Shania Twain's iconic 'Man! I Feel Like a Woman!' look becomes a Barbie
Let’s go, (Barbie) girls.
Country-pop powerhouse Shania Twain, who sang her way to stardom with anthems of female empowerment, is being honored with a Barbie doll made in her likeness to celebrate the iconic Mattel doll’s 65th anniversary Saturday.
Twain is part of a star-studded Global Role Model Lineup, including Viola Davis, Kylie Minogue and Helen Mirren, which spotlights groundbreaking women with one-of-a-kind commemorative Barbies. The role model doll, an emblem of Mattel's highest honor, is not available for purchase.
Sitting beside her Shania-fied doll over Zoom, the “Any Man of Mine” singer says Barbie was “part of my dream world” during childhood.
“I felt very flattered to be a part of what I consider a very important movement right now to support female empowerment and toward positive change and positive reinforcement,” Twain tells USA TODAY. “It’s kind of emotional to be sitting beside my likeness as a Barbie and for what it represents.”
Twain opens up about the impact Barbie had on her early life, as well as channeling the power of femininity in her songwriting.
Shania Twain nurtured her childhood imagination with homemade Barbies
Twain was creating her own Barbie world from the start.
While the singer-songwriter didn't get Barbies as gifts a child, Twain says the doll still had a strong impact on her girlhood play.
“I was creating my own actual Barbies so that I could still play Barbie. And I would give them names and style them, and they would come from all parts of the world,” Twain says. “It’s that world of imagination that really seeds the beginning awareness of who you might become someday.”
But instead of stitching together leftover rags to make the dolls, Twain turned to her own backyard for inspiration, using plants and organic material to fashion dolls. Although the plant figures had a short shelf life, they allowed Twain to explore her evolving ideas of womanhood.
“They only lasted for like two days. So, every couple of days, I would have to change the Barbie out and I would change the name, I would change the country they were from, I would change their role,” Twain says. “I think I was just projecting my own self into these characters and playing them out and living them out through my imagination.”
Shania Twain celebrates legacy of ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’ with new Barbie
Twain is known for her sharp style as much as her musical prowess, and the look for Twain’s Barbie takes inspiration from one of the singer’s classic looks.
The doll’s all-black ensemble serves as an homage to the 1999 music video for Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”, in which Twain wears a black trench coat-style blazer and matching top hat. The girl-power anthem, which went on to be certified triple platinum, became one of Twain’s signature songs and has since been performed by female artists including Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus and Kelsea Ballerini.
“‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’ is an exclamation of me in real time when I wrote the song feeling like it was time for me to embrace feeling good about being feminine and demanding respect for what I had to say,” Twain says. “Because often in the world of a female and of a girl, if you’re not careful with the balance of your physical self – the way you present yourself – and with what it is that’s going on in your brain, then you’re overshadowed by the girl, by the woman, by the curves.”
The iconic outfit has been revamped for Twain’s Barbie doll, as the doll’s hairstyle – a mane of cotton-candy pink hair – is a tribute to the finale look for Twain’s recent Queen of Me Tour.
“It’s where I am now, and it’s a surreal place to be in,” Twain says. “I never would have imagined in all of the joy of using my imagination and the freedom in that that I would have had the opportunity to manifest my ideas, my visions. So, (I’m) able to inspire other little girls, other women to have confidence in that and step out behind whatever it is they’re afraid the world will judge them for.”
Shania Twain’s girl-power lyrics come from ‘self-empowerment’ of songwriting
From the self-empowered sass of “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “Any Man of Mine” to the heartfelt confidence of “Queen of Me” – the title track of her latest album – Twain’s embrace of female empowerment stems from the freedom she’s found in songwriting.
“Self-empowerment has always been a running theme through a lot of my songwriting, right from the very beginning,” Twain says. “It’s one of the places that I always felt I could express what I was thinking.”
But whether she’s unapologetically embracing womanhood, putting a lover in his place or looking inward for strength, Twain says true empowerment comes from honesty.
“It all just goes back to being your authentic self and slowly building confidence to put it forward,” Twain says. “I think the confidence and self-empowerment is all about your true genuine self, knowing who that is and not being distracted by the fear and the imposition of society.”
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