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    • Shania Twain talks Beyoncé, People’s Choice Country Awards and more
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    Shania Twain talks Beyoncé, People’s Choice Country Awards and more

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    Multi-platinum selling country and pop superstar Shania Twain discusses country’s moment, Beyoncé and hosting the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards.

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    For five decades, Shania Twain never stopped thinking this country was cool.

    That’s the energy she brings to the stage when she hosts the People’s Choice Country Awards at the Grand Ole Opry House. The event premieres Thursday at 7pm CT on NBC and Peacock.

    Country newcomer Beyoncé leads the People’s Choice Country Awards field with 12 nominations. Other double-digit nominees include “I Remember Everything” collaborators Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves at 11 and 10, respectively.

    Another country newsmaker of late, Post Malone, also received nominations for his music videos for the Morgan Wallen collaboration “I Had Some Help” and Blake Shelton duet “Pour Me a Drink.”

    Kane Brown will also receive the Country Champion Award, while Miranda Lambert will receive the Country Icon Award at the event.

    Twain has an opinion on all these achievements and more.

    Twain is excited to be part of the country’s rise

    Over the past two years, “brave and risky” pop-leaning country artists like Twain, who straddled the line between icons and outliers, have witnessed something of a resurgence in Music City.

    Every six months, the “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” singer performs in Nashville. That has included guests at the ACM Honors at the Ryman Auditorium, headlining at Geodis Park and now entering the vaunted circle at the Opry House.

    Twain says she is excited to be involved in a “pivotal moment of evolution” for country music.

    “The People’s Choice Country Awards allow me to share my appreciation and respect for the community of artists – old and new – in country music,” she said. “I will be there both to reunite with old friends and to thank Shaboozey for his atmosphere, which makes me smile every day.”

    For the artist, a moment where the genre now reflects her iconoclastic journey through country and pop music is heartening.

    “I grew up with ‘my’ country music, defined by blues, folk, rock and alternative artists and sounds,” says Twain, who has sold more than 100 million records in her career. “It makes me happy to have that energy back in the genre because the fans can scream (for something country music can give them). Artists having to give fans what they want is important to continue the growth of (country music) to make.”

    The value of fan-voted country music award shows

    The People’s Choice Country Awards balances the highest level of the country’s awards cycle by allowing for a diversity of fan-chosen awards, in addition to membership alliances that choose the industry’s top artists and creatives.

    Academies and associations are layered systems, purposefully attractive for structured, sustainable growth.

    ACM awards 2024: Lainey Wilson, Alan Jackson and others help showcase the country’s past, present and future

    More music: Tauren Wells promises fun surprises and an ‘epic’ performance at the 2024 Dove Awards

    Fans’ willingness to use online and streaming portals to expedite change, at the risk of denying structure and sustainability, has nearly transformed country music as a wholesale industry over the past five years.

    “The industrial change in the country is (so deeply felt) because the industry of the genre was overdue for innovation,” says Twain.

    Over the past five years, the music industry’s overall dependence on streaming and touring revenue has played directly into the hands of a genre that routinely churns out singles like Wallen’s “Last Night,” Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and Malone and Wallen’s ‘I Had Some Help’ has reached a billion views in less than a year. Additionally, sold-out arena and stadium touring acts such as Brown, Kenny Chesney, Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, George Strait and Wallen are proliferating in the genre.

    In this market, thanks to fan support, the country’s rise to being responsible for a significant portion of sales compared to other genres is notable.

    Twain says the genre playing “catch up” to balance the wants of fans and the needs of the industry is essential. However, she adds that country has historically been a genre where hyper-committed fans wanted to support country music as pop — and had the industry’s backing to do so.

    “The country has always needed to be a more pop-star-inclusive environment,” Twain says. “Artists having the opportunity to express their interests in making country music feel comfortable and inspired in the (genre as) environment is vital.”

    Beyoncé’s place in the country’s mainstream

    And yes, Beyoncé has been nominated for twelve People’s Choice Country Awards, but zero Country Music Association awards.

    On one level, the CMA Awards are much older and more established than NBC and Universal’s foray into country music awards shows.

    However, Twain rightly notes that the “Cowboy Carter” artist is a star whose impact is “hard to understand.”

    She argues that even if Beyoncé’s impact is difficult to contextualize against the country’s pre-existing norms, respecting the interests of the genre’s fans in the aggregate honors both the country’s listeners and the genre’s creative community.

    For Twain, artists should be rewarded if their desire to push boundaries is commercially and socially successful.

    “Not being afraid to embrace something that may feel new or surprising will actually sustain the country’s growing listener base,” Twain says. “Rules and stereotypes shouldn’t apply. It’s best to let the fans decide who belongs or doesn’t belong in country music first.”

    ‘The country has always been cool’

    Currently, 40% of the Billboard Top 25 albums are country releases. Yes, 50% of that total includes five years of releases from Bryan and Wallen alone. However, 19-year-old Jessie Murph and 72-year-old George Strait are also among that number.

    Ask Twain about an artist she feels is missing from the conversation and she doesn’t mention any of her 2023 tour openers or an underground name that deserves the spotlight. Instead, she mentions another legend: Barbara Mandrell.

    “We are moving into the country’s era of everything from an outlaw genre to embracing vibrant Hollywood glamour,” says Twain.

    She emphasizes a point she made earlier to sum up her excitement about Thursday’s event in Music City.

    “The country, in whatever form, has always remained cool to me.”

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