SHANIA TWAIN
(Picture right) "I'm not a great singer," Twain told The Los Angeles Times in 1995. "I'm just OK. It's more a personality thing. I have the kind of voice that people can relate to."
Enter Prince Charming, a.k.a. Mutt Lange. The hotshot producer who had helped Def Leppard, AC/DC and Michael Bolton to the top of the record charts saw Twain in a video and wanted to work with her. He called her from his home in London, and the two began a trans-Atlantic phone friendship that led to marriage in 1993. The couple also co-wrote 10 out of 12 songs on the pop-friendly, The Woman in Me, which won a Grammy award for Best County Album and sold more than nine million copies. Country music's newest sensation was soon summoned to sing at the White House.
Twain's sultry image, characterized by tight-fitting clothes and supermodel poses, played no small part in those phenomenal sales, although the singer is quick to defend the marketing plan. "The success started with the music," she told the Ottawa Citizen, "and it will continue with the music."
(Picture left) "There's a tough side of me that comes across in my songs -- a side women seem to pick up on," Twain told the Los Angeles Times. "Don't let this frilly look fool you."
These days, Twain and Lange live on a 3,000-acre estate in the Adirondack mountains. The success of her third CD, 1997's Come On Over, has proved that, despite her overnight success, the singer won't be turning into a pumpkin any time soon.
Still, Twain takes none of it for granted. "I know the way life works," she told the Knoxville News-Sentinel. "Life can do a really sharp turn on you all of a sudden, and I always expect that." Life could take a sharp turn on Twain again, but it looks like this time Cinderella has some pretty good tread on her glass slippers.
-- LORRAINE GOODS
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(Picture left) "There's a tough side of me that comes across in my songs -- a side women seem to pick up on," Twain told the Los Angeles Times. "Don't let this frilly look fool you."