For a younger generation of musicians and fans, Shania Twain is still the one

Long before Harry Styles duetted with her at Coachella — before Taylor Swift praised her on TikTok, before the Austin City Limits fest announced her as a 2023 headliner — the Twin Cities were already hip to the idea that Shania Twain is, well, hip.

Take it from one of the coolest singers in town, Jaedyn James, who has belted out Twain's songs at an annual tribute to the Canadian country-pop star at St. Paul's Turf Club.

"It's true that '90s western fashion and feminism are hot right now," said the Minneapolis funk and soul singer, "but I need it to be known that Shania Twain has always been cool."

Take it from one of the most prominent rock journalists in the country.

"All the things Shania pushed for, Taylor [Swift] benefited from," said author and TV producer Jessica Hopper.

And take it from one of the Twin Cities' best-loved drag queens.

"She's always been the kind of woman she wants to be, so she has long been an inspiration that way," said Sasha Cassadine, one of the stars of last weekend's Flip Phone drag brunch tribute to Twain in downtown Minneapolis.

Not a lot of music-industry pundits who dismissed her slicked-up country-pop songs such as "You're Still the One" and her elaborate, sometimes gooey videos in the late 1990s would have guessed Twain would be considered so cool in 2023. Her revitalized fandom is above and beyond other waves of '90s nostalgia now popular with Gen-Z listeners too young to remember the first wave of her career.

Twain herself hasn't exactly worked hard to stay so relevant. Her latest album, "Queen of Me," is only her second all-new record since 2002. And her current tour is also only her second cross-continent outing in 20 years.

The main reason the 57-year-old singer has been less active in the 21^st century is because she lost her singing voice in the early 2010s after suffering from Lyme disease. She also went through a high-profile divorce with one husband (record producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange) who had an affair with her best friend, whose own husband Twain then wound up marrying (Swiss Nestlé executive Frédéric Thiébaud).

Shania's resiliency through all this has certainly resonated with fans. So has the more fun and bold sides of her music and image — a playful sexiness, but still strong feminism akin to fellow '90s-celeb holdout Britney Spears.

"She really knew what she wanted as a young woman in the industry and fought for it, and it paid off in the end," raved Faith Boblett, another prominent Twin Cities singer who's performed at the Turf Club's Twain tributes (look for another this fall).

Still, Boblett admitted, she was surprised to "hear the crowd singing every word to every song" at the first of those Twain tribute shows in 2019.

"A lot of the cool kids who thought 'Come on Over' was cheesy back then have kind of come around," she theorized.

"Her music sort of transcends cheesiness now. It's like McDonald's or Diet Coke. It's so catchy and well done, it's irresistible."

And then there's the fashion side of Twain's career, with sequined body suits, animal-print dresses and glammed-up country wear in keeping with her music's country-to-pop crossover appeal — a look she has kept up even in recent years. Case in point: the cow-print suit she wore to the Grammy Awards in February.

"I think a lot of her costumes were ahead of their time," said Flip Phone entertainer Cassadine, who cited Twain's fashionable hits "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under" as "perfect drag-show anthems."

"I'm just the queen of myself," Onya said, explaining it in Twain's own voice. "I'm not the queen of anyone or anything else. I shouldn't have any control over anyone else; no one should have any control over me, either."

Citing recent transphobic laws passed in other states banning drag performances, Onya added, the album has "really registered" with the LGBTQ community: "She's just promoting everyone to be who they are and be proud of who they are."

The director and co-producer of the recent Epix docuseries "Women Who Rock" — a celebration of all the women who shaped rock and pop music — Minneapolis native Hopper pointed to a tearful interview with Twain as one of the standout moments during filming.

"Seeing Shania Twain get choked up talking about Taylor Swift, being ebullient about Taylor having complete control over her career and winning all these fights that Shania tried to fight in the '90s and early '00s," Hopper said. "It felt really cohesive to me as a kind of narrative arc."

As for the Minneapolis singer who always sang Twain's praises, 33-year-old Jaedyn James sees Shania's renewed fame as a result of fans under a certain age being able to easily access her music today.

"When younger generations hear a song they like on a streaming service, TikTok or Instagram, they can fall into legends like Dolly Parton, Kate Bush or Celine Dion without even blinking twice. We all can. And we are!"

With: Hailey Whitters.

Where: Xcel Energy Center, 199 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul.