Shania sent out a Mother's Day note this morning. For those who didn't receive the email, click link below to read the note from Shania. She mentions her mother calling her "the next Tanya Tucker". Last October, Shania and Tanya were in the studio together so there will probably be a collaboration on Shania's new album.
Today I'm thinking about my mom and the stories that have stayed with me my whole life.
My mother was there for the very beginning of everything. She was the one driving me to sing in local bars, finding any opportunity she could for me to get experience. Maybe even get discovered. Those bar stages were my classrooms. Sometimes we just needed to make enough money to put gas back in the car, but to her, it was still worth it. She believed in the music. She believed it could change the course of our lives. She never got to see what happened later. She wasn’t there for the awards, the big stages, the moments where I would look around and think, how did I get all the way here from where I started? That will always be one of the deepest sadnesses of my life, not being able to share it with my mother. But I also know this, while she was here, my music brought her joy. It was often her lifeline and gave her hope. And that means everything to me.
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time looking back at those years before anybody knew me as Shania Twain. Not to live in the past, but to understand it, to honour it, and to turn some of those memories into something new. This next chapter of music is very close to my heart. It goes back to where I came from. Back to the little girl with a guitar, a mother who believed she might have “the next Tanya Tucker” on her hands, and a whole lot of life still waiting to happen.
So today, I’m sending love to all the mothers, children and anyone missing someone they wish could be here. Mother’s Day can be beautiful, complicated, joyful, painful... sometimes all at once. I’m holding space for all of it. ❤️