Shania Twain and Brandi Carlile on Teaming Up for an All-Female-Headliner Festival, and Why Women Supporting Women Is Always ‘Right on Time’

Shania Twain‘s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” wasn’t literally written to be sung along with by a nearly all-female audience, but the ’90s smash might have received its ultimate culmination when Twain brought it out as the climax of her set at Brandi Carlile‘s Girls Just Wanna Weekend festival. Twain is one of the biggest stars to have topped the all-female bill at the annual gathering in Cancun, and a series of mid-set duets between the guest country-pop superstar and a host who is becoming iconic in her own right ensured further elation for the thousands of festival attendees catching a Mexican breeze… and catching a break from typical music-fest toxic masculinity.

Backstage on the night after Twain’s Girls Just Wanna set, shortly before Carlile took to the stage on Saturday for her own principal performance, the two stars talked with Variety about their long-planned, finally-realized stage collaboration, and how Twain realized that Carlile’s dream of a fairly utopian festival environment was no empty promise. They also talked in detail about their mutual fandom, from Carlile covering Twain songs in a bar band to how Twain thinks Carlile hasn’t yet reached her full potential as a “rock goddess.”

Twain was taking a detour on the way to resuming her “Come On Over” residency at PH Live in Las Vegas, from Jan. 22-Feb. 8, marking what she says is the end of her residencies for a while. Carlile hasn’t announced further plans for 2025, but did premiere a new song at Girls Just Wanna that would seem to portend an album this year. Look to Variety for a further report on the festival, which also featured Muna, Maren Morris, Lucius, Brittney Spencer and others.

Shania, Brandi was after you for a while to play Girls Just Wanna Weekend. What did she tell you, in explaining what it’s about?

Twain: Well, she said that first of all, it’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced. There’s a lot of unity. It’s really more of a community of people that she has built with them. And now this is year 6, and I said to her: Number 6 is my favorite number. And Brandi, with what you were saying about how special it was, I believed you entirely, because you’re such a sincere person. But you do have to experience it to really understand. You really meant it when you said it’s like a family. Everybody is united here and it’s very peaceful.

Carlile: When I was 16 or 17 years old — I can’t do the math, but I know it was 1997 — the first thing I was like allowed to go and do as a young adult was Lilith Fair at the Gorge (in Washington state).

Twain: Yeah, you told me about your experience about that quite a long time ago.

Carlile: Yeah, and how I was just this punky little baby dyke with a short haircut and a sunburn. I had just enough money to get a Mountain Dew — you know, a bucket of Mountain Dew — at this festival. And I remember this woman in line behind me going, “Honey, I’m putting some sunscreen on your shoulders. You’re gonna get burned up. What are you doing ? And what are you buying with that money? You need to be drinking water, as burned as you are!” This woman just set me straight…

Twain: Nurturing you.

Carlile: And she made me get a bottle of water, put the sunscreen on me, and then I walked away to go see Erykah Badu. I’m like, “I’m not gonna get away with shit here.” But I just felt so wrapped up in this group of women that were there for another reason, that wanted a different kind of experiene than many people do when they go to a concert. They want an experience of unity and care about one another. At the time, it was a little bit lost on me, but as I got older, I remembered that experience, when I had my own daughters. I was like, where else can we find that energy again, in concerts and festivals? You know, with all these things that we’re hearing back from Book More Women [an organization that advocates for better gender representation in the concert industry), with predatory reports from some of our festivals that are three or four days long, and sexual assaults happening, or if not that, then harassment, and overuse of drugs and alcohol… I’m not trying to be a prude about rock ‘n’ roll in general. But there is something to be said for a group of people coming together to support music with a common feeling of unity. I thought a focus group or a small way to do that would be to come here and see if we could make that happen on a small level. And it’s grown, and I’d love to see that happen back over at home again.

