Shania Twain to Be Honored as 2016 Billboard Women in Music Icon
Shania Twain will receive a high honor from Billboard in December, as part of their 2016 Women in Music event. The country star has been named this year's Women in Music Icon.
According to Billboard, the Women in Music Icon honor "celebrates an artist whose historic contributions to the music industry establish them among the highest class of performers." Twain -- who was recently named the 2016 CMT Artist of a Lifetime -- has won five Grammys and sold more than 75 million albums sold worldwide throughout her career; her album Come on Over, released in 1997, is still the best-selling country album of all time, as well as the top-selling album by a female artist of any genre of all time.
“Shania Twain is a groundbreaking artist whose successful country-pop crossover blazed the trail for a new generation of country stars like Taylor Swift, Billboard’s 2014 Woman of the Year, and Carrie Underwood,” says Janice Min, president and chief creative officer of the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group. “She’s fearless in her career, following her own path and pushing the boundaries of the country music genre as she creates music that has proven to be timeless. She is revered in the industry, and we are honored to present the Icon award to her.”
At the 2016 CMA Artists of the Year event, Twain told The Boot that her long-awaited new music is coming soon -- and will be "more diverse than any other album I’ve ever done."
“There’s a lot of variety there," Twain explains, "but what I’ve learned about myself is, as a songwriter of all the songs, the emotion and the voice ties it all together as one artist.”
The 2016 Billboard Women in Music event, held in conjunction with the publication of Billboard's annual Women in Music list, is set to take place on Dec. 9 in New York City; it will air on Lifetime on Dec. 12. Also scheduled to be honored at the 2016 celebration are Halsey (the 2016 Women in Music Rising Star) and Madonna (the 2016 Woman of the Year).
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