Twain, Shania

Shania Twain - Up (Live in Chicago)

Shania Twain - The Platinum Collection

Nothing encourages one to ignore those silly contradictions in Shania Twain's music (is she country? is she pop?) like a collection of her highly playful videos. The Platinum Collection rolls right over boundaries of tradition and genre with its concentration of imaginative, often surprising visuals. "The Woman in Me," for instance, is set among Egypt's pyramids, while "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" finds a stunning Twain fronting a band of mindless hunks in a funny reversal of Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" video. "You're Still the One," easily one of Twain's most affecting songs, still holds up as a softly erotic short film. Even Twain's more prosaic videos (the go-kart mania of "You Win My Love") bear repeat viewing, but it's her heck-with-it aesthetic that leads to such unexpected sights as Irish step dancing in "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)." Then, of course, there are those hot pants in "Rock This Country!" Long may Shania wave. --Tom Keogh

Includes the videos for What Made You Say That, Dance with the One That Brought You, You Lay a Whole Lot of Love on Me, Whose Beds Have Your Boots Been Under?, Any Man of Mine, The Woman in Me (Needs the Man in You), (If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!, You Win My Love, No One Needs to Know, Home Ain't Where His Heart Is (Anymore), God Bless the Child, Love Gets Me Every Time, Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You), You're Still the One, Honey I'm Home, From This Moment On, That Don't Impress Me Much, Man! I Feel Like a Woman!, You've Got a Way, Come On Over, Rock This Country! 80 minutes.

Shania Twain - Up Close and Personal

Shania Twain's Up! Close and Personal concert is both a follow-up to her bestselling 2002 album and an intimate show featuring Alison Krauss and Union Station. It's hard to imagine two superstars in the same general style being as different as Twain and Krauss, and it's surreal to see the latter singing backup on "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under," but the combination works. Up! featured both pop and country versions of its 19 songs, and while the intent here is to favor the country approach, the bluegrass sound of AKUS is more listenable than the album's twang and pedal steel, and "From This Moment On" could almost be mistaken for a Krauss song. It's still Twain's show all the way, though, as she sings lead for every song, including "I'm Gonna Getcha Good," "You're Still the One," and a cover of "You Shook Me All Night Long," which her husband Mutt Lange produced for AC/DC many moons ago. Dressed in relatively conservative black leather (!) and forgoing the aerobics, step dancers, and other pyrotechnics of older shows, Twain is personable and chatty with the audience that surrounds the stage (though no one is invited up), so much so that she can only get through 12 songs in the hourlong show. A 25-minute behind-the-scenes featurette helps fill out the disc. --David Horiuchi

Shania Twain - Live

For erstwhile "new country" outsider Shania Twain, the commercial impact of her first live video doubtless carries the sweet smell of revenge. Twain's mid-'90s breakthrough, fueled by formidable production polish and carefully groomed videos, conspicuously delayed live shows until long after the expatriate Canadian's success crossed into platinum territory--an omission that prompted some skeptics to theorize that the would-be megastar's talent was accomplished through studio legerdemain. Shania Twain Live may benefit from plenty of polish and more than a little calculation in its staging, but the singer-songwriter's long apprenticeship in lounge bands and resort revues north of the border is apparent. Whether one loves or loathes her songs, Twain herself comes across as a seasoned performer who knows how to work the audience.

Equally apparent, and equally unlikely to resolve the division between fans and foes, is Twain's crossover agenda. Scaled for the arenas that Twain and her handlers targeted early on, the concert is closer in pace and power-chords to a mainstream rock show than most country acts, an orientation that aligns the star with Garth Brooks's swaggering attack rather than most country songstresses. Her band may boast three fiddlers, but their slashing attack emulates the kilowatt buzz of the rock guitarists that share the scrim, who pull off familiar string-bending flourishes. As for the front woman, in her electric-green leopard-print top, hip-hugging pants, and meticulously permed, waist-length hair, she resembles some improbably aerobicized white Rastafarian.

The set list is a generous one, reproducing most of Twain's back-to-back platinum albums, and illustrates her skill at mixing melting ballads, flirtatious rockers that enable her to strut her physical beauty, and songs testifying to her self-reliance. Still, for all Twain's assertions that she won't suffer fools gladly, the songs ultimately reveal a traditional romanticism with a moderate, post-feminist spark. One need only check out the power equation behind such songs as "Honey, I'm Home" and "Any Man of Mine" to recognize Twain's themes are ultimately much older than their crossover wrappers. --Sam Sutherland

Super Bowl XXXVII - Tampa Bay Buccaneers Championship Video

The full story of Tampa Bay's championship year is on this special edition DVD, featuring large helpings of regular-season highlights from 2002, plus the team's post-season climb to a Super Bowl perch. Bucs fans might dispute deleted plays or up-and-down video/audio quality, but if one is looking for a fairly thorough, blow-by-blow overview of a once derided team's long-awaited redemption, Super Bowl XXXVII has got the big picture. The program leads us, game by game, warts and all, through head coach Jon Gruden's 12-4 season, examining the Bucs' intensifying passing game and the team's merciless, smart, dominating defense. The NFC Divisional contest against San Francisco, the first-half dramas of the NFC championship, and the Super Bowl rout against the Raiders are all condensed (the Super Bowl is squeezed into an hour) but well-represented. Special features include pre- and post-game commentary for that extra touch of immediacy. --Tom Keogh

