It’s hard to explain the assortment of sensations that make up a Shania Twain concert.
On the one hand, it’s a maximalist masterclass in how to put on a stadium-sized pop show. When she’s not cavorting around the stage with all the American the charisma of a one-woman Vegas show, she’s playfully interacting with her array of backing vocalists, band members, and mobile string section (?!).
And then on the other hand, it’s also a showcase of some of the finest country-cum-pop music that’s been produced by anyone, anywhere, in the last thirty years. If you’re able to wheel out the likes of I’m Gonna Getcha Good!, You’re Still The One, and Any Man Of Mine in the first half of your set, you know you’ve amassed a serious back catalogue – and if you’re then able to belt out Honey, I’m Home, Party For Two, and the onmi-banger that is That Don’t Impress Me Much by the time you finish your show, you can be damn near certain that you’re a bona fide legend.
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And that, dear reader, is purely what Shania Twain is: a living, breathing legend.
Forget the fact that personal struggles (and a bout of Lyme disease) once led her to believe that she might never sing again. Disregard the fact that she’s served as an inspiration to more than one generation of emerging (and mostly female) singers, songwriters, and performers. And you can even shove the dozens of country-pop bangers that she’s penned to one side, too.
No, what matters tonight is that Shania Twain puts on the kind of show you can only pull off if you’re a top-tier, undeniable, and unstoppable global superstar. She’s got the hits, and she’s got the performance chops to back them up – and, with the help of her band and the kind of light show that Coldplay would be proud to call their own, it takes no time at all before Shania Twain’s BST Hyde Park show is destined to be one for the ages.
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Let’s take a moment to appreciate BST Hyde Park as a festival, too.
It can’t be easy to set up a world-class music venue in the heart of London’s iconic Hyde Park every summer – and yet, somehow, they manage to pull it off year after year. A vast and expansive pop-up, situated slap-bang in the middle of the greatest city on Earth, and loaded with the kind of line-up that really does have something for everyone.
And if you ask us, it’s never looked better than when Shania closes her set with a rowdy and raucous rendition of Man, I Feel Like A Woman!. It’s hard to quantify what ‘the perfect pop song’ looks like, but we’ll be damned if it doesn’t look at least something like that. It’s the perfect ending to a near-perfect show – and if it doesn’t impress you much, then you probably weren’t paying enough attention.
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