Shania Twain was born on August 28, 1965 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Her birth name is Eilleen Regina Edwards. She is the middle of three daughters to Clarence and Sharon Edwards.

When Shania was six, her mother remarried Jerry Twain, a full-blooded Ojibwa native from Timmins, Ontario, who adopted her as his own, making her 50% native in the eyes of the law. She started out singing in bars as a child after hours, and at 13, appeared on "The Tommy Hunter Show".
At 22, Shania's parents were killed in an accident, and she became the legal guardian of her half-brothers and her sister, putting her musical career on hold to raise her family.

In 1991 she changed her name to Shania (meaning "I'm on my way" in Ojibwa), and signed a contract with Mercury Nashville that same year. Her first album went by without notice, but her second album, produced with Mutt Lange, who she wed in 1993, broke world records with its sales.

Misspellings & aliases:
Shenia, Shaneia, Shanya, Shaneya, Shannia, Shannya, Tvain, Tweinn, Twein, Twainn, Twaine, Tvaine, Tweine, Twayn, Twaynne.