Shania Twain

Part Cree Indian, Shania Twain had a tough upbringing in Timmins, Ontario; living for a while in a homeless shelter and singing in local bars from an early age trying to make ends meet. When her mother and stepfather were killed in a car crash she stayed home to look after her younger siblings but eventually resumed her singing career with a name change to Shania (an Ojibwa Indian word for "on my way"), making her self-titled debut album in 1993. Her big break came when she started writing songs with rock producer Mutt Lange - later her husband - who also produced her breakthrough second album The Woman In Me in 1995. The follow-up Come On Over established her as a major country-rock crossover act, topping the album charts in the UK and US and producing the smash hits That Don't Impress Me Much and Man! I Feel Like A Woman. More hits followed, although she split with Lange in 2008.