No beating around the bush: country music is blowing up. Ella Langley has been tearing up the charts for months; Morgan Wallen remains one of the biggest commercial forces in American music, and even Kacey Musgraves is salvaging the furniture of her latest record with the success of ‘Mexico Honey’. Of course, after Dolly Parton’s death, the artist’s catalog is experiencing a renewed surge in streams and chart presence. It has just reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom for the first time.
In this context, Shania Twain has just released a country-pop album and its commercial performance could not be more disappointing. ‘Little Miss Twain’ debuted at number 131 on the Billboard 200, with about 11,600 equivalent album units, largely due to physical sales. It is the worst debut of any studio album in her career.
The contrast with the current country revival is quite brutal. In international charts there are a few notable placements: ‘Little Miss Twain’ reaches No. 4 on Australia’s Country Albums chart, No. 5 on Norway’s physical albums chart, No. 8 on Germany’s Pop Albums chart, No. 7 in the UK and, most notably, No. 1 on UK Americana and UK Country Albums. It also hits No. 2 in Scotland. But other markets are much cooler: No. 20 in Canada, No. 19 in Germany, No. 24 in Austria, No. 23 in Belgium, No. 73 in the Netherlands… and that 131 in the US stings.
Because we are talking about Shania Twain. An artist with three consecutive Diamond-certified albums in the United States during her peak years, including ‘Come On Over’, which remains the best-selling country album of all time. To put it plainly: Shania Twain helped pave the way for Taylor Swift to take off.
Why isn’t Shania Twain making waves right now? There’s an obvious issue: ‘Little Miss Twain’ hardly has a standout song. We could note the humorous titles like ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Dirty Rosie’ or ‘Problematic’, but there isn’t a ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’, a ‘That Don’t Impress Me Much’, nor even a ‘Giddy Up!’ that serves as an entry point to the album. At least ‘Now’ (2017) and ‘Queen of Me’ (2023) had more or less identifiable songs. ‘Little Miss Twain’… does not.
Shania should have an much easier time hopping onto this country wave than many of today’s artists. She (Shania, not Langley) helped to build the bridge between country and pop that so many artists are crossing again today.
Of course, a lot has happened between that Shania and this one. First, a very long hiatus: ‘Now’ arrived 15 years after her previous studio album. And then there’s the matter of her voice. Twain has explained on numerous occasions how Lyme disease affected the nerves related to her vocal cords and how she had to undergo surgery and rehabilitation to sing again. Her voice changed and, although she has learned to live with it, it’s evident that we aren’t listening to the same vocalist who dominated 90s radio.
Curiously, her cultural relevance does seem intact. New generations have claimed her, her aesthetic remains incredibly recognizable, and Harry Styles has taken her on tour because his mother adores her and got him to become a fan. Shania herself has also continued crossing paths with artists from later generations like Orville Peck. In short: Shania Twain remains cool. What doesn’t seem to translate as well is Shania Twain as a singles artist.
Her most recognizably hit actually arrived outside of an album of her own: ‘Unhealthy’ with Anne-Marie, in 2023. Shania retains her name, her repertoire, her influence, and the affection of several generations. What ‘Little Miss Twain’ has not yet managed to do is turn all of that into a song that people want to listen to right now.
