How Shania Twain Reacted When Halsey Wore 1 of Her Signature Outfits
Shania Twain released her most popular music years ago, however, she’s still influencing current chart-toppers. For example, Halsey co-opted one of her most famous looks — the leopard print outfit from “That Don’t Impress Me Much” — in one of her music videos. Here’s a look at how Twain reacted to this development — and whether Halsey’s song was more popular than Twain’s.
Halsey released a subversive take on country iconography
Firstly, a little background. During the past few years, a number of pop stars started drawing influence from country music. For example, Lady Gaga released the album Joanne and Miley Cyrus released the album Younger Now, both of which have country elements. In addition, Beyoncé collaborated with The Chicks on the song “Daddy Issues.”
Halsey also released a country single around the same time — “You Should Be Sad.” While the song itself is lowkey, it has an over-the-top music video where Halsey plays with traditional country music iconography. For example, she and her dancers perform a line dance that gets very sexual. In another scene, she rides a horse in the nude.
One of the scenes of the video depicts Halsey wearing a leopard-print hoodie. Twain wrote a similar hoodie in the video for “That Don’t Impress Me Much.” According to Billboard, Halsey was trying to emulate Twain’s look.
How Shania Twain reacted to ‘You Should Be Sad’
So how did Twain react to Halsey’s homage? “It made me all warm and fuzzy and I was just very flattered and excited to know that I’m on the minds of the young artists coming up who appreciated what I was doing at the time with fashion and being beautiful and sexy without compromising integrity, which is what I really stood for,” she said. “So I’m glad that she embraced it, it was just flattering.”
Interestingly, Twain’s look is so famous she’s also referenced it on occasion. Twain released a duet with Orville Peck called “Legends Never Die.” In the video, she wears a similar outfit. The hoodie is simple but it apparently had some resonance in pop culture over 20 years after Twain released “That Don’t Impress Me Much.”
Was ‘You Should Be Sad’ more popular than ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much?’
This raises an interesting question: What was a bigger hit: “You Should Be Sad” or “That Don’t Impress Me Much?” “You Should Be Sad” reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s one of Halsey’s most popular solo singles — although a handful charted higher, including “Nightmare,” “Without You,” “Now or Never,” and “Bad at Love.”
On the other hand, “That Don’t Impress Me Much” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s Twain’s only top 10 hits besides “From This Moment On” and “You’re Still the One.” Twain was flattered by the tribute, but the public preferred her song to Halsey’s.