The real reason why Shania Twain wrote ‘Man, I Feel Like a Woman’

At 58, country-pop superstar Shania Twain is showing the world what bigger and better looks like with each decade.

The best-selling female country artist of all time — with more than 100 million records sold worldwide — just announced that she will return to Las Vegas for her third residency entitled, “Come On Over!”

She also added an upcoming U.K. tour following the success of her sold-out “Queen of Me” tour, featuring hits from her sixth full-length album of the same name that came out last year. Her recent global tour became one of the Top 10 highest-grossing country tours of 2023.

The five-time Grammy winner — and the first artist in history to release three consecutive diamond-certified albums — has earned a lifetime of accolades, but to the Canadian-born star, her greatest accomplishment has nothing to do with albums sold or millions made.

“I think [it’s achieving] self-awareness,” the singer-songwriter revealed to Mika Brzezinski at the 3rd annual Forbes and Know Your Value 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi on Friday. “It’s been such a journey — I’m still not there — but I’m learning more about myself all the time. And the reason I’m saying that is because being [at the Summit] over these days, I’ve learned more about myself in one concentrated time … I think that’s amazing.”

Twain joined a star-studded line of speakers and female icons who came together for the annual International Women’s Day event to build cross-generational alliances, mentorship opportunities and share lessons in leadership from the world’s most powerful women.

Earlier in the week, Twain also led a mentorship workshop with students from Cranleigh Abu Dhabi, a local high school. There she gave one-on-one career guidance, informed in part by her own struggles early in life. As a child, Twain says she witnessed domestic violence at home, lived in poverty and often went hungry. Then at the age of 22, her parents suddenly died in a car accident,  leaving her to raise her three younger siblings.

But through all of that hardship — including a divorce, and open-throat surgery to restore her voice after a longtime battle with Lyme disease — she persevered.

As one of music’s most celebrated trailblazers, Twain shared her best advice to overcome — and thrive — in spite of past traumas, challenges and self-doubt.

Here are the biggest takeaways from her remarks at the 30/50 Summit:

On resilience

Twain: “My own mother died at the age of 42 … In fact, both my parents died in that same car crash. So, it was difficult because it was a premature age to lose my parents.

I go back to thinking how I did survive and overcome and stay motivated, in life in general, whether it was the violence in [my] home [as a child], or whether it was going hungry in our home or going cold…

The hardships made me feel less fearful of what was ahead. But of course, I didn’t know that I was then going to have health issues with my voice, I would lose my voice. And then need open-throat surgery.

…Hold on to optimism, whatever you do, do not let go. Hold on to optimism with dear life.

I think we all have to be able to appeal to our survival self, which is the not-quitter self, which is the I’m-going-to-keep-going, I-can-do-this self and find another way to live your life happy, content and meaningful.

And you know, and I also think being a contributor — finding a way to remain a contributor — will always bring back something to you as well.”

On her health battle to regain her voice

Twain: “…The core of what I’ve always done from the very beginning to escape the violence at home, to escape being hungry — a lot of things in my youth — I turned to writing, using my imagination, creating my own world, creating my own characters, creating my own stories, taking myself out of my environment and my current situation: Escapism through writing.

And when I lost my voice, all hope was not lost. I was devastated that I may not ever sing again. And that was, you know, a pending reality. But I was ready to shift all of my energy and was actually excited about now focusing so much on my writing.

I was ready to write books, I was ready to write poetry. I was ready to write music for other singers. And so I wasn’t going to be stopped by that — it was just one hurdle. But I had to be ready to adapt.

And that is the imagination. The imagination is free, just like water. And this is what takes you beyond the blocks, takes you beyond the hurdles, through them, around them, under them.”

On self-doubt

Twain: “… As a performer and entertainer and artist, I say let’s change the language from 'self-doubt' to 'conscientious.' When you question yourself, and you take a step back, and review and review yourself, you are making yourself better because you are the one that stops to look in the mirror and observes … and reflects to try to figure out what it is that is preventing [you] from moving forward.

And this is where you … start getting creative. OK, how can I move forward? How can I be better? What do I have to do?

So self-doubt doesn’t belong in my vocabulary anymore. When I refer to myself, I’m conscientious — I’m a professional — I want to be excellent. And it’s normal — when you’re striving for something great — if you don’t question yourself somewhere along the way, and if you’re not open to others questioning you … even criticizing you … then there’s no point. There’s no growth there for you, in my opinion.”

On confidence

Twain: “I’m a very self-conscious person in a lot of ways. It’s a work in progress. And this is why I wrote the song, 'Man, I Feel Like a Woman,' because I was always very self-conscious about my body. 

So, I grew into my bust very early — I was 12 years old — I was already in a C-cup bra [size].

Everything I did, I bounced. I was walking down the hall when the classes were changing in school … And a boy passing me, grabbed my shirt and ripped it open from top to bottom. And I was so humiliated.

I wasn’t aware that I was … attracting attention just because I had a C-cup. But from then on, I wore two bras — and they were smaller sizes to prevent myself bouncing — and always oversized shirts from then on. I did that for a long, long time. 

And when I wrote the song 'Man, I Feel Like a Woman,' I was stating — exclaiming — that I am happy in my own skin. And this is my shape.

… So I really took ownership of finally being a woman and I was 33 by that time!”

On being stuck in challenging situation

Twain: “You need to escape through your imagination … You know, when I was a child, I often felt I was blocked … you can’t feed yourself, so you’re relying on your parents, who aren’t feeding you. So, you’re stuck.

There are so many things like that in my life where I was stuck. If my father was beating my mother, I did what I could as a little kid, but this was muscling my ability to help her. And this is why I talk about the spirit of a woman and the water, because you’ve got to find your way around those blockages. And it may not happen all at once or in that moment.

When I was 13, I remember saying to myself, ‘This is the worst year of my life and I’m never going to have a year as bad as this ever again.’ I promised myself that from that moment on, that was my challenge: To never feel like this young girl.

And then ask yourself what you’re going to do about it. Set out what your intentions are and that gives you the purpose for setting the goals.

Why do I want to do this? What do I want to achieve? And even if in the moment it doesn’t feel achievable, because it may not be achievable right then and there — you may literally be blocked — you’ve got to go into your imagination and escape is what you’ve got to do.

You’ve got to create another reality, and this is going to give you skills to go there whenever you need to. It keeps you sane, it’s therapeutic. And the beauty about the imagination is you create your own reality and you can change it as you go. This is control … So, I found my own therapy and that was my imagination — and my creative already in progress.”