Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, on August 28, 1965, to Sharon (née Morrison) and Clarence Edwards. She has two sisters, Jill and Carrie Ann. Her parents divorced when she was two and her mother moved to Timmins, Ontario, with her daughters. Sharon married Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa from the nearby Mattagami First Nation, and they had son Mark together. Jerry adopted the girls and legally changed their surname to Twain. When Mark was a toddler, Jerry and Sharon adopted Jerry’s baby nephew Darryl when his mother died. Because of Twain’s connection to Jerry, the media have incorrectly reported that she is of Ojibwe descent. When questioned as to why she chose not to publicly acknowledge Edwards as her father for years, Twain stated:

Twain has said she had a difficult childhood. Her parents earned little money, and food was often scarce in their household. Twain did not confide her situation to school authorities, fearing they might break up the family. Her mother and stepfather’s marriage was stormy at times, and from a young age she witnessed violence between them. Her mother also struggled with bouts of depression. In mid-1979, while Jerry was at work, at Twain’s insistence, her mother drove the rest of the family 420 miles (680 km) south to a Toronto homeless shelter for assistance. Sharon returned to Jerry with the children in 1981. In Timmins, Twain started singing at bars at the age of eight to try to help pay her family’s bills; she often earned $20 between midnight and 1 a.m. performing for remaining customers after the bar had finished serving alcohol. Although she expressed a dislike for singing in those bars, Twain believes that this was her own kind of performing-arts school on the road. She has said of the ordeal, “My deepest passion was music and it helped. There were moments when I thought, ‘I hate this.’ I hated going into bars and being with drunks. But I loved the music and so I survived.” Twain wrote her first songs at the age of 10, “Is Love a Rose” and “Just Like the Storybooks,” which were rhyming fairy tales. She states that the art of creating, of actually writing songs, “was very different from performing them and became progressively important”.

Twain graduated from Timmins High in June 1983 eager to expand her musical horizons. After Longshot’s demise, Twain was approached by a cover band led by Diane Chase called “Flirt” and toured all over Ontario with them. She also took singing lessons from Toronto-based coach Ian Garrett, often cleaning his house as payment. In the autumn of 1984, Twain’s talents were noticed by Toronto DJ Stan Campbell who wrote about her in a Country Music News article: “Eilleen possesses a powerful voice with an impressive range. She has the necessary drive, ambition and positive attitude to achieve her goals”. Campbell happened to be making an album by Canadian musician (and present-day CKTB radio personality) Tim Denis at the time and Twain was featured on the backing vocals of the song Heavy on the Sunshine. Campbell later took Twain to Nashville to record some demos, which she found particularly difficult to finance. She became acquainted with regional country singer Mary Bailey who had had some country chart success in 1976. Bailey had seen Twain perform in Sudbury, Ontario, saying “I saw this little girl up on stage with a guitar and it absolutely blew me away. She performed Willie Nelson’s “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”. Her voice reminded me of Tanya Tucker, it had strength and character, a lot of feeling. She’s a star, she deserves an opportunity.” Bailey later said “She sang a few songs that she had written, and I thought to myself, this kid is like nineteen years old, where does she get this? This is from a person who’s lived sixty years”.

Bailey acquired the contract from Stan Campbell and Twain moved into Bailey’s home on Kenogami Lake where she practised her music every day for hours. In the fall of 1985, Bailey took Twain down to Nashville to stay with a friend, record producer Tony Migliore, who at the time was producing an album for fellow Canadian singer Kelita Haverland and Twain was featured on the backing vocals to the song Too Hot to Handle. She also recorded “demo” songs with Cyril Rawson but those efforts were unsuccessful, partly due to Twain’s wish to become a rock singer, not a country artist. After five months she returned to Canada and moved in with Bailey in a flat in downtown Kirkland Lake, not far from Kenogami. There she met rock keyboardist Eric Lambier, drummer Randy Yurko, guitarist Tom Gustar and formed a new band, moving three months later to Bowmanville, near Toronto. In late summer 1986, Mary Bailey arranged for Twain to meet John Kim Bell, a half Mohawk, half American conductor who had close contacts with the directors of the Canadian Country Music Association. Bell recognized Twain’s ability as well as her looks and the two began secretly dating. In the fall of 1986 Twain continued to express her desire to be a pop or rock singer rather than country, which led to her falling out with Mary Bailey for two years. Twain’s first break finally came on February 8, 1987, when Bell staged a fundraiser for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, now Indspire, at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto where Twain performed with Broadway star Bernadette Peters, guitarist Don Ross, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Her performance received little acclaim, but it convinced Bell, who hated pop music, that Twain should stay well away from it and concentrate on country music.

