What did it take to silence a five-time Grammy Award winning artist with the best selling country album of all time? Well….it wasn’t just one thing, but an avalanche of disappointment from the most unlikely of sources.

Shania Twain was on top of the world. In 2004 she stopped performing and jumped out of the spotlight. Feeling the overwhelming pressure of success, she couldn’t shake the fear of not living up to the image. At the same time, her marriage to her producer and co-writer, Robert “Mutt” Lange, was slowly disintegrating. By 2008, their marriage was over. The very next day, Shania learned that her closest friend had been having an affair with her husband. An emotional mess, Shania was simply lost. Unable to express herself or even sing in the shower, she felt she was losing her best friend…her voice and music.

In the summer of 2010, Shania decided to embark on an inspirational trip in an attempt to heal and find her voice. Getting back on the road with her cousin, Kenny, her bandmate, Cory, and Carrie her sister, all people who have been in Shania’s life and are very close to her. Smart move. Surround yourself with those who make you feel comfortable…those who support and lift you.

The show took us to a home that Shania had lived in at the age of 6. She shared tales of empty cupboards, being cold and hunger, and of domestic violence. Helpless and desperate as children, Carrie and Shania still battle with the emotions of love and fear for an abusive father. Although she was back and forth on leaving their father, Shania’s mother was always consistent with her love for Shania’s voice. Shania recalled thinking “I’ve got to be a singer because my mother needs me to be a singer because my mother lives for that”. Shania worried that if she ever told her mother she wouldn’t sing, her mother may go to bed and never get up.  

As they head out on this tour, Shania packed a few additional people onto the bus that she trusts and loves. Her sister’s husband, Jeff, and Fred, the ex-husband of the woman who cheated with Shania’s husband. WHAT? Yes, it is true. Fred had also been blind-sided by his wife and Mutt (fitting name I must say). Shania and Fred were able to find comfort in knowing each of them shared the same betrayal. He was safe and had become her rock. Neither of them expected to fall in love and Shania wasn’t willing to trust love again. However, in 2010 they became engaged. Always with a camera on his fiance, Fred was the one who had the idea to film this journey.

Knowing that she doesn’t have a lock on this story and that people get cheated on, friends betray you, stuff happens, Shania still remained angry about it all. But finally she was in a place where she was ready to address it and live with it.

The tour then took them to their homes in the 80’s…in general it was the “fresh start, worry-free” house. Things were looking up. Shania had moved out to join a rock band. Shortly after, in 1987, her parents were killed in a car accident. Leaving behind Shania, her sister, Carrie and two younger brothers, Darrell and Mark, they were all devastated. Their 14 year old brother survived the crash. Once he woke, Carrie, who was 19 at the time, had to tell him about his parents. “I think that was my worst moment” she shared. Worried that what the public would think they were sensationalizing it, Fred and Carrie remind Shania it was OK to be real. After her parents death and when she was 22, Shania moved back home and realized they had to figure out how to survive with no real money.

 The show then set up a unique meeting. Shania and her sister met the Alexander family who had lost their parents. The oldest, Melissa, is a single mom living nearby as she helps to raise her siblings. Their mother, Sherry, was being treated for cancer and their father passed away 6 months before her from a heart attack. Suddenly they were alone….just like Shania and her siblings had been. Sharing a meal together, both sisters tried to comfort them and offer hope during such a horribly, dark time.

Knowing that she can’t live without singing, Shania must focus on building her confidence. There was a time when she didn’t want to start over, but now she found herself asking “Why not?”.  As the episode came to a close, Shania practiced a new song, “Today” which will most likely be the healing anthem. There isn’t a woman out there who hasn’t been hurt and felt so low that they couldn’t get out of bed.  Some reviewers may not get the value of this show.  Shania’s emotional walk down memory lane may be considered by some to be a bit of a pity party, but I disagree. It is important to understand where someone has been to fully get what they are going through. Healing begins in the past.  If her story can help just one person get out of bed or find their OWN voice, then it was all worth it.  You see, her journey on OWN has just begun and appears to be so much more than about finding her voice.  Her journey is like that of so many others who have been shattered, picked themselves up and allow themselves to heal… just searching for the confidence to be who she really is.