If the timing of the final stretch of dates in Shania Twain’s Planet Hollywood residency, Let’s Go! (coming a month after the release of a career-defining documentary, Not Just a Girl, on Netflix), is any indication, the singer may be taking her last lap as a live performer. If so, she’s writing that final chapter in Las Vegas where her career started—sort of.
Most of her fans know she started off as Canadian country music prodigy, singing country songs in bars, and later supported her orphaned siblings by performing in a Vegas-style stage show at an Ontario resort. It was the first time she had performed off-Broadway tunes and then-popular hits such as “Wind Beneath My Wings” while wearing glamorous gowns. “It was pretty scary,” Twain recalls in Not Just a Girl. “I really didn’t know what I was doing at all. I had no idea how to sing and wear high-heeled shoes, for example, at the same time.”
It was good training for a future Vegas headliner. Twain sings in high heels during Let’s Go! as well as some of the iconic outfits worn in videos such as “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “I’m Gonna Getcha Good.” Her horseback riding skills wound up coming in handy, too.
Twain’s comeback from Lyme disease, with the encouragement of Lionel Richie, is a major narrative arc in the Netflix doc, but her voice sounds fragile in scenes filmed during the pandemic. She had been doing a lot for interviews for director Joss Crowley and the vocal fry is alluring, but there was no sign she lacked the signature energy she delivers during the nearly 20 songs that make up her Zappos Theater setlists.
She found a new sweet spot within her range as demonstrated on her latest single, which shares the title of the documentary. Whether she adds it to the set remains to be seen, but Twain’s skill at performing in heels will be amply demonstrated.
Planet Hollywood Resort, Aug. 26-27 & 31, ticketmaster.com
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