On November 1, 1987, Twain’s mother and stepfather died in a car accident approximately 50 kilometres north of Wawa, Ontario. She moved back to Timmins to take care of her younger siblings and took them all to Huntsville, Ontario, where she supported them by earning money performing at the nearby Deerhurst Resort.

Shania currently holds a status card and is on the official band membership list of the Temagami First Nation. In 1991, the singer was offered a recording contract in Nashville and applied for immigration status into the United States. At that time, by virtue of her stepfather Jerry Twain being a full-blooded Ojibwe and the rights guaranteed to Native Americans in the Jay Treaty (1795), Shania became legally registered as having 50 percent Native American blood.

Twain’s self-titled debut album was released on April 20, 1993 in North America and garnered her audiences outside Canada. Shortly before its release, she sang backing vocals for other Mercury artists, including on Jeff Chance’s album Walk Softly on the Bridges (1992) and Sammy Kershaw’s album Haunted Heart (1993). While Shania Twain only reached No. 67 on the US Country Albums Chart, it gained positive reviews from critics. The album failed to sell significant copies upon release, but Twain’s future success generated enough interest for the album to be certified platinum in 1999 by the RIAA, denoting sales of over 1 million copies. The album yielded two minor hit singles in the United States with “What Made You Say That” and “Dance with the One That Brought You”. The third and final single, “You Lay a Whole Lot of Love on Me”, failed to chart in every country. The album was more successful in Europe, where Twain won Country Music Television Europe’s “Rising Video Star of the Year” award. In her 2011 autobiography From This Moment On, Twain expressed displeasure with her debut studio album, revealing that she had very little creative control and was frustrated with being unable to showcase her songwriting abilities. She did however co-write one song, “God Ain’t Gonna Getcha for That”, for the album.

When rock producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange heard Twain’s original songs and singing from her debut album, he offered to produce and write songs with her. After many telephone conversations, they met at Nashville’s Fan Fair in June 1993. Twain and Lange became very close within just weeks, culminating in their wedding on December 28, 1993. Lange and Twain either wrote or co-wrote the songs that would form her second studio album, The Woman in Me.

Twain met producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange after he heard her original songs and singing from her debut album; he then offered to produce and write songs with her. They first met at Nashville’s Fan Fair in June 1993 and quickly became close. They were married on December 28, 1993 and had a son, Eja (pronounced “Asia”), in August 2001. On May 15, 2008, it was announced that Twain and Lange were separating after Lange allegedly had an affair with Twain’s best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. Their divorce was finalized on June 9, 2010. On December 20, 2010, it was reported that Twain was engaged to Swiss Nestlé executive Frédéric Thiébaud, the ex-husband of Marie-Anne. They were married on January 1, 2011, in Rincón, Puerto Rico.

The Woman in Me was released on February 7, 1995. Of the 12 tracks on the album, 8 were released as singles. The album’s first single, “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” went to No. 11 on the Billboard Country Chart. This was followed by her first Country Top 10 and No.1 hit single, “Any Man of Mine”, which also cracked the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. Twain had further hits from the album, including the title track which peaked at No.14 and three additional No.1 hits: “(If You’re Not in It for Love) I’m Outta Here!”, “You Win My Love”, and “No One Needs to Know”, which was selected for the original soundtrack for the 1996 film Twister, a first for Twain. Plus minor country hit “Home Ain’t where His Heart Is (Anymore)” and a re-recorded gospel version of the album track “God Bless The Child” with new lyrics. Meanwhile, in Australia, five of these singles: “The Woman in Me”, “I’m Outta Here!”, “You Win My Love”, “No One Needs to Know” and “God Bless the Child”, were remixed for the Australian pop market, with “I’m Outta Here!” becoming Twain’s breakthrough hit there, reaching No.5 on the ARIA charts.

