It has been 15 years since country star Shania Twain has released a new album and up until she rolled out on her Rock This Country Tour in 2015, it had been 11 years since she had been on the road.
Though she’s basically been absent from the mainstream, aside from her two-year residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, as Twain hit the stage for her first-ever headlining set at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio on Saturday night it was clear that fans hadn’t forgotten her arsenal of hits.
Coming out with her 1997 cut, “Rock This Country,” Twain’s turn was both entertaining and personal. After making her grand entrance with a massive production that included a firework finish to the first track, she launched straight into “Honey, I’m Home” and “You Win My Love.”
• Photos: Shania Twain performs for first time at Stagecoach Saturday night
At 51 years old, she looked absolutely stunning and moved with ease, jumping around from a high riser with lighted stairs on either side, utilizing both wings of the ginormous stage as well as the mini catwalk to connect with her enthusiastic followers.
“Oh my gosh, this is the party of the year for me,” she said to the crowd as she took in the sea of fans cheering from across the field.
She kicked up some dust with “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” and had people singing along to “I Ain’t No Quitter” and “Love Gets Me Every Time.” For “Don’t Be Stupid,” Twain left the stage to get down into the pit to share the mic with the hordes of fans, most of whom were female, who had smashed themselves against the barrier.
Before the next song, she noted that it would be special and that it would be a real “female moment” as she invited out 23-year-old “Dibs” and “Peter Pan” country singer Kelsea Ballerini to join her on “Any Man of Mine.” The pair delivered a fun performance as their vocals bounced well off of each other and they even did the movements to the “You gotta shimmy shake/ make the Earth quake” portion of the song.
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Ballerini wasn’t the only special guest to join Twain on stage. Near the end of the set, she brought out 24-year-old Nick Jonas to perform “Party For Two,” a track she originally sang with Billy Currington. Female fans lost their minds, shrieking and stampeding to get closer to the stage for a better glimpse of the youngest Jonas Brother.
Though it seemed like she could do no wrong, Twain proved she was, in fact, human as she flubbed the lyrics to “Come on Over.” She admitted it immediately, laughed it off and continued on without really skipping a beat. She whipped out a worn acoustic guitar to play “No One Needs to Know” and set off a bunch of pyro as she finished “I’m Gonna Getcha Good!”
She spotted a female fan rockin’ a similar leopard print hooded outfit to the one she wore in the “That Don’t Impress Me Much” music video and pointed her out to the rest of the crowd.
“I don’t have that stomach anymore, but you look really good,” she said with a laugh. “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
Twain got a little emotional as she humbly shared with the crowd that “this is a moment I’ll remember forever.”
• Read more: Full coverage of the Stagecoach Country Music Festival
“I’ve learned through life so far that we have to just keep creating beautiful memories,” she added before diving into “From This Moment On” which was pure perfection. She followed it up with “Still the One,” a song she said applies to the relationships with people that stand by you through thick and thin.
As she promised in interviews leading up to Stagecoach, Twain did play her very first single, “Life’s About to Get Good,” off her forthcoming album which is due out in the fall. It’s an upbeat song with a nice, positive message that the audience seemed to respond well to.
Twain rounded out her set with back-to-back diva tracks as she did “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “(If You’re Not In It For Love) I’m Outta Here!” She didn’t do an encore, instead opting to spend her final minutes on the stage, sharing with the masses that she was going to celebrate this momentous occasion by indulging in an entire bag of dill pickle potato chips. She closed with a song she said she never leaves a stage without singing and appropriately ended the evening with “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”
