Shania Twain Was Inspired By Drag Queens to Write ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’
Country music superstar Shania Twain has many beloved hit songs, but perhaps none more so than her 1997 single “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”. The song has become her calling card over the years, and in her memoir, she admitted that drag queens played a subconscious role in the creation of the song.
‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’ is Shania Twain’s most recognizable song
Shania Twain debuted in 1993 with her self-titled debut album, while her 1995 album The Woman In Me exposed her to wider audiences as she disrupted the image of what a country music star should look and act like. Her 1997 album Come On Over transformed the Canadian singer into a global superstar, with over 40 million copies sold worldwide and spawning several smash singles, including “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “You’re Still the One,” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”. The album remains the highest-selling album by a solo female artist of all time.
“You’re Still the One” and “That Don’t Impress Me Much” reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” peaked at No. 23.
Shania Twain was inspired by drag queens to write the song
Twain reflected on her inspiration for the song in her 2011 memoir From This Moment On. When she was a young adult living in Toronto on her own, she hung out with her roommates and their friends. One of them brought them out to local gay bars, and Twain would have a blast.
“Sometimes on a Friday night, we’d go out to gay bars with Sheriff and his friends. They’d come over to our place first, and we’d all dress up and put on dark eyeliner — the guys included,” she recounted. “Madonna had just hit it big, and everyone was copying her look. We’d dress like her, back-comb our hair until it was too big and all spiky, then head out on the town.”
“This was an adventure for me, as it was all new,” she continued. “Gay bars had the best dance music and the most impressive dancers. Another benefit, from a young woman’s perspective, was that you could dance with your friends without having to fend off guys trying to pick up chicks.”
When she saw drag queens in the club, she was in awe at their ability to change everything about them with makeup.
“Being inexperienced at applying makeup, I marveled at how artistic and glamorous some of the men were. They looked so gorgeous, with features that had been defined and exaggerated with blushes, liners, shadows, and accessories,” she said. “My fascination with this initial introduction to men transforming themselves into beautiful women likely sowed the seed of inspiration for a song I would write years later: ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!'”
“Not everyone got all dolled up, and I saw men who did not seem identifiably gay at all. Most of the clubgoers, though, paid incredible attention to style and aesthetics from top to bottom, taking obvious pleasure in and having fun with fashion and flirting,” she added. “Looking great was part of the entertainment, it seemed.”
She was a guest judge on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ where they performed the song
Over two decades after “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”‘s release, Twain sat as a guest judge on the tenth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. For her special appearance, the bottom two queens — Monét X Change and Mayhem Miller — lip-synced to “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” in front of Twain herself.
