Shania Twain, 60, Looks “Unrecognizable” on the ACM Awards Red Carpet
Shania Twain hosted the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards on May 17 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It was her first time hosting, making her only the third woman to solo-host the show after Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire. She opened with a monologue (“Honey, she’s HOME!”), changed outfits multiple times, presented Entertainer of the Year to Cody Johnson, and announced her new album Little Miss Twain.
The look that set off the “unrecognizable” chatter: a silver sequin strapless gown by Falguni & Shane Peacock from their Ashen Roses Collection, with a black panther motif across the skirt (a nod to the designers’ logo), satin streamers at the chest, and studded elbow-length black leather opera gloves. She debuted blunt “sexy bangs” and a fresh hair color.
On the Making Space with Hoda Kotb podcast in 2023, Shania addressed the recurring surgery rumors directly: “What if I’m one of those that doesn’t heal very well? Then I’m gonna hate that about myself.” She said the speculation actually pushed her somewhere else: “Maybe that was probably part of what pushed me to go, OK, it’s time to start loving yourself in your own skin.”
Here’s what the tabloid coverage of her face is leaving out.
Shania was born Eilleen Regina Edwards on August 28, 1965, in Windsor, Ontario. She grew up in Timmins in deep poverty (her “poor man’s sandwich” was bread and mayo), in a household her mother Sharon was trying to escape. Her stepfather Jerry Twain, who was Ojibwe, adopted her. The name “Shania” is an Ojibwe word meaning “I’m on my way.” She started performing in bars at age 8, often doing midnight sets, to bring home $20 in tips and help feed the family.
On November 1, 1987, Jerry and Sharon were killed in a head-on collision. Shania was 22. She moved her younger siblings Jill, Carrie Ann, Mark, and Darryl into a cabin and kept gigging in bars to keep them fed and clothed.
The Woman in Me came out in 1995 and sold over 20 million copies. Come On Over followed in 1997 and became the best-selling studio album by a female artist of any genre at the time. Her total career sales are over 100 million records worldwide.
Around 2003, at the very end of the Up! tour, a tick bite during a horseback ride gave her Lyme disease. The bacteria traveled to her larynx and caused bilateral nerve damage in both vocal cords. There was a stretch where she couldn’t call her dog. Her voice would cut out mid-word. It took roughly 7 years for doctors to connect her symptoms to Lyme. In her 2022 Netflix documentary Not Just a Girl, she said she was ready to die during the overlapping years of losing her voice and learning her husband and producer Robert “Mutt” Lange was having an affair with her best friend.
Around 2011, she had two open-throat surgeries to stabilize her vocal cords. She had to be awake for parts of the procedures, singing on the operating table so surgeons could position the implants correctly. Years of vocal retraining followed. The damage is permanent and will slowly worsen, but she’s said: “I have a different voice now, but I own it. I love my voice now.”
She is 60 years old.
