There wasn’t a cowboy hat-less head in the home at Shania Twain’s BST Hyde Park present. (Getty)
Shania Twain has a chilly, and he or she’s preventing along with her audio pack. She arrived on stage at her 2024 BST Hyde Park present simply moments in the past and I’m grimacing, with fingers-crossed, hoping that she isn’t signifying a set shortly going south.
On the finish of June, she carried out the legends slot at Glastonbury, with some attendees reporting sound points and a barely disinterested crowd. I’m fearful.
It’s an impressively swift turnaround although, and by observe 4 on the setlist, 2002’s “Up!”, Twain is simply that: on the up.
As she belts her manner by way of three a long time value of music, choosing up her guitar one minute and organising a muddy subject filled with denim-clad revellers for viewers participation the subsequent, it’s clear that she’s not only a nation music legend, or a pop-rock legend at that. Twain is a bona fide leisure legend, full cease.
There aren’t a complete load of gimmicks to a Shania Twain present. She arrives on stage in a pink patterned Vivienne Westwood jacket and skirt combo and glittering boots-cum-sneakers, and stays that manner. The set design is enjoyable, all Vegas slot machines, neon saloon bar signage and scorching pink leopard print. She’s bought her viewers down: cowgirls, cowgays, and nation afficondos.
And that’s the factor about this gig; in contrast to at Glastonbury, Twain is the one headliner. There, some competition goers might have simply popped into the group to listen to the hits, whereas at Hyde Park, these individuals are purchased a ticket particularly for her in depth again catalogue. This ain’t their first time at a Shania Twain rodeo.
Her career-defining hits are the simple spotlight, along with her wedding ceremony mainstay single “You’re Nonetheless The One”, carried out by Twain on guitar, being a genuinely affecting second (although a lot of the singing is carried out by the group, owing to her sickness). “That Don’t Impress Me A lot”, which arrives in direction of the top, impresses very a lot certainly.
Closing on “Man! I Really feel Like A Girl!” is the apparent however appropriate selection. Listening to 65,000 voices all scream “Let’s go women…” is a real second of euphoria that solely somebody with a once-in-a-generation hit can create.
But as it is a crowd right here just for Twain, even her lesser-known, nation chart-dwelling hits go off with magnitude.
“Whose Mattress Have Your Boots Been Below?”, the 1995 takedown of a dishonest companion, is a steeled toe-tapping excessive level, as is her 2023, feel-good TikTok fodder single “Giddy Up!”.
Proper from opener “Don’t Be Silly (You Know I Love You)” by way of to that joyous nearer, Hyde Park is remodeled right into a sea of constantly bobbing and bopping cowboy hats.
The cowboy hats are a recurring theme, too. At one level, she will get the group to resolve which hate she ought to put on mid set (they go for the one with diamanté gems, naturally). At one other, she offers the viewers a lesson on cowboy etiquette, explaining that it’s seen as acceptable for girls to maintain their hats on indoors, however not for males.
It’s one among Twain’s most notable strengths: she’s effusive in terms of chatting with the group. She’s an oddball at instances, pausing at one second in direction of the top of the set to virtually hug the stage’s pretend tree, but it surely solely provides to her attraction.
Loads of her on-stage chatter revolves round her age. She’s 58 now, hardly time to hold up the leopard print, however she’s seen her music soundtrack lives. She talks about Harry Types being a fan resulting from his mom taking part in her songs when he was a toddler, and turns into borderline emotional discussing how her music has crossed generations.
“This track is outdated,” she laughs, introducing her 1997 single “From This Second On”. “However I’m outdated, for God’s sake!”
But with age comes a knack for realizing what a crowd desires, and giving it to them in spades. It has additionally allowed her to be aware about witnessing the music trade change irrevocably. There’s a second in her set the place she takes a second to pause, and mirror on nation pop music storming again into vogue and up the charts by way of Beyoncé, Lana Del Rey, in fact, Taylor Swift. It’s not misplaced on her the half she has performed in paving the way in which.
As the lady within the fluffy, purple cowboy hat in entrance of me put it: “What an icon.” And an icon she is.
2024 BST Hyde Park continues till 14 July.