Own the most anticipated and watched sporting event of the year. Complete with highlights from the regular season, playoffs and Super Bowl XXXVII. The 2003 release will contain an unprecedented 3 full hours of Super Bowl coverage including every series from the game as originally broadcast, NFL Films regular season, playoff and Super Bowl highlights, and for the first time, a behind-the-scenes look at the Super Bowl. Reference ID:TC01-DVD-0961

VH1 Divas Live

Once an appellation reserved for high-flying operatic stars, the diva has gone mainstream in recent decades, mirroring pop music's post-rock recovery of glitz, glamour, and theatrical hyperbole. Where once there was but a handful of pop divas, fans can now find a growing legion of contenders, a trend underscored by this 1998 cable special originally produced for VH1. The show's producers start with the title's high concept (five divas, one stage!), add an admirable if shrewd charity hook (the better to recruit platinum stars without prohibitive fees), and provide fans with an otherwise straightforward revue, interspersed with introductory cameos from film and television actresses.

For the starring quintet's fans, VH1 Divas Live is hard to disparage: Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Shania Twain, and Mariah Carey provide the requisite combination of beauty, high-ticket sartorial glamour, and stage drama, and their brief sets hew to their biggest hits. Beyond that common formula, these four do diverge somewhat, Dion and Carey most closely following the mannered tradition of the prima donna, Estefan (who, between songs, admits her bemusement at inclusion) offering an earthier and less calculated variant, and the nominally country-oriented Twain rounding out the headliners as a diva-in-the-making, perfectly packaged if vocally more modest.

Still, it's the show's "old timers" who remind us of what's too often missing from today's diva--the emotional largesse that fans crave, and an underlying sense of true worldliness. The fifth featured diva, Aretha Franklin, has never achieved conventional glamour, but what she offers in vocal power and career prestige enables Lady Soul to cast a long shadow across the entire show, even when her actual performances are duets or ensembles. And Carole King, also along for duets and ensemble spots, is even less to the diva manor born, a quintessential singer-songwriter even when draped in an elegant black suit, but her longstanding credibility likewise translates to pole position here. --Sam Sutherland

Shania Twain : A Collection of Video Hits

Features Music Videos: You Win My Love, You're Still The One, From This Moment On, That Don't Impress Me Much, Man! I Feel Like A Woman, I'm Gonna Getcha Good

SPECIALS

To celebrate her smash Come On Over album, country crossover superstar Shania Twain starred in two 1999 TV specials. Winter Break finds Twain in balmy Miami Beach for an outdoor concert belting out hits like "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" along with the Backstreet Boys (who perform with and without her) and Elton John, who duets with the star on surprisingly soulful versions of "You're Still the One" and "Something About the Way You Look Tonight." Thrown in are clips of Twain tooling around her wintry homeland, Canada.

The Come On Over special features Twain in a Dallas concert that, in addition to bouncy hits like the title song, goes on cutesy detours with the star, shown hanging out in the Dallas Cowboys locker room, with the team in practice, and with--yes--the Cowboy cheerleaders. The ultimate cheerleader, Twain grinningly leads her audience through her sing-song tunes, which is more than enough to sate her fans. --Kevin Filipski

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: TWAIN,SHANIA
Title: SPECIALS
Street Release Date: 11/20/2001
Domestic
Genre: COUNTRY

Shania Twain - Up! (Live in Chicago) (Jewel Case)

Impact! Songs That Changed The World: Shania Twain - Any Man of Mine

Each program in the Impact! series puts the spotlight on the songs that have left an indelible mark on the world. Certain songs have come to define the times in which they appeared as they proved to be the catalyst for the transformation of the cultural and political landscape. Most set trends in music, fashion and dance while flouting convention and testing the boundaries of society's accepted moral values.

Besides setting the scene for the release of the song, the programs feature the song's creator(s) and explore its cultural impact and the ways that it changed the course of history. Guests include recording artists, music industry executives, cultural and political pundits and the music fans themselves for whom these songs became their life's soundtrack.

Shania Twain transcended all the genres and set the music industry on its ear. She combined country songs with pop style production and marketing, using video to create a dynamic image, injecting country with a more uptown style, and taking control of her career like no female had ever done in Nashville before. The magnitude of her impact set a new standard for country music, but also had far reaching influence in fashion, business, and social circles. Shania set new benchmarks for everybody in country music. Beginning with Any Man of Mine, Shania gave every female artist in country music permission and freedom to be themselves. The sassy and assertive tone of the lyrics to Any Man of Mine appealed to women everywhere. It was a new form of feminism. She turned the tables with her I love my man, but I love me too lyrics. But, the most obvious influence of Shania on country music has been an outstanding series of music videos that redefined the image of country music. .

With song clips, archive interviews with Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Dee Messina, Lorianne Crook, Chely Wright.