Man, I feel like a winner. Shania Twain helped the ladies claim their crowns at ACL Fest

As the Foo Fighters thundered in the background, Shania Twain hosted a neon hootenanny featuring all her hits on Saturday night at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Pushing 60 and reveling in her sexiness, the pop country sensation took the stage in a ludicrously long red wig and a silver booty short number adorned with ample shimmer. Her set featured a giant Vegas-style staircase, and as she sang the chorus to her 2022 hit “Waking Up Dreaming” standing atop it — arms reaching skyward while a big screen behind her took us on a technicolor road trip to Mars — it felt like she was staking a claim, owning her power.

Sound was an issue during her set. Intimate moments like an a capella intro to “You’re Still the One” were lost to the pummeling grunge on the other side of the field and her vocal prowess occasionally was hampered by glitchy audio, but in big moments like this the Canadian singer-songwriter was luminescent under the Texas sky.

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There might not have been room to line dance in the thick crowd that packed the west end of Zilker Park, but ‘90s hits like “Come On Over” and country music’s original sneaky link song, “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under,” were massive singalongs. The big fiddle solo on “Any Man of Mine” inspired hoots and hollers across the field. It was a fine night for a Texas hoedown.

She split the audience into four sections, and like a mad conductor attempted to create harmonious accompaniment for the intro to “Honey I’m Home.” While it was hard to hear whether the inebriated crowd actually achieved harmony, she squealed in delight like we did. The song itself was one of the biggest singalongs of the night with Twain’s female drummer pounding the message home.

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Shania has always pushed boundaries. In the 90’s she embraced her sexuality, her independence and the power of her femininity in defiance of a conservative country music machine. My husband (he is Black, I am not) recently remarked that when he first moved to Austin in the ‘90s, it would have been shocking to see billboard ads featuring a Black man with a white woman. I thought about both of these things as Shania performed a very sensual dance with a Black backup singer and dancer on “From This Moment On” and then brought out Breland — the young Black country singer who’s been opening her tour — for a duet on the hookup anthem “Party For Two.”

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Shania pulled a mixed crowd, but really, so much of this set was for the ladies. Her latest album is called “Queen of Me” and the heart of her performance was a celebration of women (and non-binary people and men who are in touch with their inner queens). When we stood shoulder to shoulder singing, “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” at the top of our lungs while rolling spotlights spun over the crowd, the country queen of Zilker Park reminded us all to claim our crowns. We left the park dusty and tired, but walking tall like winners.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Shania Twain's neon hootenanny at ACL Fest was a singalong celebration