Shania Twain has seen a lot of change in the music industry, and she’s delighted country looks to be catching up.
More Female Artists
The Man! I Feel Like A Woman hitmaker has reflected on the way the genre has transformed over the years, with “more females” joining her at the top of the game.
Speaking to Extra, she added, “The fact that we are seeing more women — in fact, it’s dominating this year — is because we are recognizing that we’ve not given them enough space and they’ve been under appreciated.”
The You’re Still The One singer hopes the Academy of Country Music Awards can be a “celebration” of “diversity”.
She said, “We’re experiencing a lot more open-mindedness in the genre.”
Meeting New Artists
Shania is set to host the ACM Awards for the first time this weekend, and she’s “excited” to meet “all these new artists” emerging in country music.
She said, “I’m going there in the spirit of bringing maybe some comfort, bringing some encouragement to the performers that might be feeling, you know, nervous or anxious.”
“I’ve been there. I know how they’re feeling.”
The 60-year-old singer is absolutely no stranger to the ACM Awards, having won three prizes at the prestigious event over the years.
Wilson & Langley
This year, she’s proud to be hosting and looking forward to meeting the likes of Lainey Wilson and Ella Langley.
She’s met Lainey before, albeit “too briefly,” so she’s keen to “speak with her” and “get to know her a little bit.”
As for Ella, Shania warned that the country music scene had “missed out” by not taking notice of her sooner.
She explained, “Ella Langley is somebody that I have a lot of curiosity about.”
“She has obviously been around for a while, because there’s no way she would have just popped out of nowhere, right? And I think we’ve missed out on her for a few years.”
“We needed to have her earlier on… So I want to be able to tell her that and say, ‘Finally, you’re here! I’m so happy that you’re finally here.'”
New Shania Music
Shania is still going strong in her own right, with new single Dirty Rosie out now while she works hard on her upcoming seventh studio album.
Teasing what to expect from the LP, she told PEOPLE magazine, “It’s a reflection of my childhood, the environment I grew up in. There’s a lot of descriptive language.”
Shania added that 2023’s Queen of Me was a “peak moment of self-empowerment.”
She said, “I’m turning 60 and I feel good and I’ve got to celebrate that. I’m grateful to have made it this far.”
“So I was celebrating that with all of the Queen of Me music. But who makes you who you become basically. I had never shared that with the fans before.”