“The Woman in Me” by Shania Twain

This record, not anything by Taylor Swift, legitimately changed country music forever.

This album review looks back at the country icon’s star-making sophomore album ahead of its 30th anniversary.

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Genre: Country, Pop

Label: Mercury

Release Date: February 7, 1995

Vibe: 🤠🤠🤠🤠

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👉 Click the GIF to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈

Country music’s relationship with change has been called “complicated” over the years, but I’d prefer to use a more accurate adjective: regressive. An easy recent example was the Luke Combs cover of “Fast Car,” a crossover success that had news outlets falling over themselves to discuss how it exemplifies unity. However, recent data and anecdotal evidence show that country music still has a long way to go before it is truly inclusive despite being more popular than ever. It’s not only on the racial front either—women have been increasingly shut out of country radio playlists, especially if they don’t fit into some traditional (read: chaste) notion of femininity. No one understands this truth more deeply than its biggest star, Shania Twain.

Before releasing The Woman in Me, Twain existed on the peripheries of Nashville’s more insular artistic assembly line. Her self-titled debut album, whose cover features her standing ankle-deep in snow, clutching a fur scarf around her neck, all while a wolf stands next to her and gazes into the camera, underperformed commercially and resulted in her playing small gigs to middling crowds with a backing track CD as support. That’s not even the worst part of the story—CMT also refused to play the music video for “What Made You Say That” because she was showing too much of her midriff and pissing off too many conservatives in the process.

“I was criticized as an artist. I’m surprised I ever had any hits actually when I read them now,” Twain said in an episode of her Apple Music show. “[For] example, part of the quote from one of my reviews was: ‘She’s America’s best-paid lap dancer in Nashville. She’s hot, but can she sing? Is Shania just a flash in the pan? The most famous midriff in Nashville.’” Sure, dozens of dudes can enjoy massive chart success with songs about beer and trucks, but god forbid a strong-willed woman should attempt to bring any variety or nuance to the genre’s songwriting template. Can’t get all “woke” or “progressive” on folks. Also, I don’t want to hear any dismissiveness about “it was a different time,” either. It was gross then, and it’s still gross now.

Rant over. Back to Twain’s debut and the enormous positive that came out of it—the record got her noticed by superproducer Robert John “Mutt” Lange. It seems like it would be an odd match due to Lange’s background as a celebrated 80s rock band whisperer. He’s produced hit records for artists including AC/DC, Foreigner, Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis and the News, and Def Leppard, always putting an emphasis on a massive, arena-ready sound, complete with outsized harmonies and thick, thudding drums. Tracks like “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” and “Jukebox Hero” are examples of Lange’s sensibilities that, for much of the 80s and 90s, delivered the best of both worlds to the labels he worked for. His songs sounded great (and still do) and sold by the millions.

According to Twain, she and Lange built a long-distance relationship based on their love of music. He was a huge fan of American country music, and she was an admirer of his late-80s rock classic in particular. They eventually began writing songs together and, in December 1993, became husband and wife. Around the same time, Mercury became more vocal about prepping a sophomore album they hoped wouldn’t deviate too much from the established Nashville sound. But, once she got into the studio to record The Woman in Me, it was clear that what they were making was so distinctive that, as Shania remembers it, her label reps were growing increasingly skittish. “[They said] I would be hated by the men because I was too opinionated and too forceful and demanding, and I would be hated by the women because I was being sensually expressive,” she recalled.

After a fresh listen, I was reminded of how catchy Lange’s production choices are throughout the album. The instrumentals are clear, crisp, and full of hooks that you wouldn’t think translate as well to a country setting from a rock one, but they all work incredibly well. For example, there’s a lot of “Pour Some Sugar on Me” in “Any Man of Mine,” the track that became Twain’s first No. 1 country single and peaked at No. 31 on the Hot 100. The stomp-clap refrain and call-and-response bridge vocals are as infectious as anything the duo would release on Come on Over, an LP that, with 40 million units sold worldwide, is the biggest album ever released by a solo female artist. The added oomph to the low end also helps tracks like “No One Needs To Know” immensely, giving it a pop it would’ve lacked had it been recorded in Nashville conveyor belt fashion.

What I love most about The Woman in Me is Shania’s perfectly calibrated vibe. You get sincere moments, mostly ballads, that deliver the goods when it comes to grand romantic sentiment. But, on the other side of the aisle, you have a track like “You Win My Love,” a precursor of sorts to “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” where Twain toys with the men pursuing her by letting them know she’s looking for “a lover who can rev his little engine up.” In lesser hands, it’s the kind of winking cruiser that would morph into a try-hard disaster. Instead, it’s an ultra-confident line-in-the-sand moment that lets the boys know that, if they want it, they need to come get it. She’s far from an easy catch, as she details on “[If You're Not In It For Love] I'm Outta Here!” The verses sketch out encounters with sleazeballs only interested in one thing, and, as she makes quite clear, she isn’t about to exchange her body for fame or fortune. She can get the latter just fine on her own, thanks.

Say what you will about the Taylor Swifts and Carrie Underwoods of the world, but country music’s pop appeal can largely be traced back to Shania Twain and, more specifically, The Woman in Me. After being released in February 1995, it sold 4 million copies before the end of that calendar year, an unprecedented feat for anyone not named Dolly Parton. As of this writing, its total global sales sit north of 20 million. The album also won numerous awards, including the 1996 Grammy for Best Country Album. She’s still the only non-American to accomplish that feat. Even CMT, once diametrically opposed to what Twain brought to the table as an artist, ranked The Woman in Me No. 8 on its list of the 40 greatest country albums ever. It’s not necessarily about getting back at her haters, but when discussing this record on her Apple Music show, Twain called its success “very satisfying.”

That’s the understatement of the year.