Man! I Feel Like a Woman!

Background and release

The title and thus the lyrics of the song were based on Twain's experience while working at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario to provide for her brothers and sisters after their parents died in a car crash. Twain recalls seeing some drag performers working at the resort and credits them as the source of her inspiration. Later in 1993, after being signed to Mercury Nashville and releasing her first album Shania Twain, Twain met Robert John "Mutt" Lange, whom she would collaborate extensively with and marry at the end of the year. In 1994, while composing songs for what would become her second studio album The Woman in Me, Lange played to Twain a riff he had been working on and Twain sang lyrics for what would become "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!". Speaking of the writing of the song, she stated "There was no time to waste on ideas that wouldn't make the album, but something like [the song] was just there. I was inspired right off the bat with that one, for example, by a riff Mutt had going, and the lyrics and phrasing just came out of the blue."

After reaching domestic success in the United States, and selling over fifteen million copies with The Woman in Me, Twain was determined to become an international star and decided to do whatever was necessary to achieve her goal. In order to achieve a worldwide success, Twain recorded her third studio album, Come On Over, with the intention of being "international". After completing the album and delivering to Mercury, Lange spent four months remixing 70 percent of the album for its international edition, diluting and removing the twang elements. While writing for the album, Twain and Lange revisited "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and insisted on having the track on the album. The song is the opening track of the U.S. edition of "Come On Over", however, the international edition starts with "You're Still the One", since the song has country elements. Initially, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" was only released to country radio as the album's seventh single in the United States in March 1999. However, after the song's success, it was eventually released to mainstream radio in the U.S. and worldwide in September 1999.

Composition and lyrics

"Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" was written by Shania Twain and Robert "Mutt" Lange, who also produced the track. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Universal Music Publishing Group, the song was written in the key of Bb major, with a moderate tempo of 126 beats per minute. Twain's vocals span from the low-note of F3 to the high-note of Db5. "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" is a country pop song, with a guitar riff that conjures Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky", as noted by both Chuck Taylor of Billboard and J.D. Considine of Entertainment Weekly. It starts with Twain exclaiming, "Let’s go girls". Lyrically, the song is a female empowerment track, with Twain insisting that "the best thing about being a woman is the prerogative to have a little fun" as well as promising to wear a "men's shirt" with a "short skirt." In an interview for Billboard, Twain further explained the song's lyrical meaning, elaborating:

That song started with the title, then it kind of wrote itself. The whole expression is a celebration of being a woman these days, I think we're kind of spoiled in a lot of ways, with the advantages we have. Feminists may not feel that way, but I do. It's pretty darn fun to be a woman. A lot of the stuff I do has such a feminine, female perspective, but a powerful one. It's not only girl power, it's gay power. I think that song really stands for both.

Critical reception

The song received generally favorable reviews from music critics. Writing for Billboard, Chuck Taylor commented that "there's no reason that 'Man!', with its coquettish turn of phrase, shouldn't have the same kind of appeal as her earlier 'That Don't Impress Me Much'," also noting that the song has "plenty of tasty ingredients that radio traditionally searches out - great tempo, attitude, a hook that sells like ice cream in summer, and the instantly recognizable vocals of a woman who is a found acquaintance of so many millions out there now." Taylor ultimately called it "country crossover at its best." Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone noted that "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" and other high-gloss songs "open with a bubblegum-glam cheerleader shout, then blasts into radio-ready rapture with offhand vocal interjections – doot-doot-doot scatting, do-si-do rapping, sexy squeaks, sarcastic Alanis Morissette asides."

The staff from the Sputnikmusic website praised the track, calling it "a high point of the album with it being a classic example of upbeat feel-good power-pop, which is notable both for the production, something that is notably strong throughout the album, but also for the instrumental quality present. It's possible almost to feel the enjoyment that was present in making this song when listening to it, and there's even a guitar solo, which again pulls the listener in." While reviewing both Twain's "Come on Over" and "Greatest Hits" albums, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic picked the song as one of the compilation's highlights, while Nick Reynolds of BBC Music named it "the sound of a thousand Saturday nights in clubs all over the Western World." Brian James wrote for PopMatters that the song "has a title-word-to-exclamation-point ratio that would make the headline writer at 'The National Enquirer' blush."

Accolades

"Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" earned Shania Twain her second Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance in its 42nd edition, which also saw her winning another award for Best Country Song for the song "Come On Over". The song also won both BMI Songwriter Awards and SOCAN'S for "One of the Most Performed Songs of the Year". Kay Savage of CMT picked the track as one of her "10 Prime Hits", asking: "Is there any better song to start a Friday night than 'Man! I Feel Like a Woman!'?." Savage also wrote that the "Grammy-winning song brings out [her] best Southern qualities for a really-go-wild, doing-it-in-style, country good time. Shania even took the pain out of girls’ usual conferences of 'what should I wear tonight' by providing a simple answer: men’s shirts and short skirts. Genius." Laura McClellan of Taste of Country picked the song as her "All-Time Best Song", writing that "the track's iconic intro lick and catchy singalong vibe won this song a Grammy and a No. 4 slot on the country charts. The most staunch pop purists can still sing along to this one years later, even if they mumble the chorus a bit in the middle."

