Fitting Finale for Canada's Country Femme Fatale

Canadian Country Mega Star Shania Twain wound up her Rock This Country tour, which is to be her last, here in Kelowna at Prospera Place last night with a jaw dropping, heart pounding, boot stomping tour-de-force performance. It truly was everything that you would hope any great artist’s last concert would be.

Shania made what could only be described as a grand entrance. Short video clips of her on giant screens, with band members silhouetted on raised platforms in the foreground. Lasers and spotlights moving constantly across the stage and out into the audience. Flames shooting high into the sky. The band cranking out Rock This Country at full volume. And out of the middle of all this Shania Twain rises up through the floor of the stage and then continues her ascension some 50 or so feet up into what may as well have been the heavens.

Red sunglasses, red microphone, red lipstick, sequined outfit with huge red Rolling Stones logo. Black thigh high leather boots and a leather jacket. And that trademark Shania Twain smile. Everyone was on their feet and every set of eyes were on the Queen of Country Pop. Twain and her band deftly made their way through many of her biggest hits, launching into Honey I’m Home, You Win My Love, Who’s Bed Have Your Boots Been Under, Any Man of Mine, and so many others. All these and more were played with the precision of a Swiss watch and the power of an American locomotive engine, providing the perfect platform for this Canadian girl from Windsor to wind up a brilliant career by belting out the songs that together with her energy and ability to entertain catapulted her to the very top of the upper echelon of country pop music super stars.

After keeping the entire audience on their feet for a little over an hour with up tempo tunes, Twain and her band brought it down to a seated and mostly acoustic set which included Today Is Your Day, No-one Needs To Know, and You’re Still The One. The Prospera Place concert bowl was awash in smartphone flashlight apps gently swaying back and forth through most of the first and third songs of this perfectly placed and executed change of pace.

The pace picked up again as Twain came back with Don’t Be Stupid and followed that up with From This Moment On and others before finishing the main concert set, which ran a full 90 minutes, with Red Storm.

Throughout the concert Twain managed a number of wardrobe changes and the band platform went through numerous configurations, all seamlessly covered through the use of lights, lasers, and projection screens that bordered on perfection. Pyro was used dramatically and artistically in and between several songs as well, starting from Rock This Country and all the way through her encore number.

Twain put an exclamation mark on the night with her mega hit, Man I Feel Like A Woman, after the crowd screamed their delight with a deafening roar for what seemed like an eternity, demanding an encore. Shania Twain shook up the world of country pop music with her arrival back in the 90s. Her combination of great songs, high energy and massive sex appeal made an impact that is still being felt today. She shook it up again last night with her final performance from her final tour to a delighted sold out crowd at Kelowna’s Prospera Place. A truly fitting finale for Canada’s country femme fatale, and a night that will be remembered by the packed to the rafters assembly of delirious fans who stayed until after she lowered herself below the stage and disappeared from view. Pick any scale, choose the top number, and times that by whatever the biggest number you know is, and give that score to this performance. Epic. Iconic. Visually and aurally astounding. Shania.