Second Harvest.

47. Late in 2005, Twain partnered with Coty to produce her namesake fragrance "Shania" by Stetson.

48. A second fragrance was released in September 2007, called "Shania Starlight".

49. On January 1, 2010, Twain carried the Olympic Torch through her hometown as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay.

50. On June 2, 2011, Twain received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her star is the 2,442nd Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Category of Recording.

Source: shaniatwain.com, Wikipedia.org