Only a few days after Shania Twain received backlash for claiming she would have voted for President Trump, the singer reveals she will host the upcoming Canadian Country Music Awards. Twain will also receive the Generation Award for her numerous contributions to country music over the past couple decades.
Twain caused a stir among her fans when she originally said she would have voted for President Trump.
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“I would have voted for him because, even though he was offensive, he seemed honest,” Twain told The Guardian. “Do you want straight or polite? Not that you shouldn’t be able to have both. If I were voting, I just don’t want bullshit. I would have voted for a feeling that it was transparent. And politics has a reputation of not being that, right?”
The 52-year-old later retracted her statement, saying via Twitter that her answer was “awkward” and not indicative of her true feelings.
“I would like to apologise to anybody I have offended in a recent interview with the Guardian relating to the American President,” she said in a series of tweets. “The question caught me off guard. As a Canadian, I regret answering this unexpected question without giving my response more context.
“I am passionately against discrimination of any kind and hope it’s clear from the choices I have made, and the people I stand with, that I do not hold any common moral beliefs with the current President,” Twain continued. “I was trying to explain, in response to a question about the election, that my limited understanding was that the President talked to a portion of America like an accessible person they could relate to, as he was NOT a politician.
“My answer was awkward,” Twain concluded, “but certainly should not be taken as representative of my values nor does it mean I endorse him. I make music to bring people together. My path will always be one of inclusivity, as my history shows.”
In her interview with The Guardian, Twain also opened up about her struggle with dysphonia, a complication of Lyme disease that resulted in a severely weakened voice. Twain was diagnosed after the release of Up! in 2002, and when she was ready to make a comeback into music again, after a self-imposed hiatus of several years.
“I did want a break. But, of course, I would have never stayed away 15 years,” admitted Twain. “I was too embarrassed to tell anybody that I couldn’t sing. For a long time, I didn’t even know why I couldn’t sing.”
Through a lot of hard work and therapy, Twain found her voice again. Her latest album, Now, was released in 2017.
Nominees for the Canadian Country Music Awards have yet to be announced. The ceremony will be held on Sept. 9 in Hamilton, Ontario.
Photo Credit: Instagram/shaniatwain
