Shania Twain Says She Had to “Forget the Sag” to Pose Nude for Album Cover
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In promoting her upcoming album Queen of Me, Shania Twain has spoken extensively about posing nude for the record’s artwork. At 57, it was an expressive creative choice for the singer but one that easily triggered feelings of insecurity and self-judgment. How did she ultimately find the courage to follow through? Put simply: “Forget the sag,” she recently told Hoda Kotb on her Today podcast Making Space With Hoda Kotb.
“I’m only going to get more saggy,” Shania quipped. “It’s also one of those things like, I better enjoy this moment right now because I know I don’t look like I did when I was 20.”
She continued, “I don’t even know where I got the courage to do it. I think I just got fed up of judging myself.”
And while some might consider going under the knife, Shania added that at this point in her life, she wouldn’t consider undergoing plastic surgery. “Maybe that was probably part of what pushed me to go, ‘Okay, it’s time to start loving yourself in your own skin,’” she said.
Despite being an emblem of women’s empowerment throughout her career, Shania has never been immune to self-doubt, especially given that she felt exploited for her body while growing up due to the abuse she experienced in childhood.
“I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs. I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me,” she told the Sunday Times late last year. “Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because oh my gosh, it was terrible—you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”
Now, she’s choosing to love herself not only in honor of that little girl but also in honor of the “menopausal body” she has learned to appreciate today. “I hit this wall and was like, ‘Whoa, my confidence is regressing. My courage is dulling. Why am I allowing this?’” she told People in December. “Frig that. I am not regressing. I am embracing my body as it changes, as I should have from my childhood to my teens, as I should be from my taut 20s and 30-year-old self to my menopausal body. I’m not going to be shy about it. I want to be courageous about it, and I want to share that courage in the artwork that I am directing.”
“I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don’t need to hide behind the clothes,” she continued. “I can’t even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body.…I’m not even emotional about it; I just feel okay about it. It’s really liberating.”
Queen of Me debuts on February 3.
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