Queen of Me by Shania Twain
Queen of Me is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer and songwriter Shania Twain. The album was released on February 3, 2023, by Republic Records. It is her first album since Now (2017), and is her first to not be released with her previous label of 29 years, Mercury Nashville. The album was promoted with the release of two singles: "Waking Up Dreaming" and "Giddy Up!", and will be supported by the "Queen of Me" World Tour starting in April 2023. Background After releasing the compilation album Greatest Hits in 2004, Twain released the single "Shoes" for the soundtrack to the television series Desperate Housewives. Later, experiencing the breakdown of her marriage, Twain divorced her longtime husband and songwriting partner, music producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, in 2008. She remarried to Frédéric Thiébaud, the husband of her former best friend, in 2011. The same year, she released the promotional single "Today Is Your Day", which had a moderate impact on the charts. Twain underwent vocal therapy after being diagnosed with dysphonia and Lyme disease, which caused her to nearly lose her singing voice; she embarked on a concert tour and Las Vegas residency before releasing Now in 2017. The album reached #1 in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. Twain then embarked on the successful Now Tour as well as her second Las Vegas residency, Let's Go!. Twain released a Netflix documentary, Not Just a Girl which documented her career to date as well as documenting some of the recording for her sixth studio album. Tracks previewed in the documentary include "Inhale/Exhale Air" and "Queen of Me".
In the six years since Shania Twain released her 2017 album <i>Now</i>, the country-pop trailblazer has been through the wringer. In 2018, she underwent open-throat surgery—an attempt to fix lingering vocal issues caused by a 2003 bout with Lyme disease—that required her to not only be conscious, but to <i>sing</i> through the operation so that the doctors could identify any misalignment. “Terrible,” she tells Apple Music. But getting her voice back after 15 years? “Euphoric.” Then, at the height of the pandemic, a bad case of COVID morphed into life-threatening pneumonia that led to Twain being airlifted to a hospital. “I was pretty much dying,” she says. But she prevailed. Twain has made a career out of turning trauma into triumph. Her warm, winking, wholesome hits have always offered more than comfort; they reframe the way we see ourselves and our circumstances for the better. Bad break-up? Relish your freedom! Disrespected? Reclaim your womanhood. Not impressed much? Demand better. On album after album, she’s led by example, processing her many hardships—a violent, abusive childhood; the death of both of her parents in a car crash; a messy divorce sparked by her husband’s affair with her best friend; and so on—through relatable, hopeful songs that depict someone stronger, bolder, brighter. On her sixth full-length, she does it again—only this time, raspier and a little more sensual with her new post-surgery voice. (She has leaned into the change, of course, noting that she “actually got more depth”.) <i>Queen of Me</i> is more complex than its bumper-sticker title lets on; these songs explore loneliness, regret, motherhood, marriage, survival and the strength it takes to keep your head held high. These would be heavy topics in anyone else’s hands, but Twain, a seasoned, savvy songwriter, has always had a way of floating over her misfortunes, making even the most dispiriting obstacles feel surmountable and small. The woman simply refuses to wallow. Instead, she flips the script: A toxic, controlling ex inspires a toast to her financial independence (“Queen of Me”); breaking up with a dead-end narcissist sparks an empowerment anthem about knowing her worth (“Brand New”); and a harrowing near-death experience prompts a tribute to the invisible, life-giving forces we all take for granted (“Inhale/Exhale AIR”). “You celebrate when you get through something difficult,” she says. “I do, anyway.”
