Pop Perfection: Shania Twain - "Man! I Feel Like A Woman"

Dive into the timeless pop perfection of Shania Twain's iconic hit, "Man! I Feel Like A Woman"! In this episode, we explore Shania's journey to the song and how it continues to captivate listeners with its unbeatable sonic appeal, visually stunning music video, and unwavering relevance over the years. Join us as we dissect the irresistible melodies, empowering lyrics, and infectious energy that make this track an enduring anthem. Don't miss out on our analysis of why "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" remains a shining example of musical brilliance.

References:

• “What Made You Say That” MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMul1ZBdRmc&pp=ygUjd2hhdCBtYWRlIHlvdSBzYXkgdGhhdCBzaGFuaWEgdHdhaW4%3D
• “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZRA-Dwv86E&pp=ygUYd2hvc2UgYm9vdHMgc2hhbmlhIHR3YWlu
• “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJL4UGSbeFg&pp=ygUkbWFuIGkgZmVlbCBsaWtlIGEgd29tYW4gc2hhbmlhIHR3YWlu
• “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” Live at the GRAMMYS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnQHc9WYC-c&pp=ygUpbWFuIGkgZmVlbCBsaWtlIGEgd29tYW4gc2hhbmlhIHR3YWluIGxpdmU%3D
• Robert Palmer - “Addicted To Love” MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE&pp=ygUQYWRkaWN0ZWQgdG8gbG92ZQ%3D%3D

Transcript (from YouTube):

Man I Feel Like a Woman viewer discretion is advised your fave will be criticized that's your hand that's good and welcome to CCTV the non-stop pop show and today we'll be discussing the crossover pop classic Man I Feel Like a Woman [Music] looking for an awesome Global pop music podcast well Shannon and I have the inside scoop with extensive experience performing on stage and working at record labels we review and deep dive into your favorite artist songs and careers and also interview music industry professionals including artists producers choreographers and everything in between so come join us on patreon at patreon.com CCTV pops and become a part of our amazing crew which includes Lisette Lily Emily Kevin and Juliet subscribe now and let's explore the world of pop music together yes so if you are new here or if you're an old fan welcome this is our new segment called pop Perfection and this segment is where we're going to break down the biggest hits in pop music analyze their impact and give our unfiltered opinions on the songs and the artists today we are focusing on Shania Twain and the amazing Timeless song man I feel like a woman but before we get into the song let's just get a little quick look into what led up to that song so how did she get started so before Shania Twain became Shania Twain the queen of country pop Eileen Regina Edwards lived in an impoverished life in Ontario Canada sanaya's early career involved performing in small venues and local festivals as well as doing backup vocals for other artists and finally she released her self-titled debut album in 1993 under Mercury records which featured several successful singles in Canada including what made you say that and dance with the one that brought you

[Music] the album only reached number 67 on the U.S country albums chart but it gained positive reviews from the critics so Chris have you heard this country album I had never heard the whole album but I have heard the same goals just because I have gone back through Shania Twain's discography before and but yeah I don't really know it well I have no connection to it but it is interesting listening to it retrospectively after you try to know where she ended up going um because she these songs aren't bad actually um but of course they're not even close they're even touched it was tough than she did later on but honestly the thing that stands out the most is just how beautiful her voice is like it's such a beautiful tone it's so recognizable it's super pure very emotive like even with some of these lyrics like they're very happy songs a lot of them and um on kind of first look they may not seem very deep but she makes every word very important the way she sings um so yeah I think they're catchy um the lyrics are well written but yeah obviously she took it to a whole other level after that but yeah how about you um well my family comes from the hickiest the hickey is hickey part of the South so I've heard some of these songs but honestly it all sounded the same to me and my kid brain like yeah

it that's what it sounds like to me in my head I mean um so I agree with you in terms of like her vocal uh ability and the way her delivery of songs really stand out she was strong voice and I think for a Canadian making country music that's usually like it's birth places in America I think it's interesting how influenced she was right and um I love that you can hear her personality and her voice right um she has cited herself as being like a she has called herself she's me as like a tomboy you can kind of hear that because a lot of the country singers are very like pretty and almost not flitty in their vocals but you know they always come very high and they sing a beer with a little bit of twang or whatever but it was nice to kind of hear a rasp in her voice um so I think that was interesting about her and at the time I remember Reba McIntyre being huge my aunt loves Reba Reba McIntyre was Queen at the time you know um and Faith Hill had come out at this around the same time too in 1993 so yeah Faith Hill was kind of like All-American literally All-American blonde woman singing country and then Shania so it's like interesting so this whole project actually just Falls right into traditional country but does it set her apart from like Reba and then fate I couldn't really say that no not at all well in 1995 Shania released her second album The Woman in me which features the hit singles Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under and Any Man of Mine and the album was produced and co-written by her then husband Robert John mutt Lange uh and it peaked at number five on the billboard and became a number one Diamond selling album establishing Shania as a major country

