Something happened to Shania Twain on her way to a glam hoedown Wednesday at sold-out Xcel Energy Center celebrating her new album, "Queen of Me."
She arrived with a new sobriquet with an exclamation point — icon! To the LGBTQ community, Gen Z hipsters, nostalgic '90s country fans and women in general.
Shania songs that seemed catchy and corny back in the day now sound catchy and cool — and so karaokeable. Let's go girls. Her high-concept, playfully sexy videos are now regarded as empowering expressions of being a woman. Who cares that her voice has grown deeper and raspier after a career-pausing bout with Lyme's disease and dysphonia? From this moment on, she's iconic.
Nineteen years after her last hit, Shania, 57, has joined Cher and Dolly Parton as glammed up, bewigged, larger-than-life heroines who are more famous than their songs. Who cares if they use Auto Tune in the studio or lip-sync in concert?
Not surprisingly, after two Las Vegas residencies, Shania has put together an eye-candy extravaganza that on Wednesday was part KISS and part kitsch, part Vegas and part what-was-she-thinking over-the-topness. Nothing says man, I feel like a woman than a motorcycle that looks like a horse ready for a wheelie, a wild horse chasing after an alien or a saloon burning down. The faux motorcycle was live, the other bits were animation on a giant backdrop.
In the same month of King Charles' coronation, the native Canadian assured 15,000 Midwesterners that she is "Queen of Me" with a handful of selections from her 2023 album, which have not made a ripple on country or any other radio format.
"Waking Up Dreaming" kicked off the two-hour concert as a glossy Blondie-like bop with Twain, in a long blonde and pink wig, standing in the middle of the crowd. She sounded a self-empowerment theme on the frothy romp "Giddy Up!" and the teen pop "Queen of Me." She got fiery on the electropop "Pretty Liar," a sassy diss featuring some F bombs that could have been aimed at the friend who stole her husband or that husband who left her for the friend.
Thankfully, Twain mostly avoided 2017's forgettable album "Now" except for "Roll Me on the River," a dark, throbbing dirge. Instead, backed by four musicians and two singers, she concentrated on oldies, including a medley of deep cuts on the "Shania Party Playlist": "She's Not Just a Pretty Face," "When" and "Waiter! Bring Me Water!" among others.
But the fans came to hear and sing along to the hits. After saying the "next song is very emotional," Twain was joined onstage by eight couples from the audience (she hugged them) at their own small tables, for "From This Moment On." The power ballad turned into a giant sing-along with Twain doing a pas de deux with a backup singer atop an animated red rose projected onto the stage.
Later, in a moment of spontaneity, Twain invited onstage a fan named Dana who'd posted on social media about first seeing the singer in 1998 in Madison, Wis. By Dana's request, they sang "Up!" together even though Twain had offered it earlier in the evening.
But back to hits that made the night special, including the peppy fiddle tune "Any Man of Mine," the swinging rockabilly "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?" and the closing "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" which was irresistible with its insistent beat and exclamatory empowerment. And to make it a perfectly iconic ending, Twain wore the same outfit featured in the video for that enduring anthem. Oh, man!
Opening the concert was Hailey Whitters, 33, who last week was named best new female vocalist at the Academy of Country Music Awards. Hailing from "a tiny town in the middle of nowhere Iowa," she showed promise with tunes like "Plain Jane" and the hit "Everything She Ain't." And she scored extra points with the crowd because her fiddler, Sedra Bistodeau, is from Princeton, Minn.
