WATCH ABOVE: The number one selling female country artist of all-time joins The Morning Show and discusses why she’s hitting the road for her farewell tour.
TORONTO — Shania Twain hasn’t released an album of new material since 2002’s Up! but the Canadian pop country superstar is keeping her fans happy with a new CD+DVD and a summer tour.
The 49-year-old singer announced Wednesday her farewell tour will run from Vancouver on June 7 to Montreal on June 28 — stopping in seven cities along the way.
“This is a very, very important time on the road for me,” Twain told ABC News. “I just feel like I’m ready to hang my hat up in that regard. I just really want to go out with a bang.”
The star also promised to release a new album next year. “I’m on the microphone every day recording stuff,” she said.
Twain is back home in Ontario this week to promote Still the One: Live from Vegas, a DVD of the show she performed 105 times from December 2012 to December 2014 at Caesars Palace and a 19-track live CD.
Twain will be live in the studio of Global’s The Morning Show on Friday.
In anticipation of her visit, here are 21 facts about the Canadian music icon.
– Shania Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ont. and raised in Timmins, Ont. with her sisters Jill and Carrie Ann and half-brothers Mark and Darryl. Her mother Sharon and stepfather Jerry were killed in a car accident in 1987. Only a few years ago, Shania reconnected with her biological father, Clarence Edwards.
– Twain wrote her first song, “Mama Won’t You Come Out to Play,” when she was 10 years old.
– Twain’s long list of hits include “I’m Gonna Getcha Good!,” Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You),” “Up!,” “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” “Come On Over,” “You’re Still the One,” “From This Moment On” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”
– Twain’s list of awards includes 26 Canadian Country Music Association Awards, 12 Junos, five Grammys, five American Music Awards and nine Billboard Awards. She was inducted on Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2003, made an Officer in the Order of Canada in 2005 and inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2011. She also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.
– Twain was married to music producer Robert “Mutt” Lange on Dec. 28, 1993 — only six months after they met in Nashville. The couple separated in early 2008 and there were allegations that Lange had an affair with Twain’s friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud. “I was ready to die,” Twain wrote in her memoir From This Moment On. “I was disgusted that another woman’s lust for a lifestyle upgrade was worth the devastation of my family.” Twain then began a relationship with Nestlé executive Frédéric Thiébaud, the estranged husband of Marie-Anne. Lange and Twain finalized their divorce in June 2010 and she was engaged to Thiébaud six months later. The couple tied the knot in Puerto Rico on New Year’s Day in 2011.
– Twain has a 13-year-old son named Eja (from her marriage to Robert “Mutt” Lange) and a 14-year-old stepdaughter named Johanna (the daughter of Frédéric Thiébaud).
– Twain’s husband Frédéric calls her “Sunshine.”
– In 2011, Twain starred in Why Not? with Shania Twain, a reality series on OWN that followed her efforts to get back into music following the end of her first marriage.
– Twain lives primarily in Switzerland and Bahamas but maintains a home in the Muskoka region north of Toronto.
– Twain currently has a dog named Jett. She formerly had a German Shepherd named Tim.
– Carrie Ann, a back-up singer in Twain’s Las Vegas show Still the One, recently worked at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Huntsville, Ont.
– The other back-up singers in Twain’s Vegas show were 35-year-old Toronto-born twins Ryan and Dan Kowarsky. They were formerly in the boy band b4-4 (with Ohad Einbinder) and later performed as RyanDan.
– In 2011, Giovanni Palumbo of Ottawa was arrested at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto after being ordered to stay away from Twain. The former doctor pleaded guilty to criminal harassment and was given three years probation.
– Twain has not released an album of new material in more than 12 years. In fact, during her career she has released only four studio albums (1993’s Shania Twain, 1995’s The Woman in Me, 1997’s Come On Over and 2002’s Up!).
– Twain carried the Olympic torch in Timmins, Ont. as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay.
– Twain sings with Lionel Richie on his 2012 cover of “Endless Love,” which is featured on his album Tuskegee. She has also recorded duets with Canadians Anne Murray and Michael Bublé.
– Twain worked with Canadian producer David Foster to record the 2011 single “Today Is Your Day.”
– Twain’s Vegas show, Still the One, entertained more than 380,000 people and grossed more than $43.6 million. She missed only five shows due to illness.
– Despite her fortune, Twain likes a good bargain. She has been spotted shopping at a K-Mart in Key West, Florida and at a Walmart in Huntsville, Ont.
– Twain created the Shania Kids Can Charity Foundation to assist young students whose lives are negatively affected by problems at home. She was inspired by her own childhood. “I promised myself early on in my own childhood that some day I would help kids just like myself cope with their disadvantages and prosper in spite of those challenges,” she explains on the foundation website.
– Twain’s 2015 Rock This Country Tour will be her first tour since 2004. Last year she performed concerts in Calgary and Charlottetown.
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