Shania Twain is making headlines this week for once again speaking up about almost losing her voice.
During an appearance on British talk show Loose Women from her home in Switzerland, the Canadian singer said “there was a long time I thought I would never sing again.”
Twain revealed in 2017 that she contracted Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick while horseback riding in Norfolk, Virginia in 2003. “You have a very short window to catch it and then treat it," she told The Canadian Press in 2017, "and then even when you treat it, you could still very well be left with effects, which is what happened to me.
“Normally it can attack your nervous system or the vital organs — heart, liver, kidneys, nervous system. It's a debilitating disease and extremely dangerous. You can't play around with it, so you've got to check yourself for ticks.”
Twain also opened up about her health issues in an interview with AARP: The Magazine published earlier this year, admitting “there were days I didn’t really care if tomorrow came.” She explained: “I was slowly losing my voice and slowly losing my confidence and nothing that I could achieve in my career made me feel good enough.”
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In her conversation on Loose Women, the country-pop star explained it took “probably a good seven years before a doctor was able to find out that it was nerve damage to my vocal cords directly caused by Lyme disease.” (Twain’s struggle to regain her voice was chronicled in the 2011 series Why Not? With Shania Twain.)
“Our voice is such a huge part of our self-expression, and for a vocalist, a singer, obviously ... it's devastating in so many ways," the 54-year-old said.
“My speaking voice is definitely the biggest effort, because … I get quite raspy. I have more power when I’m singing now, I have more character I find, and I enjoy singing again. Speaking is the more difficult challenge for me than singing. I’ll take that!”