Shania Twain is back on her horse with “Queen Of Me,” her first album in more than five years.
The Canadian country-pop superstar marks her comeback with the 12-track set, led by “Waking Up Dreaming,” her first single since 2017, and her latest, “Giddy Up!”.
A five-time Grammy Award winner, Queen of Me marks the first artist release through Republic Nashville.
“I’m honored and excited to be the label’s first artist and lead the charge of this new and exciting chapter,” she said last September when the deal was struck. “In this respect, it feels like a new beginning all around, and I’m embracing it wholeheartedly.”
Queen of Me is the followup to Twain’s fifth studio album Now, which blasted to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in 2017. Prior to that, Twain’s fourth album release was 2002’s Up, which also hit No. 1 on the main U.S. chart.
Considering that timeline, which, for lengthy periods saw Twain sidelined with health problems, including Lyme disease, dysphonia and throat surgery, Queen of Me is just her second studio LP in more than 20 years.
Twain has been in the headlines of late, discussing her severe reaction to the COVID-19 virus, which evolved into pneumonia and required her to be airlifted to a hospital, and for an interview with Apple Music in which she talked about the time she almost worked with Prince before his death.
On her phone call with the Purple One, Prince laid out some ground rules for what would-be studio time with Twain — namely that there was no swearing allowed at Paisley Park.
“So that was another strike,” Twain told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I’m like, ‘Oh no, I love you so much, but I don’t think I could get through writing and recording an album without swearing, somewhere along the way.”
Twain is set to serve as a presenter at the 2023 Grammy Awards and she’s the subject of the Netflix documentary Not Just A Girl, produced by Mercury Studios and directed by Joss Crowley.
Stream Queen of Me below.