It's been 23 years since the release of what has now become a female anthem, Shania Twain's song Man! I Feel Like a Woman and, in a new interview, the artist opens up about the inspiration behind and intention of the track.
In a new interview with WhiskeyRiff, Shania, who recently went on the record about posing nude, says that the 1999 song represented her finally feeling "okay" about womanhood.
"When Man! I Feel Like A Woman [...] came out, it was so obvious the song was [about] liberated, independent, human beings," the 57-year-old artist said to the outlet. "Celebrating your own spirit, and I felt it all through the songwriting. I’m just thinking, this feels like party song. It just made me feel like I’m standing up for myself. I’m not apologetic about all the things that are criticized that I’ve experienced in my own life. That’s too tight, that’s too short, for me to just start even recognizing that I’m okay with being a girl."
The track, which Shania wrote herself and is featured in her third studio album, Come on Over, has clearly resonated throughout the years - a fact that isn't lost on its creator.
"I hadn't written Man! I Feel Like a Woman for any particular person, except for the way I was feeling," explained Shania. "It's like everyone's song and they all take ownership of it in a different way, even regardless of what hte song stands for and represents and has come to represent."
Perhaps most consequentially, the tune truly shaped Shania's career, catapulting her smack-dab in the middle of pop music, inadvertently also making a statement about the importance of the country genre.
"Man! I Feel Like a Woman is a signature song for my entire career," the mother-of-one said. "This song was absorbed by a global audience, which changed things for me as an artist, of course. I'm a part of pop culture now. It wasn't a courageous thing to write this sort of statement, but once I said it, then I'm like, this is [a] very satisfying thing to say, 'Man, I feel like a woman' and I love that."
Shania's fifth and last studio album, Now, came out in 2017 but, in recent months, the artist has been mounting a comeback of sorts pegged to the release of her next album, Queen of Me, which is scheduled to drop on February 3.
Other recent projects include the new Shania Twain documentary Not Just a Girl on Netflix, in which she reveals how COVID-19 pneumonia inspired new song among other interesting factoids.
Back in December of 2022, just a few weeks after famously recreating her That Don't Impress Me Much look at the People's Choice Awards, where she also performed a greatest hits medley, the star opened up on devastating double betrayal that saw her husband cheat on her with her best friend.
Clearly, Shania praises honesty and candidness above all else - a fact that gets us even more excited about her five-years-in-the-making new album that is sure to sell out once released next month.
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