In 1997, Twain released her follow-up album, Come On Over. It established her as a successful crossover singer. Of the 16 tracks on the album, 12 were released as singles. Following the release of lead singles “Love Gets Me Every Time” and “Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)”, which allowed Twain to make more appearances in the Billboard Hot 100, the album started selling. With the release of third single, “You’re Still the One”, sales skyrocketed. “From This Moment On”, “When”, “Honey, I’m Home”, “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”, “You’ve Got a Way”, the title track, “Rock This Country!”, and “I’m Holdin’ On to Love (To Save My Life)” are the other nine songs that eventually saw release as singles. With the exception of “I’m Holdin’ On to Love (To Save My Life)”, all of the singles had accompanying music videos. “From This Moment On” is a duet with singer Bryan White and there was a re-recorded solo pop version as well.

In 1998, following the pop release of “You’re Still the One”, the Come On Over album was released in a remixed format for the European market as a pop album with less country instrumentation, and actually gave her the big breakthrough in Europe she and her producer husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange were looking for. Come On Over went to No. 1 on the UK album charts for 11 weeks. It became the biggest selling album of the year in Great Britain and a bestseller in other big European markets as well, selling more than one million copies in Germany and nearly 4 million in the UK alone. Although “You’re Still The One” and the pop version of “From This Moment On” cracked the Top 10 of the UK charts and “When” had minor success in the Top 20, the songs that had finally drawn European attention to the album were the pop remixed singles “That Don’t Impress Me Much”, a No.3 in the UK and Top 10 hit in Germany in the summer of 1999, and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” which peaked at No.3 in both the UK and France in autumn of that year. Additionally, “You’ve Got a Way” was remixed specifically for inclusion on the Notting Hill soundtrack. Subsequently, a reissue of the international version of the album was released worldwide, including the US and Europe, containing three of these new remixes. Additionally, the album set the record for the longest ever stay in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200, remaining in the Top 20 for 99 weeks. Billboard magazine declared Shania Twain the most played artist on American radio in 1999.

In 1998, Twain launched her first major concert tour, aided by her manager Jon Landau, a veteran of many large-scale tours with Bruce Springsteen. The Come On Over Tour shows were a success, winning the “Country Tour of the Year” in 1998 and 1999 by Pollstar Concert Industry Awards.

Twain’s mainstream pop acceptance was further helped by her appearance in the 1998 first edition of the VH1 Divas concert where she sang alongside Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Carole King and Aretha Franklin, and also by VH1’s 1999 heavily aired Behind the Music, which concentrated on the tragic aspects of her early life as well as her physical attractiveness and Nashville’s early resistance to her bare-midriff music videos. After Divas, Twain sang background vocals with Lange for Dion’s songs, “If Walls Could Talk” and “Goodbye’s (The Saddest Word)”.

Twain’s popularity in UK was reflected by numerous appearances on the long-running music show Top of the Pops, performing singles from Come On Over from 1999. In 2002 an entire special show was dedicated to her on sister show TOTP2, in which Twain herself introduced some past performances of her greatest hits and new singles from Up!. In November 2004, she appeared on the annual BBC charity telethon Children in Need. During the show, she performed “Up!”, and then took part in an all-star magic act in which she was sawn in half by magician Scott Penrose in an illusion called Clearly Impossible.

In 2000, Twain was initially scheduled to release a Christmas album, but plans to release one were cancelled later in the year.

Following the success of Come On Over, independent label Limelight Records released The Complete Limelight Sessions in October 2001. The album includes 16 tracks recorded in the late 1980s before Twain signed her record deal with Mercury.

After a change in management – QPrime replaced Landau – and a two-year break, along with the birth of their son, Eja (pronounced “Asia”) D’Angelo, who was born on August 12, 2001, Twain and Lange returned to the studio. Up! was released on November 19, 2002. On January 26, 2003, Twain performed at the Super Bowl halftime show. About a year later, Twain kicked off the Up! Tour in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on September 25, 2003. Up! was released with three different discs – country/acoustic (green CD), pop/rock (red CD), and world/dance (blue CD). Up! was given four out of five stars by Rolling Stone magazine, and debuted at No.1 on the Billboard albums chart, selling 874,000 in the first week alone. It remained at the top of the charts for five weeks. Twain’s crossover appeal in the country, pop and dance genres, led Up! to reach 1 in Germany, 2 in Australia and the Top Five in the UK and France. In Germany, Up! was certified 4x platinum and stayed in the Top 100 for a year and a half. The international music disc was remixed with Indian-style orchestral and percussion parts recorded in Mumbai, India. The new versions were produced by Simon and Diamond Duggal, brothers from Birmingham, England. They were originally invited to contribute parts to the pop version of “I’m Gonna Getcha Good!” which retained the Indian influence.

