SHANIA TWAIN
Born: August 28, 1965 Height: 5' 4"
Born August 28, 1965, Shania "Eileen" Twain and her four siblings were reared in Timmins, Ontario , by her mother Sharon and adoptive father Jerry Twain. By the time she was 8, she was playing guitar, writing songs, and performing publicly. Upon graduating, Shania headed to Toronto to pursue music more seriously. In 1987, twain's world was shattered by tragedy when both her parents were killed in a car crash. Returning home to care for her younger siblings, she began supporting the household by singing and dancing at Ontario's Deerhurst Resort, where the experience of combining music with theatrical performance helped her develop a feel for showmanship that would later be put to good use. She continued to write during this period, and her first manager eventually succeeded in persuading a representative of Mercury Records in Nashville to listen to her demo tape.
Impressed by Twain's compositional skills, the executive signed the young singer, who was then still known as Eileen. In a bittersweet twist of fate, her first album featured only one of her original songs. Released in early 1993, the self-titled debut garnered little attention. Fortunately, however, after seeing her midriff baring video for the song "What Made You Say That," veteran rock producer Robert "Mutt" Lange determined he had to meet the woman behind the navel. Lange began work with her on her second album in late 1993. In December of that year, the pair got married. All evidence indicates that the two are deeply in love. Of course, love didn't prevent the couple from ratcheting her career up into the stratosphere.Her second album, released in February 1995, The Woman in Me, did considerably better than its predecessor. Eventually selling more than 10 million copies to easily surpass sales records of any previous album by a female country artist.
Perhaps one of the grandest indicators of her enduring success and acceptance into the singing elite came in April 1998, when she was invited to perform at VH1's Divas Live concert, an intimate gathering that featured contemporary music's foremost singers. Twain held her own alongside the legendary Aretha Franklin, as well as contemporary divas Celine, Mariah, and Gloria. The momentous occasion was documented on the CD Divas Live, released in October 1998. Reviews of her shows have been mixed, but no such similar ambivalence has been noted at ticket counters. Meanwhile, sales of Come on Over have surpassed the 17 million mark.
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