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Old 07-02-2004, 01:50 AM
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Up and Up

Shania Twain hasn't finished ascending the top-selling artist list


By Donna Isbell Walker, dwalker@greenvillenews.com ENTERTAINMENT WRITER


The Recording Industry Association of America lists on its Web site the top-selling artists of all time.

With 42 million albums sold, Shania Twain is No. 29, sandwiched between Santana and Journey. If the number of albums sold is surprising, what's even more thought-provoking is that Twain has reached those heights with, essentially, four albums.

One of those discs, her self-titled debut, has comparatively negligible sales, hitting the platinum mark six years after its release and never going higher.

That means three of her releases have sold a collective 41 million, including the monster hit "Come On Over," which has gone platinum 19 times since its 1997 release.

What's also striking is that a decade ago, only a handful of music fans outside Canada had heard of Twain. Which means that unlike Santana, whose first album came out 35 years ago, and Journey, which debuted in 1975, Twain has sold all those records in a mere nine years.

There are probably several reasons for Twain's phenomenal rise. First, the music is bouncy, catchy, closer to pop than rock. That's probably because the tunes are co-written by Twain and husband, Robert "Mutt" Lange, the producer who has worked with rockers like Bryan Adams and AC/DC.

As she told Blender magazine last year, "What you hear is the collaboration between the two of us. As a producer, Mutt wants to make music that is succinct and sensible. He is an instrument, his whole physical being."

The songs are written from a distinctively female perspective. In her songs, Twain puts smug, womanizing guys in their place ("That Don't Impress Me Much"), demands a little respect at the end of the workday ("Honey, I'm Home"), and reminds her man that her love endures ("Forever and For Always").

And of course, her flowing hair and supermodel's figure can't hurt either.

Twain herself dismissed the focus on her looks. As she told Rolling Stone writer Gavin Edwards last year, "I'm just a singer. I just happen to have cheekbones that look nice in photographs."


WHO: Shania Twain with Emerson Drive

WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday

WHERE: Bi-Lo Center

HOW MUCH: $46 to $81

CALL: 864-233-2525


THE WOMAN IN HER

- Twain was born Eilleen Regina Edwards Aug. 28, 1965 in Windsor, Ontario.

- She took the last name Twain from her stepfather and changed her first name to Shania, which is Ojibwa for "I'm on my way."

- Eja D'Angelo Lange, Twain's son with husband Robert "Mutt" Lange, was born Aug. 12, 2001.

- Her latest album, "Up!," sold 874,000 copies during its first week of release and has gone on to sell 10 million.

- Twain's list of awards includes back-to-back Entertainer of the Year nods from the Academy of Country Music, in 1999 and 2000.


http://greenvilleonline.com/enterta...04070134429.htm
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