The fourth single from the album would be the most successful in the US, the romantic ballad “Forever and for Always”. It was released in April 2003 and peaked at 4 on the country chart, 1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. Again, success was even bigger on the other side of the Atlantic with “Forever and For Always” again reaching the Top 10 in both, the UK and Germany. The other four singles from the album were “Thank You Baby! (For Makin’ Someday Come So Soon)”, “She’s Not Just a Pretty Face”, “When You Kiss Me” and “It Only Hurts When I’m Breathing”. All eight singles had accompanying music videos. The title track “Up!”, and “When You Kiss Me” saw release in limited edition to European countries, such as Germany, in early 2004. By January 2008, Up! had sold 5.5 million copies in the US and was certified as 11x platinum (Diamond) by the RIAA. This made Twain the only female artist in history to have three consecutive albums certified Diamond by the RIAA.

In 2004, she released the Greatest Hits album, with three new tracks. As of 2012, it had sold over 4.15 million copies in the US. The first single, the multi-format duet “Party for Two”, made the country top ten with Billy Currington, while the pop version with Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath made top ten in the United Kingdom and Germany. The follow-up singles, “Don’t!” and “I Ain’t No Quitter” did not fare as well. The former made Top 20 on Adult Contemporary, while the latter did not gain enough airplay to reach the Country Top 40.

Twain appeared as herself in the 2004 feature film I Heart Huckabees.

In August 2005, she released the single “Shoes” from the Desperate Housewives soundtrack. In late 2006, Twain and Anne Murray recorded a duet version of Murray’s hit “You Needed Me” for her 2007 album, Anne Murray Duets: Friends & Legends. This was Twain’s final recording with husband Lange as producer; on May 15, 2008, it was announced that Twain and Lange were separating. Their divorce was finalized in 2010.

In January 2005, Twain joined Scentstories by Febreze to create a limited edition scent disc with the proceeds going to America’s Second Harvest.

In late 2005, Twain partnered with Coty to produce her namesake fragrance “Shania” by Stetson. A second fragrance was released in September 2007, called “Shania Starlight”.

As of 2007, the album had sold more than 12 million copies, being certified Diamond by the RIAA. The album was a quick breakthrough and because of this Twain performed selected international venues and television shows including two CMA Fan Fair performances with Nashville guitarists Randy Thomas (co-writer of the song “Butterfly Kisses”), Dan Schafer, Chris Rodriguez, Russ Taff, Hugh McDonald bass player of Bon Jovi, Dave Malachowski and Stanley T., formerly with The Beach Boys.

On November 12, 2008, Twain made her first television appearance since her split from Lange, where she appeared as a surprise presenter at the 42nd CMA Awards.

In June 2009, Twain released a letter to her fans explaining the delays in the release of her next album, noting she had gone through personal pains and was focusing on raising her son Eja. In August 2009, at a conference in Timmins, Ontario, a spokesman for Twain’s label said a new record from the singer was still “nowhere in sight”.

In 2009, Twain served as a guest judge on American Idol, for the show’s August 30 and 31 episodes.

In April 2010, Twain announced plans for her own TV show, titled Why Not? with Shania Twain. The show debuted on May 8, 2011 on OWN. Twain returned to American Idol as a guest mentor for a week where the top 6 contestants showcased her songs. After the conclusion of the ninth season Twain was very close to becoming a judge but ultimately it was Jennifer Lopez who got the job.

On January 1, 2010, Twain carried the Olympic Torch through her hometown as part of the 2010 Winter Olympics torch relay.

She created Shania Kids Can in 2010, to address the needs of young school children who are typically overlooked by social assistance programs.

