In an era when the charts were packed with pop glitter and boyband bops, two powerful voices stood firm in their authenticity—Sharleen Spiteri of Texas and genre-defying icon Shania Twain. Though hailing from vastly different worlds—Spiteri from the soulful grit of Glasgow and Twain from the wide plains of Canadian country—they share a truth that lies at the very core of the music that endures: great songwriting begins with the heart.

Spiteri, known for her smoky vocals and emotional punch, described the songwriting process as “a pretty selfish process” in the best way possible. “It’s all about us… putting that music across,” she explained. But that raw vulnerability is what gives songs like “Say What You Want” their lasting power. Rolling Stone once called Texas’s sound “a masterclass in melancholic pop,” and that’s no accident. When the songs come from soul and personal truth, they resonate—regardless of language, culture, or geography. “You meet people who don’t speak a word of English,” Spiteri marvelled, “but they’re right there in the front row, singing every word.”

Shania Twain’s story is a tale of self-belief and stylistic evolution. Before she became the bestselling female artist in country music history, she cut her teeth performing covers of whatever was in vogue, all while quietly collecting her own compositions in a drawer of dreams. “All of this time I was writing my own music… influenced by so many different styles,” she recalled. Her eventual breakout was a genre-blurring triumph—a mix of country, pop, and rock that made Come On Over the juggernaut it became.

Billboard once praised Twain’s writing for its “honest-to-the-bone vulnerability wrapped in stadium-filling hooks.” The same can be said of Spiteri’s catalog with Texas. Both artists write music rooted in real life, then polish it until it gleams for the masses.

And that may be the secret behind their timeless appeal: songs written from deeply personal places, but designed to connect with absolutely everyone.

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