The “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” singer is embracing her “new” body ahead of her sixth studio album, Queen of Me, which is set to release on Feb. 3, 2023, posing without her top on for the album’s lead single, “Waking Up Dreaming,” which was released in September. The cover art featured Twain crouching on the ground, one knee propped up on a heeled white boot with a watercolored pink and purple pattern. White fabric wrapped around her waist helped keep her lower half modest, but her top half was bare, covered only by the artful placement of her arms. The 57-year-old recently sat down with People to talk about the decision to pose topless, describing it as “expressing [her] truth.” “I think the best fashion is confidence, and whatever you wear — if you’re wearing it with that, it’s fashionable. I am a woman in my late 50s, and I don’t need to hide behind the clothes,” she said. “I can’t even tell you how good it felt to do nude shooting. I was just so unashamed of my new body, you know, as a woman that is well into my menopause. I’m not even emotional about it; I just feel okay about it. It’s really liberating.” That liberation follows outside criticism as she’s gotten older. “From the very beginning — the very first video — I was ditching the bra,” she said, referring to her debut music video for “What Made You Say That,” in which the musician opted for a braless, bare midriff look. “But, I was a lot firmer then, so as I grew older, I started feeling a different pressure of, ‘Well, your breasts are not as plump as they used to be. Your skin is not as tight as it used to be. Maybe you should start covering it up a little bit more.’” While Twain, too, has felt her fair share of insecurities, she elected to turn them on their heads, instead. “I hit this wall and was like, ‘Whoa, my confidence is regressing. My courage is dulling. Why am I allowing this?” Instead, she’s “embracing” her changing, menopausal body. “I’m not going to be shy about it. I want to be courageous about it, and I want to share that courage in the artwork that I am directing.” As a survivor of childhood sexualization and abuse, Twain knows all too well what it feels like to grow up unhappy and ashamed of the way that you look. “My father made me feel self-conscious. It was almost dirty to wear shorts or not be entirely covered up,” she said. “…I’m a curvy person. I have boobs, and they bounce when I walk. So when that started happening, I started strapping myself down: I was wearing two bras; I was wearing tight, tight spandex things under my sweatshirts, that were way oversized; I was dressing like a boy. I didn’t feel good about becoming a woman. I was embarrassed by it.” Twain felt that she was rejecting the natural progression of life. “How shameful is that?” she asked. “And not shameful of me, but shameful of that pressure. It was terrible.” Today, she feels more comfortable in her skin than she ever has before, and hopes to inspire the next generation of women to feel the same. “I want other women that are aging, or any women … even if you’re 12 and you’re developing, you shouldn’t feel like you need to hide behind your fear or your self-conscious shield.”
