‘Man! I Feel Like A Woman!’: The Story Behind Shania Twain’s Empowering Hit

By the late 90s, Shania Twain was already a bona fide star in the country world. Her second album, 1995’s The Woman In Me, sold four million copies by the end of that year and topped country music charts in the US, UK, and her native Canada. Stateside success had been secured, but the singer-songwriter had her sights set further afield – international triumph and a major crossover moment.

“Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” – the eighth single from her third album, Come On Over – helped Twain achieve that goal. The song was conceived in 1994 when she was still working on The Woman In Me and heard Robert John “Mutt” Lange playing a new riff in the studio. Immediately inspired, she began singing an early version of the lyrics over the top, but it didn’t make the cut for that record. They later revisited the song during sessions for Come On Over, with it becoming the final track recorded for the album.

Listen to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” now.

While writing the lyrics, Twain took inspiration from her time working at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, where she worked alongside drag performers, as well as her experiences partying in gay clubs in Toronto. “My fascination with this initial introduction to men transforming themselves into beautiful women likely sowed the seed of inspiration,’” she wrote in her memoir, From This Moment On.

Upon its release, the single was a huge hit, helping Twain to score the international success she’d dreamt of. It charted in the Top 10 in six countries across the world and peaked at No.23 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1999, two years after its original release. In 2000, it won the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Decades later, it remains one of the star’s biggest hits worldwide. Come On Over, too, took on a life of its own, remaining the biggest-selling studio album by a female solo artist to this day.

“Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” has become synonymous with female empowerment anthems, thanks to Twain’s lyrics detailing the joys of womanhood. According to the song, those include freeing yourself from romance to dance with your girlfriends, coloring your hair, and “the prerogative to have a little fun.” “The whole expression [in the title] is a celebration of being a woman these days,” Twain shared in an interview with Billboard in 1997. “It’s pretty darn fun to be a woman.”

Listen to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” now.