In a new interview with TalkShopLive, Shania Twain is speaking out about her road to recovery from a surgery on her throat.
The 57-year-old country music icon underwent throat surgery in 2018, and her forthcoming album, Queen of Me, will be her first since the procedure. She has a massive tour planned for the new year, and she’s concerned about the results pf her surgery maintaining.
“For me, this album means so, so much about my decision-making and the courage to get the operation knowing that I may never even be able to sing again after the surgery,” she said. “So that was a big decision.”
She pushed herself to arrive at a space where she felt comfortable recording again. He last album before this one was Now, which was released in 2017. That one was her first since her divorce from her husband and longtime collaborator Robert “Mutt” Lange.
“Every day I was recording, I was testing the new voice,” she said. “Getting on the mic in the studio – it’s so vulnerable. You can’t draw it out with production or a band or mixing or anything like that until much, much later on.”
As such, Shania Twain calls Queen of Me her most meaningful album yet.
“What’s even more precious to me is that I don’t know if the procedure that I had will last forever,” she said. “With age, it could just not hold up. I’ll have to make another decision. Will I do the operation again or not? Do I just now write music for other people’s albums at that point? I will gladly do that and again, it will be another decision that I will have to make as the queen of me. Some decisions are tougher than others.”
The new album arrives on February 3, and she teased the new release with a single titled “Waking Up Dreaming” in September. As she closed a Las Vegas residency and prepared a massive support tour for the new music, she feels great right now. She had a massive 2022, accepting induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and earning the Poet’s Award at the ACM Honors in August. She also shared more about her Netflix documentary Not Just a Girl.
“I’ve shed a lot of weight psychologically in the last, I don’t know, few years, and life is good,” she continued. “And I’m feeling almost like I better live to be 150 because I’ve got so much to do.”
Shania Twain kicks off her 2023 with a performance at the Tortuga Music Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on April 15. Then, she takes to her headlining tour that kicks off in Spokane, Wash. on April 28 at Spokane Arena.
Twain will perform at arenas across North America throughout the year, including a big stop at Geodis Park in Nashville, Tenn. on June 7 which kicked off the round of tour announcements. The run continues until November 14, wrapping in her native Canada in Vancouver at Rogers Arena.
Check out all of the dates on her itinerary and get ticket information for each stop at her website.
