Rick Overall, Ottawa Sun, May 31, 1998

They brought her right through the centre of the arena with the full house lights blazing and the locals went bananas.

"We love you Shania," they screamed and surged to touch her hands. She was carried triumphantly through the crowd of well wishers who threw flowers, stuffed animals, kisses, anything -- they ran after her in packs, beaming smiles from ear to ear.

Twain became royalty in their eyes because she had proved their faith in her was legitimate. The two hours of rockin' country she provided for them was far and above the expectations of most and a show that would soon be amazing audiences all over the continent.

"Shania Twain, what a helluva show she gave Sudbury," said the excited DJ on the local country station. "And just think, she'll be back to do it again Sunday night."

Despite a few technical miscues, Friday's first concert was a success and something that Twain and her fans are going to remember for a long, long while.

After all, every hit they had been singing along to on the radio and in their living rooms was packed into a frenetic two-hour show.

Just before Twain took the stage, her husband/producer and co-songwriter Mutt Lange stood in a walkway, watching the crowd and getting ready for the start.

I asked him how he was feeling and he smiled confidently.

"We've worked hard putting it together but what I'm really interested in seeing is how the people react, that will be the barometer," he said with his slight South African accent.

"I think the biggest concern for us is the sound. In a smaller arena like this, sound is always a bit of a lottery, you just never know."

The man running the Shania show is George Travis, also responsible for staging mega-tours for Bruce Spingsteen, Madonna and Mariah Carey.

While the crew scrambled madly to get everything in place on Friday afternoon, Travis looked calm.

"What Shania has done is allowed us to go out and get all the very best people in order to put on a first class show. We've got the best in the business, they've all got major experience with a host of top tours and artists," Travis said with a smile.

Twain made a major decision with the presentation of this show and that was to get seriously interactive with her audience -- that's what's going to endear her to the masses.

The fact that she built in a segment featuring a local choir singing backup on God Bless The Child worked well, as did karaoke singer Suzanne Nault who belted out What Made You Say That with Twain singing backup.

But the real winner Friday night was when Twain grabbed two young girls and hauled them on stage as she sang I'm Holding On To Love (To Save My Life). The younger of the two stood there thunderstruck but the older (about 11 or 12 years old) sang along with authority, taking turns with Twain on the mike and never missing a word.

It was genuine and even moving. It showed that as calculated and slick as this show is, there are still opportunities for genuinely joyous slices of humanity within it.

Those five minutes of unrehearsed star/fan contact reminded us of what this exercise is all about.

Knowing that Twain intends on doing this in every city on the tour gives the fans something to really hang on to -- hoping that they might be the lucky ones to be picked.

Twain also promised that she would keep a strong Canadian element in her production that filtered down through several technical areas to the most visible example -- using Leahy as the opening act.

The nine brothers and sisters served up a short but dramatic portion of their trademark brand of Celtic Electric sound.

But Twain's major coup here was to bring the whole group back on stage for an explosive Riverdance style presentation of her hit Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You).

With master fiddler Donnell Leahy joining her and the rest of Leahy providing the stepdancing power, this hit record suddenly became an all-Canadian treat.

What Shania Twain has done with this live performance is silence the critics who called her a studio creation, give the millions who adore her a show that they can treasure and prove to the entire planet that she is the real deal.

Local Twain fans who want to see her, will have to wait a while.

As of Friday afternoon the word on Twain's tour stopping in Ottawa was that November would be the most likely time frame.