"It's not about being sexual, it's about being sexy": Shania Twain Reflects on the Groundbreaking Video for 'Man! I Feel Like A Woman!' as it Surpasses 500 Million Views on YouTube

As the video for 'Man! I Feel Like A Woman!' - the eighth single from Shania Twain's 20-times platinum 1997 studio album, Come On Over - passes the half a billion mark on YouTube, Holler looks back on the gender flipping promotional video that turned the Canadian country singer into an international crossover pop superstar.

Still the ninth all-time best-selling album in the United States, Come On Over had sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and 12 out of its 16 songs were released as singles, with other big hits including 'Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)', 'You're Still the One', 'From This Moment On', and 'That Don't Impress Me Much'.

Filmed in New York City, and directed by Paul Boyd, the accompanying music video for 'Man! I Feel Like a Woman!' - which was released on March 3, 1999 - parodies Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' music video, featuring Twain dancing in front of a group of men, all dressed alike and heavily made up, in a similar way to the women musicians in the Robert Palmer original. Twain begins the video dressed in a long coat and a veiled top hat, white dress shirt, black tie, but throughout the video she strips off items of clothing until she is left wearing a black corset, mini skirt, thigh high boots, a black choker and black gloves.

"The lips were a big part of it," Shania told VICE magazine during her Las Vegas residency in January 2023. "The makeup and the veil. I was already pushing the limits in the country genre; this was going to push things over the limits."

"The video was a big part of expressing an extension of what I was trying to say in the lyrics," she adds, explaining how the idea for the video really came together brainstorming with fashion designer and stylist Mark Bauer. "I wanted it to evolve with these peeling away of layers of clothes, layers of this person coming off, and revealing a different side of my inner self."

“Mark Bauer got to work on the wardrobe, with that idea in mind, and dressed me in that amazing high women’s coat, the top hat, with the veil added for a touch of femininity, in what was a ‘typically’ masculine outfit," she told Vevo Footnotes series in 2024. "As part of the role reversal, it was important to have the guys be really sexy and androgynous. All of the little details of the fashion were considered and on purpose. It’s a real credit to Mark and his talent.”

"It was Mutt's idea because of the riff to do the colouring," Shania admits, crediting her ex-husband and producer, Robert "Mutt" Lange, with the video's colour scheme. "The red, the black and the white."

"He's in the front and he has all those crazy beautiful girls," stylist Mark Bauer remembers about the Robert Palmer video. "They all look like models with the slicked back hair and the big orange red lips just kind of barely strumming those guitars and just moving from side to side."

"I didn't want the guys to just be kind of ordinary," he explains about the male actors in Shania's video. "They should look totally sexy and they should have makeup on and tight shiny pants, see their pectorals, their abs."

“We wanted to take that idea and turn it on its head," Shania remembers about the thinking behind parodying 'Addicted to Love.' "We wanted to make something unexpected and the role reversal was the vision. I wanted to reverse that role of exploitation... I want to see some man boobs."

“As part of the role reversal, it was important to have the guys be really sexy and androgynous," Shania says. "All of the little details of the fashion were considered and on purpose. It’s a real credit to Mark and his talent.”

As for Shania's outfit, it was important to both Mark Bauer and Shania that it reflected the empowering nature of the song's lyrics.

"It's a very personal celebration of being feminine and letting it all hang out was new to me. I felt kind of allowed to do it through the song and through the video. shania. "It was always a statement that I was convinced was something I had to get out there and sing and share."

"This was a chance to try something unexpected," explains Shania about the video process. "I want a role reversion. It's just a vision."

"I thought 'Well, what would a man look good in that's not a suit, but a woman could also wear?" explains Bauer. "That's why I came up with the high women's coat, the top hat, the kind of equestrian look. But then let's put a veil over her face to make it look more feminine and she just loved it."

"Shania is definitely a little bit of a tomboy. She likes sporty clothes. She likes no makeup, no hair. And then she puts on the lashes, she puts on the hair and the makeup and the big smile and the teeth come out and she's just - holy cow - she's just 'Oh my God! This woman is gorgeous. Just look at her."

"When you hear the lyrics you can either be very literal or you can let that go out of the window," Bauer explains. "When she says, 'Men's shirts, short skirts' you have to do that. And we made sure that skirt was really short. It's almost like we got home from work, we're taking off our shirt, but we've got this really sexy dress underneath. This is showing another you, maybe it's a you that you want to be. Maybe this is the real me."

The result is one of the most iconic and most watched country videos of all time. Having recently racked up 510 million views on YouTube it's funny to consider how groundbreaking and controversial the video was when it was released at the end of the nineties.

"Man! I Feel Like A Woman!' is a very sexy video," thinks Bauer looking back 24 years later. "But it's not sexual, it's just owning your sexuality, and it's fine to do that."

Even the art department and the record label were concerned at the time that the video would be too racy for country audiences, in particular female country audiences.

"I remember the art department saying, 'This is way too sexy! The women listeners are not going to like this! They're going to feel threatened," Shania told Vevo Footnotes in 2024.

"'It's so high fashion. You're going to alienate part of your audience,'" she remembers them telling her. "And I said, 'I don't think you guys get it. As women, they're going to totally get it.'"

Nearly three decades on and the song and its accompanying video are as powerful and relevant as ever.

"If there's ever been a song that's affected culture that I've ever written it's 'Man! I Feel Like A Woman!' Shania says. "I can't take credit for knowing that in the moment of writing it but it sure does matter."

"Man! I Feel Like A Woman!' has taken on a life of its own entirely. There's so much social relevance it's like an anthem for many people. You can be a really strong independent woman and still be playful or whatever you want to be on the outside and be it with conviction.'"

The video is Shania Twain's most-viewed video with 510 million views as of December 2025.

Watch the video for 'Man! I Feel Like A Woman!' below.

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