SHE’S the undisputed queen of country pop with a £320million fortune, more than 100million record sales and is about to step into the Glasto Sunday legends slot straight from her third Las Vegas residency. Along with her predecessor Dolly Parton , Shania Twain is a trailblazing music powerhouse who has paved the way for female performers like Taylor Swift to take on the world. And with country music having its very own moment, her Sunday Glasto performance is expected to draw the biggest crowd of the festival weekend.
But beneath the sequin stetsons and glittery cowboy boots, Shania’s backstory is one of childhood poverty, abuse, grief, illness and heartbreak, which makes her global success taste even sweeter. She was born in Ontario, Canada , in 1965, one of three girls to Sharon and Clarence. But her parents divorced when Shania was two and her mother’s second husband, Jerry Twain, adopted the girls.
Their home life was one of abject poverty, with Shania and her sisters often going to school hungry. When Sharon spotted her daughter’s musical talents she knew she had found a way to make money. So from the age of eight, Shania would be woken up from her sleep to perform in bars after midnight, because that was the time when they were legally required to stop serving alcohol to drinkers.
“I would go to do the after-hours set and everyone was already intoxicated,” the five-time Grammy winner has revealed. “It was a terrible environment for a kid. But I was very p.
