Global Pop Dominatrix

"The only credit I take for anything is that I work very hard," Twain says. "Mutt does, too. I think I'm capable of doing a lot more -- I don't even think what I do is my best. But I don't want to make light of it, because the fans like it. I do music that I think can do best on a commercial level." So why not put out her best and see what happens? She grimaces at the suggestion. "I don't have confidence in what I think is my best. Maybe my artistic best wouldn't be considered valid commercially. But I'm not looking for recognition on it. I don't even really care if anybody ever hears it."

Shania twain is yelling. "Good! Good! Good! Go back around! They're not going to get anything! All right! It's all yours! Whoooo!" An hour after the Grey Cup rehearsal ends, the Edmonton Oilers are playing the Detroit Red Wings on the other side of town, and while the Oilers try to score on a power play, Twain hangs on the railing of the skybox, oblivious to the twenty other people milling around behind her. "Who was he passing to?" she complains, and sits back down, continuing to eat from a huge bowl of popcorn she keeps in her lap. "It's changed a lot since I was a kid," she says. "They used not to wear helmets, and there was more fighting, always some blood. But there's still enough action." Twain never played hockey herself -- she preferred to ride horses. She helped a friend who worked at a stable and got to ride in return. She now owns five horses: Chief, Shadow, Slick, Queenie and Tango. A couple of years ago, Twain went to Portugal for two weeks to learn to play "horseball," a cross between rugby and basketball on horseback. It's popular in Europe; Twain says France has more than 700 teams. "From what the Portuguese explained to me, it's an old Asian game that they used to play with heads," she says cheerfully. "One of those barbaric games with body parts. It's very hard -- you have to stand up in the stirrups at all times. To pick up the ball, you have to be upside-down and hold on with one leg while the horse is running."

[Excerpt From Issue 915 — February 6, 2003]