artists [Applause] [Music]

so obviously this partnership with her husband was successful and they came together again to work on the third album come on over which was released in 1997 and this album has become a legendary success story selling over 40 million copies worldwide and earning numerous accolades and among its 12 12 singles which is crazy because there's only 16 songs on the album yeah man I feel like a woman which I believe was the seventh or eighth single depending on how you look at the releases emerged as the crossover hip that helped to define the album's popularity [Music] and although Man I Feel Like a Woman was initially released to country radio stations its swung popularity soon led to its release to mainstream audience across the globe the song climbed the charts in multiple countries including the US UK Australia and various Asian markets the song won a Grammy award for best female country vocal performance and has since become a Timeless hit that continues to resonate with people of all ages and genders [Music] [Applause] [Music] and Man I Feel Like a Woman Man I Feel Like a Woman was actually initially intended to be a rock song for a male artist but Shania heard their amazing riff took the track and recorded it herself she rewrote the lyrics from a female perspective creating a lively and upbeat track about her desire to break free from the constraints and limitations she felt as a woman in the male dominated country music industry let's get into this song and analyze this track because it is I mean you know we you we didn't say it was a hit it's a hit you can totally hear it I mean that first guitar riff it's like iconic and then the whole let's go girls like come on

let's go girls let's go where where are we going and she took us to so many different places like her delivery is very blue z a lot of blue singers just have that kind of like conversational kind of thing going on and it was different because she's just adding a little bit of flair with it and her you know her breath yes her breaks um I I think it's interesting because it has rock it has pop and then you get these high-pitched twangy old guitars that then bring it back into country so then you're like oh wait this is a country song yeah um I think this is really interesting because of the approach to her lyrics and the singing make it feel like she's like just strutting her stuff and not singing about the typical country stuff no offense but country does have a pretty uh stereotypical or like a cliche with love being a small town girl uh an Unfaithful partner losing love and then maybe you get like a story here or there like if you're like a Dolly Parton fan with the bridge right something like that but she was kind of just like talk about how amazing it was to be a woman right and not feeling like her presence is a distraction and that chorus is perfect it's perfect for like a ride in a convertible you'll leave your worries behind and the song is big and bold without being too cheesy and I think that's what's really important people think like that anthemic songs have to be like this really like oh god I've heard some like women anthems are like rose all day crowd songs I'm just like oh my God please make it stop like this song is Stadium ready and shopping friendly you know what I'm saying like it's a perfect kind of blend yes for sure yeah it's interesting because obviously the whole album the intention was to kind of get Shania out of just the country market and get her globally commercial right um and this song encapsulates that intention so perfectly because like you mentioned it is at its heart a rock song but it has the pop Hooks and sets ability and it has that soul of country music without the cheesiness of the lyrics um and yes there are still the steel guitars that she does sing with a little bit of a twang very naturally but it's it's not too much it's just enough to still appeal to country radio while still being accessible for the other radio uh formats so yeah just brilliant in that way um and yeah many lists to this song as just one of the best songs of all time and honestly if you ever hear it out like people will instantly light up so I think most of the world would pretty much agree with that um yeah just so many great hooks like that it's so memorable and easy to sing along to before the song is even over like let's do it for the first time like you can kind of know what's coming already so it's just brilliant just as a pop song um and the mixing is really really good it's all live instruments um and everything feels like it's in it's performed with a lot of intention there's a lot of energy like the drums feel like they're being hit hard like the guitars feel like the person is like really like feeling it um the harmonica same thing like it's all just really really well done um and again vocally oh my her tone is just insane and she makes some really great choices within it like there's just enough sass without it being again too cheesy there's just enough of a push without her seeming to be trying too hard there's moments of rasp there's some vocal breaks in there all the ad-libs and the Woos and stuff they sound very fun they're not too rehearsed or planned they don't at least they might have been but they don't feel that way so it just feels fun like it's just perfect this song oh yeah totally I love her little I love her little like uh her southern food

oh my God my family doesn't partake too much in it but if you've seen any kind of way well it's true it's very true to her you know it doesn't sound like you know like too much like Michael Jackson

