For most artists, being told you might never sing again would feel like the end. For Shania Twain, it became the beginning of a new chapter — one written in sheer defiance.
When the country-pop icon was diagnosed with Lyme disease in the early 2000s, it wasn’t just her health that suffered — it was her voice. The infection attacked her nervous system, leaving her with dysphonia, a condition that made it painful and nearly impossible to sing. Years of tests and vocal therapy followed, but the prognosis was grim. “The doctor said I might never sing again,” Shania recalled. “So I recorded the next day.”
That single sentence captures the heart of who she is — fearless, stubborn, and relentlessly hopeful.
At the time of her relapse, Twain was already one of the most successful artists in music history. Her albums The Woman in Me and Come On Over had shattered records, and she had become the defining voice of 1990s crossover country. But after the illness struck, she disappeared from the spotlight, retreating to a quiet life in Switzerland as she fought to regain control of her body and her voice.
“I didn’t just lose my instrument,” she explained in an interview. “I lost a part of my identity. I’d go to sing and nothing came out — or it came out wrong. I felt broken.”
The road back was long. She underwent multiple surgeries on her vocal cords, years of physical therapy, and emotional healing that went far beyond music. Still, she refused to accept silence as her fate. “I thought, if this is my new voice, I’ll learn to use it. If I can’t sing like I used to, I’ll find a new way to sing.”
In 2017, after nearly fifteen years away from recording, she released Now — an album born not from perfection, but from perseverance. Her voice was different: raspier, deeper, weathered. But it was real. “I had to relearn how to sing,” she said. “Every note was a victory.”
Fans and critics alike praised her comeback not just for its sound, but for its soul. “There’s something powerful about singing after being told you never will again,” Twain reflected. “You stop caring about being flawless — you just want to be alive in the music.”
Even today, Shania continues to perform with a renewed sense of purpose. On stage, her energy feels both fierce and grateful — a celebration of resilience disguised as pop spectacle. “Lyme disease took a lot from me,” she said. “But it gave me something too — a new understanding of strength, of creativity, of how far the human spirit can go.”
What once could have been an ending became a rebirth.
“I’m not singing to prove anything anymore,” she smiled. “I’m singing because I can. Because I fought for this voice. And because music — no matter how fragile it sounds — is still my way of saying I’m here.”