Before she wa a award-winning songwriter, Shania Twain grew up with a survivor mindset, detailing her complicated childhood in the memoir From This Moment On, even describing the environment as a “fight for security.” Here’s what we learned about the “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” musician.
Shania Twain ‘grew up with the mindset of a survivor’
Before she was a chart-topping songwriter, Twain had a difficult childhood, even saying she was “unhappy” during that time. In her memoir From This Moment On, the songwriter noted that she rarely shared dark aspects of her life with others.
“My life had been a fight for security,” Twain continued, “a place in the world, the chance to pursue my goals.”
“From a very young age, I grew up with the mindset of a survivor, like a boxer in the middle of the ring, constantly spinning and turning, ready to punch anyone coming at me,” she added. “Life was not going to knock me down! I had to make it. So, I didn’t let anyone close enough to find a weakness that could undermine me.”
The artist credits her professional success, in part, to her tenacity —as well as her passion for music developed at a young age. (She even remembers playing with percussion instruments in kindergarten.)
The ‘Giddy Up!’ singer has survived a lot
Domestic violence was apparent in her childhood home — even if she noted the love between her stepfather and mother. At one point, her stepfather hit his wife’s head on the bathroom sink, with Twain and her siblings close enough to see.
“I was worried about my father killing my mother,” Twain said in an interview with the Guardian. “I thought they’d kill each other. My mom was quite violent, too. Many nights I went to bed thinking: ‘Don’t go to sleep, don’t go to sleep, wait till they are sleeping.’ And I would wake up and make sure everybody was breathing.”
Twain lost her mother when she was 22 years old — around the first time she released music professionally. Years later, the artist was diagnosed with lyme disease after being bitten by a tick while horseback riding. Despite challenges, the songwriter continues to write and release music, including 2023’s Queen of Me.
Shania Twain discussed her music career in ‘From This Moment On’
Twain released her first memoir, From This Moment On, in 2012 — offering insight into her music career and personal life. In 1997, Twain released a song of the same title for Come On Over, with lyrics detailing the narrator’s love for another person.
“I’d give anything and everything,” the artist sings. “And I will always care / Through weakness and strength / Happiness and sorrow / For better, for worse I will love you / With every beat of my heart.”
