Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, say yee-haw to a new track from Shania Twain.
In the ’90s, Shania Twain was the undisputed queen of pop country. No one was doing it like her — Shania commanded airwaves and international attention with her blend of catchy hooks, pop culture relevance, incredible fashion, playful music videos, and great vocals. She cranked out hit after hit and sold over 100 million records, making her the best-selling female artist in country music history. To this day, just the utterance of “let’s go girls” can send a karaoke bar into chaos.
The country music landscape has shifted quite a bit since then — the rise of “bro country” led to a spell where female country artists were relegated even further into their own box, and folks like Kacey Musgraves, Maren Morris, and Brandi Carlile scraped out their own (arguably better) corners of the space to manage on their own terms. And while plenty has changed, some things remain the same — one of them being that Shania Twain knows how to make a pure pop country bop.
“Giddy Up!” arrives ahead of a new studio album Queen of Me, due February 3rd. This will be Twain’s sixth full-length outing, and “Giddy Up!” kicks things off in style. The accompanying music video, dubbed a dance video, is irresistibly joyful, featuring movers across demographics and styles diving into the choreography. Twain takes something of a backseat in the visual, but that’s all right — her voice and undeniably charismatic touch is more than enough. Giddy on up indeed, everyone. 2023 is for a little bit of yee and a whole lot of haw.
— Mary Siroky