Twain: Oh, absolutely. And it should. We were talking about this before you came in, but we’ll catch you up now… There’s sisterhood, there’s motherhood, and there’s all these female relationships, especially in the industry, that I feel I’ve missed out on a lot along the way in my life, just because my career is primarily men. I have more women now in my daily show work than ever before. [Twain’s band includes a female lead guitarist, drummer and violinist.] I never met one female drummer when I was young. The only females were vocalists — backup singers — unless they were in a very specific type of band. I was never into the indie scene as an artist, so it’s like I was doing rock or country and it was always only men.

Carlile: They weren’t really many in indie either. There were, like, just a few.

Twain: Well, there were at least a few indie bands, but there weren’t a lot of freelance musicians or a lot of female studio musicians at all. It was unusual. So I missed out on a lot of girl time, and I still don’t get enough of it. I’ve got a son and a husband — and once in a while we end up with a dog that’s a female, and I’m like, “Wooo! We’re equalizing around here!” So it really does feel good to be with other women, even if it’s for no other reason than just to not feel the pressure that sometimes you feel when there are only men around you.

Like, when I was a teenager, I had male friends, but a lot of them were gay, so I would go to gay bars, but it was all men. But it was like, wow, this is freedom! I can like dress up and look all hot, and no one bothers me. Because I’m just doing it to have fun; I’m not doing it to get picked up.

Carlile: Right. I bet there was almost nowhere you could go where it felt like that.

Twain: You know, I had big boobs and I had a real hourglass figure when I was younger. And if you dress to flatter it, you just can’t go to bars where there’s heterosexual men or you’re gonna get hit on all the time. It’s just tiring and it ruins the whole thing if that’s not what you’re looking for. So Girls Just Wanna is one of those places that you can do that, and feel really free and good and fun. I feel kind of giddy…

Carlile: And you can still even be flirty and enjoy leaning into the sexuality of it all, too, and it’s all just kind of safe and just fun.

Twain: So hats off to you, honestly, for carrying on with it. It will only get bigger.

Carlile: After you being here, it will, I think. I’m not sure I could really overstate how much you’ve changed the course of the festival by being here. That kind of validation for these people was just huge for us. Thank you, because you were way too big to come and do this. I mean, every gig you play has five times this many people in the audience, and it’s just amazing now that you showed up for us. We will never stop thanking you.

Twain: Well, you’re the keystone in all of that. I have so much respect for you. That means everything.

Shania, you’ve probably never played a gig before where you sing “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and something close to 95% of the audience is women, right?

Carlile: Or something in-between! That’s what was cool about it.

Twain: You know, it’s everyone’s statement. Which is what’s so great. It’s so all-inclusive, regardless of who’s in the audience. I mean, sometimes, like when I hear little kids sing that, I laugh, because…

Carlile: My daughter sings it all day. It’s so funny. She goes [loudly hums the guitar riff] “Man, I feel like a woman!” It’s so funny to hear a 6-year-old do that.

Twain: Everybody makes it their own thing. And so it belongs here as much as it belongs anywhere. But the audience was great. They did not disappoint.

The huge quotient of queer women here is no secret. And I have to say, one of the things I expected less than the enthusiasm for “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” was the sight or sound of thousands of lesbians singing “Any Man of Mine” at the top of their lungs. And unironically, as far as I could figure.

Twain: I know. I was actually thinking about that before the show. Or even “Honey, I’m Home”… There’s so many songs I’ve written that are a playful jab at female and male relationships, whether they’re my relationship or not, but my observations of heterosexual relationships — the man, the woman, and all of those idiosyncrasies that belong to us as such separate beings. Or it seems so black and white, a lot of the time, and I just like to exaggerate that and use a sense of humor.

