Shania Twain Faces Unexpected Career Setback After New Album Release

Shania Twain has hit an unusually low point on the charts with the arrival of her latest album.

The 60-year-old country music superstar released her seventh studio record, Little Miss Twain, late last month, but the project has become the weakest-charting album of her career.

The album opened at No. 131 on the Billboard 200, selling just 12,000 copies in its debut frame.

That marks a steep fall from Twain’s previous studio release, Queen of Me, which entered the chart at No. 10 in 2023.

Her earlier chart history includes two No. 1 albums: 2002’s Up! and 2017’s Now.

Across her decades-long career, Twain has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, securing her place among the best-selling artists in music history.

In interviews to promote the project, the singer admitted that Little Miss Twain is far more personal and less commercial than her previous work. 

Speaking to Billboard Canada, Twain said that the album focuses a lot on her childhood and contains, ‘a lot of things that I wouldn’t normally write about as a commercial songwriter’.

She also admitted that she was nervous to release the record due to its deeply personal subject matter. 

‘I’m full of anxiety and excitement at the response but even if you find one lyric that speaks to you or makes you feel something I’ll be happy,’ she wrote on Instagram.

‘The emotional journey on this album was a true rollercoaster and there were moments where I felt like I was sitting with my younger self while my mother looked over me. It was very painful at times, but telling some of these stories out loud was also incredibly healing, and then there was the fun and laughter,’ she continued.

‘Thank you for going into the next chapter with me – it’s not easy to evolve as an artist and keep your people with you but you’ve been loyal and supportive through it all.’

It comes as Twain has faced criticism from both age and body-shamers in recent months after wearing a string of scantily-clad outfits while opening for Harry Styles in London.

The sex symbol has also admitted to dealing with her own insecurities and struggling with her changing appearance.

‘I go from being this young, stunning figure, beautiful skin, everything’s in the right place to a time in my life where I couldn’t look in the mirror because all I could see were imperfections and not wanting to be that curvy thing,’ she told People magazine in July.   

Over the years, the singer has learned to accept menopause and let go of trying to control her changing body.

‘It is well-being first, always, to becoming an older woman and now looking in the mirror, no problem. I’m like, I just have to get over this because every day that goes by, I’m getting older; the dips and bulges and the sags are just getting more and more prominent,’ she asserted.

‘I’m not trying to be 30. I’m not trying to be 25, and I won’t be ever again. That’s my own fault for not looking in the mirror when I was younger, and shame on me. I encourage everybody: enjoy yourself the way you are right now and love it,’ she explained.

‘Vanity is not worth torture. I’m just learning every phase that I go through, and I adapt.’

Twain has dealt with trolling over her raunchy outfits while on tour with 32-year-old Styles.

Most recently, she sparked an online firestorm after a TikTok clip from her June 26 performance at London’s Wembley Stadium went viral.  

She was singing her 1999 hit Man! I Feel Like a Woman! while wearing a revealing black lace dress and executing low crouches. At one point during the provocative number, she almost suffered a wardrobe malfunction. 

TikTok users were quick to criticise the ensemble, with some branding it ‘tacky’ while another said that Twain was ‘too talented and beautiful for this’ and needed a new stylist.

But Twain said that she refuses to let external comments or societal standards affect her.

‘My body is not shameable. That courage comes with time and maturity. Body shaming is nothing that’s going to affect me,’ she said.