Born as Eilleen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario, on 28 August 1965, Shania was raised the middle of three daughters to to Clarence and Sharon Edwards. Her mother remarried Jerry Twain, a full-blooded Ojibwa native from Timmins, Ontario, when Shania was six. She still regards Timmins as her hometown, naming her German Shepherd dog Tim after it. Jerry Twain adopted her as his own, and although her original roots are a mixture of Irish and French-Canadian, she was raised in the Ojibway Indian culture by her stepfather, making her half native Indian in the eyes of Canadian law.
A shy kid, Shania describes herself as a tomboy who hated performing, but it didn't stop her writing songs, which she began as early as aged eight. She eventually plucked up courage to begin singing in bars after school and, at age 13, got her first break when appearing on The Tommy Hunter Show. Tragedy saw her put her career on hold when, at age 22, her parents were killed in a car accident. Shania became legal guardian to her teenage half-sister and two half-brothers who she helped raise before getting back to work.
She officially changed her christian name to Shania (which means 'I'm on my way' in Ojibwa) in 1991, signing contract with Mercury Nashville that same year. Her first album made barely a splash, but her third album Come On Over - produced by her husband Robert John Lange - became the biggest selling country album of all time and, after topping 36 million sales worldwide, it is the highest selling album of of the Nielsen SoundScan era in the US, beating out Metallica to number two spot. Shania has achieved seven No. 1 hits on Billboard magazine's country singles chart, and is one of only four Canadians to ever have even one number 1. Shania received a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame in Toronto in 1993 and she was awarded the 'Order of Canada', Canada's highest honor, in 2005.