While listing the "Top 10 Girl Power Songs", The Boot website placed it at number ten, praising Shania for "embrac[ing] her inner feminist in this Grammy-winning single," calling it "music to any man's ears." In the same vein, Fatima Bhojani of Mother Jones magazine picked the line, "We don't need romance, we only wanna dance/We're gonna let our hair hang down," as the best lyric of the song. Writing for NPR Music, Ann Powers commented that the song "connects crossover country to the rock world in no uncertain terms, expanding the genre's heritage in ways that directly reflect the eclectic tastes of its younger audience." The A.V. Club editors, while analysing the "17 well-intended yet misguided feminist anthems", concluded that:

North America

"Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" debuted on the US Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart the week of March 13, 1999 at number 53, becoming the highest debut of the week. The single spent 20 weeks on the chart and climbed to a peak position of number four on June 12, 1999, where it remained for two weeks. The single became Twain's 11th (and seventh consecutive) top-ten on the country charts. On the US Billboard Hot 100, it debuted at number 93 on the week of April 17, 1999. It spent 28 weeks on the chart and peaked at number 23 for one week on November 13, 1999. In the same week, the song peaked at number 18 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. Come on Over's fifth US adult contemporary release, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" debuted at number 29 the week of October 2, 1999, the highest debut of the week. The single spent 26 weeks on the chart and climbed to a peak position of number 16 on December 18, 1999, where it remained for one week. While on the Adult Top 40, it debuted at number 30 and peaked at number 12. On the Top 40 Tracks, the song debuted at number 32 and peaked at number 20. The song has sold 853,000 digital copies in the US as of September 2015.

Australasia and Europe

The song was even more successful elsewhere. "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" became her second consecutive number-one in New Zealand, where it debuted at the top spot, and was certified platinum, making it her biggest single in that country. In Australia, the song debuted at number 5 and peaked at number 4 a week later, becoming her fifth consecutive top-five single. In France, the song became her first and only top-ten single, spending 31 weeks on the charts, while spending 13 weeks inside the top-ten and three weeks at its peak position at number 3. In the UK, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" became Twain's second highest selling single, being certified Silver. The song debuted at its peak position at number three, on October 2, 1999, where it remained for two weeks. It remained in the top ten for another two weeks. It remained on the entire chart for 18 weeks. "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" became Twain's fourth top-ten (and third consecutive) in the UK.

Music video

The music video for "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" was shot in New York City and directed by Paul Boyd. It was filmed on January 11, 1999 and debuted on March 3, 1999 on CMT. The video is a role-reversed version of Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" and "Simply Irresistible" music videos. In the music video, she stands in front of a group of men, all dressed alike, complete with buffed and blank-eye, meant to imitate the women from Palmer's videos. Twain starts the video dressed in a long coat, but throughout the video she strips off items of clothing until she is left wearing a black corset, mini skirt, thigh-high boots, and a black choker.

The video won the MuchMoreMusic Video of the Year award at the MuchMusic Video Awards in 2000. The video uses the alternate mix, which tones down the guitar and synth parts and blends them into the background. The original version of the video is available on Twain's DVD The Platinum Collection, though an alternate version of the video using the international version was used as a backdrop for Twain's performance of the song on her Top of the Pops special in 1999.

Live performances and usage in pop culture

Shania Twain performed the song on her "Come On Over Tour" (1998), "Up! Tour" (2003) and on her "Shania: Still the One" residency show (2012-2014). While on the latter, the song was part of the encore, on the first two the song was the opening song. It was also the opening song of her "Shania Twain Live", "Winter Break" and "Up! Live in Chicago" live video albums, as well as on her headline on the Super Bowl XXXVII halftime show. The song was also performed by American Idol winner Carrie Underwood during the fourth season.

The song was featured in a 2005 episode of America's Funniest Home Videos in a montage showing clips of women. The song was part of the soundtrack of Brazilian successful telenovela Laços de Família. American recording artist Britney Spears and actresses Zoe Saldaña and Taryn Manning sang along to the track during Spears' first movie Crossroads (2002). In that same year, it was performed by Molly Shannon in the form of a Christmas spoof in The Santa Clause 2. It was used to comic effect in a 2004 Chevy Colorado TV commercial, in which a group of men are traveling in one of the vehicles, and one of them begins singing along very enthusiastically with Twain's recording (from the female narrative), much to the discomfort of his friends. It also appeared to comedic effect in an episode of Limmy's Show, in which Limmy aka Derek Limond plays a woman dressed in leopard print skirt and leather top, attempting to corral the viewer into declaring "Let's Go Girl!" following the song's opening riff. On the third attempt, the camera appears to accelerate into this character, striking her and propelling her across the Glasgow skyline. The woman finally falls to the ground after colliding with a tall building, revealing in the process the fact that she is wearing a "strap on" dildo. The scene ends with the woman lying in great pain.

Releases

1. "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" (Original Radio Edit) (3:53)
2. "I'm Holdin' On to Love (To Save My Life)" (Pop Mix) (3:44)
3. "Love Gets Me Every Time" (Mach 3 Remix) (3:43)
4. "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" (Alternate Mix) (3:53)

1. "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (Country LP Version) (3:53)
2. "Love Gets Me Every Time" (Live/Direct TV Mix) (3:51)
3. "Any Man Of Mine" (4:09)

1. "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (Country LP Version) (3:53)
2. "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)" (Extended Dance Mix) (4:44)
3. "Any Man Of Mine" (4:07)

1. "Man! I Feel Like A Woman! (3:54)
2. "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)" (Extended Dance Mix) (4:44)

1. "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (3:53)
2. "That Don't Impress Me Much" (3:38)
3. "Black Eyes, Blue Tears" (Live/Direct TV Mix) (4:22)
4. "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (Alternate Mix) (3:53)

1. "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (3:53)
2. "Black Eyes, Blue Tears" (Live/Direct TV Mix) (4:22)
3. "That Don't Impress Me Much" (India Mix) (4:42)
4. "Man! I Feel Like A Woman!" (Alternate Mix) (3:53)

Official versions