Nada's Country: Meeting Shania Twain: A Story of No Chill
By: Nada Taha
There are a few things that really (really) excite me. Watching videos of sloths bathing, the moments my cat decides to sleep in my lap, picking some of the pepperoni off my pizzas to eat by themselves and Shania Twain.
If I’m getting ready, or on a road trip, or put in charge of any sort of music playlist of any kind for any reason whatsoever, I’m putting on Shania Twain. And don’t get me started on my karaoke song choices — Barenaked Ladies’s “2 Weeks” and Shania Twain’s “Man, I Feel Like a Woman.”
Being in the industry for 10+ years, you kinda get jaded and numb to it all. You kinda train yourself to not be a fangirl. And really I never had that “what person would you die if you met” person. I thought I was immune.
We have met some pretty cool people in the Bobby Bones Show studio. And there have definitely been some “holy crap pinch me” moments for sure:
Garth Brooks:
Tim and Faith:
Pharrell:
We’re #blessed at the studio, so I thought all of this would prepare me for what would happen on Oct. 19, 2016. I was wrong.
I knew I was going to be in the same room as Shania Twain. This was my chance. All my childhood memories of singing the B cuts from Come On Over were flooding back into my mind and I was basically not able to contain myself.
My good friend, country artist Maggie Rose was singing background vocals for the Shania Twain Tribute at the CMT Artist of the Year with Kelsea Ballerini, Jill Scott and Meghan Trainor and she asked me to be her date. OK, breathe.
You guys. There was no chill. At all. All night. I would walk by Shania’s dressing room and giggle at the sign that had her name on it. Who was I?! Where did all my chill go? When I was finally in the main room as her, I COULD NOT. No judgment, but you can watch part of my snap story here:
And when the moment came, my friend Mike, who found out my obsession and the fact that I had never met Shania, decided to take things into his own hands.
He literally dragged me through the crowd of people trying to talk to Shania and gave me a pep talk. As you can see in the video above (if you skipped watching it, you may want to scroll back and do so now because it’s full-on embarrassing), I was not composed in any way.
I like to think of myself as quite the professional. I meet people, work with them, hang out with them, and it’s fine. Celebrities are people too. They put their pants on like we do — right leg and then left leg. BUT SHANIA DOES NOT WEAR PANTS, people.
When I finally made my way to her (after almost throwing up and not breathing for two minutes straight) I rambled and rambled and WAS THE FURTHEST THING FROM PROFESSIONAL. You know that whole cool, calm and collected thing? Yea, me neither.
I told her she was my Michael Jordan. What does that even mean!?!?!?
Anyway, this is all to say it was the best moment ever and I am not immune and Shania is Queen.