and you're right what you were saying about the the instrumentation of it was it's intentional and then you watch the live performances I remember watching some of these YouTube clips of her performing it in like Miami yeah for the pops and all these random places not random but like he always plays just everywhere around the world literally um and the band in the back are enjoying it they're all men too so you have you have this band with you sitting there oh totally crazy I'm not like singing their little hearts out but harmonizing with her I mean I think I think mutt is actually the harmony it's harmonizing with her on the track as well and him so it makes sense that the the backing vocals are men when she's performing but you can see them they're enjoying it and even her iconic Grammy performance they're wearing outfit from the video and the guys are back there sitting there totally crazy

like it's amazing um but yeah speaking of the music video uh the music video is another iconic uh clip that we all know and it's so interesting because it's like everything was as you said intentional purposeful not just oh this accidentally happened it was this is what I want and let's make it happen really will well executed and it was inspired by Robert Palmer's music video for his 80s hit Addicted to Love and of course that's iconic on its own right and it features styling by Mark Bauer and in the beginning Shania Dons an equestrian uh inspired top hat and long coat gradually removing articles of clothing John comes in my sweater she's removing articles of clothing until she's left in a mini dress and thigh-high booth and all the while she's surrounded by men dressed in PVC and mesh with a lot of makeup on oh god with a lot of makeup that was great you know to make them androgynous it's like it's awesome um I remember this video so well like I was an older kid at this point and this song was everywhere like impossible to avoid like I could picture that music video for the rest of my life even if I never see it again you know what I mean like it's it's ingrained I think in my brain and I appreciate it so much more now because of course back then as a kid I didn't really think much about like what she was trying to say with it and kind of the boundaries that she was pushing at the time right but especially nowadays where music videos tend to be kind of the absolute most especially because we review K-pop as well where like every scene is is just it's overwhelming this video is so simple and so if effective you get one scene yeah yep and it relies on her to really just be her charismatic pop star herself to like keep your attention um which is absolutely brilliant like this is what you call Star Quality right like she doesn't need to do much she does a little eyebrow race she does a little smirk here and it's all extremely captivating um and yeah I think that's brilliant I love how awkward the men look in the band as well like they're clearly models that are not used to movement yeah and so they can't even do a two-step um but their awkwardness juxtaposes her confidence even more yeah so it's brilliant like they're pretty men but like they're clearly like not holding a candle to her no they're useless yeah yeah exactly exactly Sorry God sorry as human beings you matter but in this video honey you don't because she is stealing the seeds yes um I remember this video at all from my childhood personally because I think I was a little too young but yeah um I do remember it from um of bh1 best of playlists like you know VH1 used to do all those like best yeah yeah yeah man they used to hold it have it on right um before all the love and Hip-Hops and stuff but um yeah back in the day I remember seeing it and even maybe hearing the song at some movies maybe but I saw the play the the play her come up on like a countdown and I thought wow she is so pretty oh my God if that's what got me I was like holy smokes now granted she is very talented but we all have eyes to see and my eyes all just just stunning quality and it's just confident she's wearing all black and I was just like what is it about and everyone was saying so many good things about this video they were like she was just she was just so gorgeous she's so talented and they all started thinking oh and I'm like what song is this so that's my earliest memory with this video but looking at it I mean if you know addicted to love you know that this listen women and music videos no matter what the race no matter what the genre we are meant to be objectified so to have that role reversal switched up have the men in the mesh with their man boobs all out honey we love a good Peck you love a good pectorial that's uh goes to the public and it's interesting because with country you don't get that and that's why this was even more iconic because not only are you using a video that objectified women with a very similar not very simple but a similar kind of guitar group that people recognize but you're kind of Turning Country on its head was very male dominated very much like a woman should know her place very down home Bible Belt mentality going on and she was like no I want to look good and I want to sit there and flaunt everything I got but she didn't actually do that until the very end and I think that's very powerful you know that whole silhouette and for her to kind of peel everything off and then bam she's wearing this mini skirt saying I feel like girl go off um and I think this video was considered like by some worry warts and some people in her creative campus being too sexy or risque but I'm so glad that Mark Bauer worked with her I mean she's worked with so many um uh gays and and lgbtq people and when she was in Canada even when she was doing her like her side gigs she had cited them as people she would spend time with so she was open to that um so I think it's great that Mark decided to kind of push it a little bit and and have her peel off those layers and have all this feminine quote-unquote feminine silhouette and then even in her later latter half of her career you see all these crazy costumes crazy hair her midriff some cleavage uh CGI in a country video like this is why she's a queen of country pop right and it really set her apart his styling for her really set her apart in this era 12 12 videos 12 singles for six for this but this era is a lot and for him to style them and make her look like that I'm here for it it's brilliant yeah totally totally yes so as you mentioned Shania was criticized for the song being too pop and her outfits being provocative and outrageous and it was too Couture for the country folk and many believe that the song was too much and wouldn't be relatable for women at the time but of course those people were wrong yes yes it wasn't just relatable to women it was a song that went beyond a female empowerment Anthem man I feel like a woman has been embraced by many in the lgbtq plus Community as an empowering and liberating expression of self-identity and individuality and it has also been used in various lgbtq plus events and celebrations including Pride parades and other events that celebrate diversity and inclusion an amazingly Shania revealed in her autobiography that the lyrics for man were inspired of her days by her day excuse me of partying with a lot of drag queens and she moved to Toronto at 18 years old so like I mentioned she's she's about this life y'all she's been bout it yeah and again it's amazing like that's such a rare thing for a country artist to be so open about embracing the lgbtqia plus Community you know it's for a lot of country music fans they come from a lot of places that are still very conservative so for her to be so open about it throughout her whole career but even starting you know in the 90s that's pretty amazing and it really is groundbreaking um so yeah really awesome to have her represent and have a be a voice for that community in kind of a harder industry for sure I think she is I think that goes to her being born

