The Sad Story Of How Shania Twain Damaged Her Voice
As one of country music's biggest crossover artists, Shania Twain has continued to entertain fans throughout the past few decades. From her show-stopping fashion choices to her iconic songs, the "You're Still The One" hitmaker knows how to make a splash.
While we know Twain for being a singing superstar today, there was a time when critics questioned her capability for longevity and success. In an Instagram post from September, Twain shared an old quote that is sure to raise a few eyebrows. "She's America's best-paid lap dancer in Nashville. She's hot, but can she sing? Is Shania just another flash in the pan? The most famous midriff in Nashville," it said. In the following slide, Twain boasted some of her many accolades, some of which include selling more than 100 million records, winning five Grammy Awards, becoming the best-selling female artist in country music, and being the only female artist to have three consecutive diamond albums. Twain also announced her new single, titled "Waking Up Dreaming," and informed her Instagram followers that she had been working on more new music. "Every time I get to announce something like this I get such a rush of adrenaline and nerves – it never gets old," she explained.
To date, Twain has released five studio albums, 2017's "Now" being the most recent. Prior to that, Twain hadn't put out a full-length project for 15 years due to a certain diagnosis that stopped her from singing.
Shania Twain was diagnosed with Lyme disease
After dominating the 1990s with her signature hits "You're Still The One," "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" and "That Don't Impress Me Much," Shania Twain was still in demand in the 2000s. Her 2002 album "Up!" debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard 200, becoming her first chart-topper in the country. Not only that, it remained at the top for five weeks and was promoted with a Super Bowl halftime show performance the following year.
At the height of her career, Twain was embarking on a tour that became her last for more than a decade. While horseriding, she was bitten by a tick that was infected with Lyme disease. Even though she was given a diagnosis soon after, she knew something was wrong after feeling so ill during the final stage of her tour. "My symptoms were quite scary because, before I was diagnosed, I was on stage very dizzy, I was losing my balance, I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage," she said in her Netflix documentary, "Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl" (via Entertainment Tonight). "I was having these very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly — every minute or every 30 seconds." After being treated, Twain's voice continued to suffer, resulting in damaged vocal cords. "My voice was never the same again ... It just went into this strange flanging, lack of control of the airflow; I didn't understand it," she continued.
Shania Twain thought she would never be able to sing again
After being diagnosed with Lyme disease and losing her voice, Shania Twain underwent open-throat surgery. "I did believe that I would probably have to accept at some point that I was never going to sing again," she explained on "Loose Women" in 2020.
The "Party For Two" hitmaker described the procedure as "very scary" and insisted that her voice is now different from what it originally was. "My speaking voice is definitely the biggest effort. Sometimes I get a bit raspy... singing is actually easier," she said. "I have more power when I'm singing now. I have more character, I find. I enjoy singing again. Speaking is the more difficult challenge for me than singing, which, 'Okay, I'll take that!'"
Unfortunately, Lyme disease and losing her voice wasn't the only struggle Twain had to face during her musical hiatus, as her husband and the father of her son, Robert "Mutt" Lange, had an affair with her best friend, Marie Anne Thiebaud. The couple officially split in 2012. "In that search to determine what was causing this lack of control with my voice and this change in my voice, I was losing my voice," she said in her Netflix doc, "Shania Twain: Not Just A Girl" (via Entertainment Tonight). After stepping away from the music scene, it was her 2012 duet with Lionel Richie, "Endless Love," that inspired Twain to get creative again. Her 2017 comeback album, "Now," topped the US Billboard 200 in its first week.