Carlile: Yeah, you do. You’re always that formidable character in that heterosexual relationship and you always have, in those songs, this autonomy and authority within that relationship. And I think that might be the very thing that is making you such a lesbian icon. I covered “Any Man of Mine” in my own band (prior to becoming a recording artist). I played it on guitar and covered that song, and just had no problem singing those lyrics, even though I’ve never even had a boyfriend. It’s because of you. You are like Tanya Tucker a little bit, having this stance in that character where I just really kind of feel you in that space …

Twain: There’s conviction. You know, I wasn’t worried about it at all, but I was warned when those songs made it to A&R at the label… Which was way later down the line. They didn’t hear any of these songs until much later in the process of recording, on purpose, because it was just definitely not something that I thought they were gonna maybe support. They would worry about it too early on and then start maybe changing, affecting, and making me self-doubt what I was saying. But I think if you say anything with conviction and you really mean it, then audiences relate, because they believe what you’re saying and they take it on and it creates a camaraderie between the artist and the listener.  And it’s not really about the guy. At all. It’s about how we feel. But they were like, “No, women are gonna hate you. They’re gonna think you’re this bossy bitch.” And the women ended up taking it on and adopting it. Well, not adopting it. Women already have all of this fierce conviction, I believe.

Carlile: We do take cues from our art, though. And so it does kind of give that nudge of confidence. And you are that character, consistently, in all your songs, at least very one that I can think of.

You’ve clearly had a mutual fan club going on for a while. Could you each have a favorite song of the other person, or the one that most impacted you first?

Twain: Well, there’ve been a lot. I’m gonna speak first.

Carlile: Go ahead.

Twain: Because I’ve been listening all day specifically to Brandi, and Brandi-esque music, just because now I’m so inspired in this whole vein, and my mind’s going and I was having a great day doing that. But I hear so much of the influences that may or may not be true for you, from other artists. And my God, the vocal gift that you have is beyond any of those influences or anything that they ever had, and it blows my mind so much. I think the song that captures it the most for me, for some reason, is “Right on Time,” because… I don’t know, it just kills me. It just gives me shivers, just the way you sing and deliver that song. You also wrote the song, didn’t you?

Carlile: Yeah. But do you remember when you sent me that Roy Orbison song all those years ago?

Twain: Yes.

Carlile: One thing that might be interesting for this piece is that me and Shania have been talking for a while, and she has this really interesting take on music being a universal language and global. And she’s never been critical of me, but she’s always kind of pushed me to spread my wings and sort of span in a new way, maybe, that transcends what I’ve done musically before. So she’s actually sent me songs before. And that Roy Orbison lean-in that you gave me… When you hear me do [she sings a line from “Right on Time”] “It wasn’t ri-iiight”… I mean, there’s nothing more Roy Orbison than that.

Twain: Except done better than he could have, ever. And I’m such a Roy Orbison fan.

Carlile: But I understand why that one would speak to you, and it just means a lot to me. Your support of me has been so consistent, and your message has been so consistent.

Twain: She’s a rock goddess. Like, for real. This is the thing in you that I think has still yet to come out.

Carlile: Yeah, I think you’re right. And she doesn’t think I’m quite there yet. And I love that.

Twain: No, I never said that you weren’t quite there yet. Well, you know what I mean.

Carlile: But you’re right. Like, I feel like I have to get through some kind of a cocoon. I don’t know what it is yet. I haven’t broken all the way through it. It’s not about commerciality or being accepted anywhere. It’s something inside of me that needs to still come out.

Twain: But you have like so many voices in there. So many voice. Kate Bush had some voices, too. I would say you have more. It’s so unique, your instrument — it’s ridiculous.

Carlile: You mentioning Kate Bush just totally sent me into a spiral of gratitude. You know, to answer the question about my favorite Shania song, it’s hard, because there is a list of bangers, and we heard many of them last night. But my answer is “Any Man of Mine.” I learned that song as soon as it came out because your voice was deeper, and my voice is deeper, and I wanted to sing like you. And so I learned that song, and I sounded like a dead ringer for you when I sang it, too. I looked a little different! But I have always loved that song, and it gets to what I love about you. You guys don’t have a lot in common, but I see something that is that same thing I love in Tanya Tucker. It’s this kind of toughness you find in a formidable artist. And when I heard Tanya do it as a little girl, it spoke to me. And then when I heard you do it in my later adolescence and early twenties, it spoke to me to the point where I covered the song about a man, you know?

Twain: I love that. I only realize how difficult that song is to sing when someone else does it. When it’s your own song, it’s not difficult. But when you hear other people karaoke your song, you’re going, “Oh my God, why would anyone ever do that? Wow.”

Brandi told fans she delayed the usual timing of the announcement for Girls Just Wanna Weekend this time because she was committed to getting you, Shania. How long and hard did she work on you?

Twain: You know what, I apologized to her more than once now, but it did take me a while to commit, but just because I was in-between things that I was doing and I just didn’t know where to hole myself up. Because I was gonna have to go back to Europe for a week, which would make it very hard to then go back to Vegas with jet lag and do shows, so that wasn’t gonna work. But it was my husband’s idea: “Listen, let’s just go a week early. And then we’ll be in the time zone and you’ll get into the whole climate and vibe of everything, and then we’ll go to Vegas and we’ll already be in the right zone.”

Carlile: She took a real chance on us coming here and doing this. I was texting her. I was like, “Listen, you’re too big for this festival. I know it. Everyone knows it. But if you could just take a wild chance on this group of people, I think you will really love it.” And then I was like, “We’ll have ceviche, we’ll drink margaritas.”

Twain: Which we have not done that together. I mean, where are our margaritas? Where’s the as-promised?

Carlile: Tonight, after I do my set. Then all bets are off.

Twain: I wouldn’t have a margarita before my set, either. Anyway, she did say all of those things. And I mean, Vegas is like my biggest distraction right now. I’m at the end, coming to the end of this leg now, and that’s gonna be the end for a while. And yesterday, when I did the show here, I’m like, wow, that is what I want to do more of — just these random, go up there and do things that are not expected moments. This kind of vibe allows you to do that. You go off-grid a lot more. In Vegas, you’re on a grid because you’ve got 90 minutes and they’re pretty strict about that. Although I probably went longer yesterday than I should have, because I kept you up there for so long. I kept her up there. I’m like, “No, don’t go, don’t leave me yet! We need to sing more.” This really reminded me how much I like this environment.

Even at your Vegas shows, even when you’re on the clock, as you say, there is a sense that fans get that you’re in the moment, in the way that you engage with individuals personally and make it seem like that night is not just another night. So in a way, it didn’t surprise me when you kind of had this extended thing with Brandi where you brought her on and then literally said you were not going to let her go.

Twain: It was abusive, though.

Carlile: [Laughs, claps.] Abuse me then.

Twain: I do definitely like to do that. Even in Vegas, I do it and sometimes it’s like, you know, [people say] hurry up — you can’t just do that every night. It drags the show on. I’m like, yeah, but this is really where I’m having a lot of fun. So yeah, yesterday was a bit abusive. I was throwing things at her, but she did so great. You really were such a great sport with me. … We’re a lot alike that way. You could just throw the note and we could have created whatever chord we wanted, a cappella, with the two notes and gone anywhere, any intervals, and just followed each other around, which is kind of what we did.

Carlile: My favorite bit was when we went for the chorus of “I Will Always Love You” [which Twain called out as an unplanned audible]. And I was looking at you and you were looking at me and we were like: Who’s gonna do the melody? Right? You took the low harmony, I took the high harmony — and no one touched the melody.

Twain: Yeah, it’s true, we both tried to support, and then we were like, who’s gonna take the melody? It was very fun. It’s really, really, really magical, to be able to do those things that are not rehearsed, and just a real pleasure for somebody like me to have her there to…  I don’t want to say “play with,” but you know… let’s just play. And the audience was very patient and very in the spirit of it, hopefully.

Carlile: They were ecstatic. Everywhere I’ve gone, they’ve been like, “What happened last night? I can’t believe you did that. Were you freaking out?” Yeah, I was freaking out, but I was also in heaven.

Twain: We didn’t really know what we were doing together. But we played around last night and had a lot of fun with it, so now we know we’re good together.

Carlile: We had a feeling, but now we know for sure.

Twain will soon resurface in Las Vegas for the last weeks of “Come On Over – The Las Vegas Residency – All The Hits!” at PH Live at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. The remaining dates are Jan. 22, 24, 25, 29 and 31, and Feb. 1, 5, 7 and 8.