she lost her parents at a very young age so she became like essentially like a pseudo mother to her younger siblings but when you're forced to grow really fast and you forced to kind of make a living for yourself you go places like the city you won't stay in a small town because you need to make a living you you she worked out on a resort I think uh even and she had to meet new people on the regular so I think her upbringing definitely helped her kind of find a different path and different influences that just manifested as all this pop affection that we're discussing today so since the release of the track in 1999 Shania has solidified herself as you mentioned as the queen of country pop and is one of the best-selling artists of all time yes indeed yes indeed um so that being said the impact of her the song goes on a higher level with even artists not just country artists um Rina sawyama if you're not familiar we do have like Pop 101 on Venus Hawaiian but she's a Brit pop artist who is Making Waves here um in the U.S as well she has a song called This hell which actually discusses the topic of being an lgbtq plus member also is a country pop rock song that was kind of made in the same vein of man and it's interesting because she has little nods to it like let's go girls or wow that's hot when you think of like um that'll impress me much like songs like that so shania's influence is definitely there I mean um Queens perform it like it's it's yeah ubiquitous at this point right yes exactly I definitely went down the Shania hole after prepping for this episode earlier this week um I have to shout out her new album's actually very good so definitely go check that out but yeah as you mentioned Shania has been a huge influence for so many artists many of which are my favorite artists and you mentioned Rina like at the concert that I went to in La she performed you're still the one as the cover that night and the second the concert ended she played man I feel like a woman at the end very loud for everyone and everyone stayed and just danced to it like it was such an awesome way to end that concert did that not happen at yours I don't remember I think we all ran off the road I don't know yeah no everyone stayed to party to Man I Feel Like a Woman No that did not happen and we got a different we got like a different like album track from her you could I should imagine yeah everyone gets a different cover I think that but yeah we were very lucky we got some Shania that night um but yeah and also we interviewed Steve Anderson he's a music director and he sometimes does the playlists before concerts and the song he mentioned as the one that was a never miss to get audiences excited was man I feel like a woman to play you know at these during these pre-concert playlists so yeah it's just amazing what this song can do and shows the power of music yeah as you mentioned like straight men love it you know all old men love it young girls love it like you know it's literally for everyone it's like impossible to hate this song I've never met anyone who doesn't like the song and if they do we don't trust them we send them back to space where they came from well you know this is so much stuff fun to talk about and usually we do deeper dives into artists on our shows with our pop 101s as I've mentioned where we go into the whole discography of the artist and we talk about album reviews and such but if we get some requests we would love to do a full album review or maybe a Pop 101 so let us know in the comments below or you can subscribe and join our patreon where our CCTV crew producers get to choose our episodes and get top priority alright so be sure to check that out patreon.com CCTV pops yes definitely alright so that wraps up this episode of Pop Perfection hope you guys like this segment and let us know what other songs you'd like to see featured on it next as Shan mentioned you can hang out with us and the crew over on patreon and you can also of course comment below or message us at CCTV pops on social media don't forget to like subscribe and turn on notifications for our YouTube channel and if you're enjoying the show on a podcast platform please give us a follow rating and review until next time that's Shan that's good and we're signing off from CCTV the non-stop pop show [Music] foreign