In May 2011, Twain confirmed in an interview that she would release her first new single in six years, “Today Is Your Day”, after the finale of Why Not? with Shania Twain. Twain previewed the song in the first episode of the series. Twain worked with music producers David Foster and Nathan Chapman on the song. She also published her autobiography with Atria Books, From This Moment On. The last episode of “Why Not?” features Twain and Lionel Richie recording “Endless Love” which would be the first single from his 2012 album, Tuskegee. “Today Is Your Day” was officially released to iTunes and country radio on June 12, 2011. In addition to “Today Is Your Day”, Twain also collaborated with Michael Bublé on his 2011 album Christmas (also produced by David Foster). Twain recorded “White Christmas” with Bublé, which was the first single from the album. On June 8, 2011, at a press conference at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Twain announced that she would headline Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for two years. Her show, titled Still the One, began on December 1, 2012, with shows expected to run in 2013 and 2014.

Twain’s autobiography, From This Moment On, was released on March 27, 2011.

In July 2013, Twain announced on Facebook that she was working on her album over the summer during a break from Still the One. In October 2013, Twain sat down with Robin Roberts from Good Morning America as a featured artist on the Countdown to the CMA Awards. In the interview, Twain said that a new album was coming, but she said that she was still in the process of finding the right producer.

Outside of her show at Caesars Palace, Twain performed two concerts at the Calgary Stampede in Calgary, Alberta, on July 9 and 10, 2014. In a series of interviews leading up to her Calgary Stampede shows, Twain said she hoped to tour in 2015 and that it would lead to the release of a new album. Alongside her Calgary Stampede shows, Twain also headlined a show on Labour Day weekend at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

On March 4, 2015, Twain announced on Good Morning America she would be going on tour for the first time in 11 years, and would begin June 5 in Seattle, Washington and end on October 11 in Toronto, Ontario. Twain also announced this would be her last tour before her fifth studio album, which she intends to release while she is 50. In an interview on Global Television Network’s The Morning Show on March 6, Twain confirmed that she is not retiring from her music career after the tour. In an interview with Radio.com published on March 5, she stated that she has found several producers for her upcoming album, describing it as “soul music”.

On August 24, 2015, Twain stated: “First, I have to finish my new album this winter. Six tracks are already completed. I’ve written 38 songs in total, and now the process is underway to narrow that down to another six or eight to finish recording”. That same month, it was announced by several sources, that even though her current Rock This Country Tour is her final time touring, she is possibly planning on extending the tour overseas because the Rock This Country tour was only based in the United States and Canada. Twain also mentioned, possibly returning to Las Vegas with a new residency show for possibly late 2016 or 2017. The new show would end up featuring music from her long-awaited new album as well as her hits.

In October 2016, Twain confirmed to Rolling Stone that she had new music coming “really soon.” In December 2016 in an interview with Billboard, she spoke about her forthcoming album, describing the finished product as “kind of schizophrenic musically” maintaining “She’s the glue”. In February 2017, Twain again spoke to Rolling Stone about the album; select song titles were confirmed, as Twain detailed that she had not only hoped to release a single in March, but that she planned to release the album in May. She performed at the 2017 Stagecoach Festival, held on April 29.

In April 2017, Billboard announced that Twain’s new single, “Life’s About to Get Good”, would premiere in June, with the album projected for release in September. Twain headlined the 2017 Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California, where she previewed her new music for the first time. Twain performed on the Today Show’s “Summer Concert Series” on June 16, 2017. Her fifth studio album, Now, was released on September 29, 2017 and would debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, becoming her second album to do so.

In June 2017, Twain announced on ET Canada that she would in fact tour with her new album Now. The Now Tour was announced by Twain on her official website on August 17, 2017.

The album’s second single, “Swingin’ With My Eyes Closed”, was released on August 18, 2017. She has also internationally released two other promotional singles off of Now, including “Poor Me” and “We’ve Got Something They Don’t”.

On October 23, 2017, Twain appeared as a guest judge on the 25th season of Dancing with the Stars during the show’s “Movie Night”, and also performed her song “Soldier”. Twain appeared as a guest judge on episode five of the 10th Season of Rupaul’s Drag Race.

She competed against singer Meghan Trainor in an episode of TBS’s Drop the Mic which aired in January 2018.

In November 2018, Twain appeared in the reality talent show Real Country, as an executive producer and co-presenter with Jake Owen and Travis Tritt.

In June 2019, Twain announced her second Las Vegas residency, Let’s Go!, which opened on December 6, 2019, and will run for two years.

In 2019, Twain appeared in the film Trading Paint, co-starring alongside John Travolta. In 2020, Twain played the role of the mother of singer Jeremy Camp in the biopic I Still Believe.