'Queen of Me' singer Shania Twain wearing a black turtleneck

Music

Everything You Need to Know About Shania Twain’s New Album, ‘Queen of Me’

Shania Twain is back with her sixth studio album and her first album in six years, 'Queen of Me.' The album, Twain has said, is a celebration of her strength at this point in her life and career.

by Chris Malone

Published on January 31, 2023

3 min read

Shania Twain returned to music in 2017 with her ‘Now’ album

Shania Twain was on top of the world in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her 1997 album Come on Over remains the highest-selling album by a solo female artist of all time, and she earned three back-to-back diamond certifications for her albums The Woman in Me, Come on Over, and Up!. But personal struggles began to get in the way of Twain’s career: she was diagnosed with Lyme disease and thought she would never sing again.

Twain returned to the stage in the early 2010s with her first-ever Las Vegas residency show. In 2017, she released Now, her first album since 2002’s Up!. She had a second Vegas residency that wrapped in 2022 after the release of her Netflix documentary Not Just a Girl. With her second Vegas show in the rear view mirror, she announced the release of her next album, Queen of Me.

Shania Twain’s ‘Queen of Me’ album is a celebration of herself

The title Queen of Me is self-explanatory in regards to the message Twain wanted to get across. Now in her 50s, Twain is more in love with herself than she ever has been — and she wants you to be too.

“I’m feeling quite liberated in so many ways,” Twain said on the Making Space podcast. “I’m feeling positive and optimistic, but still at the same time unapologetic. I don’t feel like I need to explain myself as much as probably ever in my life. But I feel very responsible, still. The Queen of Me title for the album couldn’t be more fitting for where I’m at in my own mind.”

For her, being the Queen of Me means being able to handle life’s challenges with confidence. “I’m responsible for myself, I take the good with the bad, I know I’ve got faults, I know I’ll never be perfect, and I’ll keep striving to be better, but I’m mostly enjoying the search, enjoying the evolution,” she said.

Queen of Me‘s release has been preceded by the singles “Waking Up Dreaming” an “Giddy Up!”; the former is a touching song about the beauty of life, while “Giddy Up!” evokes classic Shania Twain, complete with a line dancing-filled music video.

Twain signaled a shift in her self-image with the release of “Waking Up Dreaming,” as she posed topless for the first time on the single’s cover art. It was her way of reclaiming her body after years of feeling ashamed of showing it. “I styled that photograph myself,” she told The Sun. “It was all about taking off the bra, taking off the shirt, tying the shirt around my waist. This is a statement of being comfortable in my own skin and just being really myself.”