Stop rubbing your eyes. What you're seeing isn't a mirage. It's Shania Twain standing in the Mojave Desert wearing a midriff-baring leopard print number and a bold red lip, sticking her thumb out to hail down a passing truck driver and declaring that she's unimpressed by heart-throb of the time Brad Pitt. It's 1998 and the country-music star is filming the video clip for her single "That Don't Impress Me Much", an anthem written to knock egotistical blokes down a few notches.
The song is the seventh single off Shania's album Come On Over, which is on track to become the biggest-selling country album of all time, as well as the biggest-selling studio album by a solo female artist. And the Mojave Desert film clip? It's destined to go down in pop culture history. As iconic music videos go, Shania's hitchhiking is up there with Michael Jackson's zombie dance in "Thriller" and Sinéad O'Connor's close-up in "Nothing Compares 2 U".
"I wanted midriff. This video had to have midriff," recalls Shania, the creative force behind the clip that won Video of the Year at the Canadian Country Music Awards and cemented her status as a feminist powerhouse.
"At that time, I really enjoyed singing about being a strong woman." Shania was strong because she had to be.
Before there was Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, there was Shania Twain. And before there was Shania Twain, there was Eilleen Regina Edwards, who was born in 1965 in Ontario, Canada, and adopted the last name Twain when her mother, Sharon, married Jerry Twain. As a girl, Shania grew up listening to Dolly Parton and inherited her parents' love of music. Singing was an escape, a release and also a responsibility.
With five kids to feed, Sharon and Jerry struggled to put food on the table, and there was a certain pressure on Shania to contribute with her natural-born talent.
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