American Idol: Shania Twain connects with teenage singer Triston Harper over ‘hardships’ endured in childhood

Shania Twain opened up on the ‘hardships’ of her childhood while connecting with teenage singer Triston Harper on Sunday’s episode of American Idol on ABC.

The 58-year-old ‘Queen of Country Pop’ served as guest mentor during the season 22 live episode that featured the top 10 performing a song from the year of their birth.

Triston, 15, was awestruck upon meeting Shania who showed up in an all-black outfit with her long blonde hair down to rehearse his rendition of the 2008 song She’s Country by Jason Aldean.

‘Meeting Shania Twain is like wow! Because you walk into the room and you feel her presence. You go, like, okay,’ Triston said.

Shania encouraged Triston to make the song his own and asked him why he chose to pursue music.

‘I’ve been singing since I was about four years old,’ Triston said as a flashback showed him performing as a small boy.

‘But it didn’t start really impacting my life until I got homeless and I had to go out and had to sing where I could be able to eat that night,’ Triston told Shania.

In a confessional, Triston said his mother worked at a discount store and he would go on the side of her job and sing as hard as he could to get as much money as possible.

‘I just knew that I couldn’t let mama down,’ Triston told the camera.

‘So your first stages were on the street?,’ Shania asked.

‘Right,’ Triston confirmed.

‘Triston and I have a connection of displacement to our childhood. In my case, we lived in battered women’s shelters,’ Shania told the camera as a flashback showed her performing at age 10.

‘I can understand growing up with the hardships starting as a young, young kid singing for a few bucks. And not just for fun,’ Shania told Triston.

She added in her confessional that Triston faced more than the average 15-year-old boy with the responsibility of trying to get paid for singing.

‘That shouldn’t be there when you’re a kid. You should just be having fun and doing it for the love of it. And now he’s obviously doing it for the love of it, which is so beautiful to see,’ said Shania, who started performing at age eight in bars in Timmins, Canada, to help her family pay bills.

Triston took Shania’s advice and made She’s Country his own by adding in some dance moves.

Katy Perry, 39, told Triston that his rendition was a ‘big, big star performance.’

Luke Bryan, 47, asked Triston if he was trying to ‘out gyrate’ him.

‘Heavy lies the crown. Don’t start that. Once you start it it’s hard to make it go away,’ Luke advised him while laughing.

Lionel Richie, 74, told Triston that he noticed his ‘strut’ and told him it was an ‘excellent’ performance.

Ryan Seacrest, 49, then encouraged Luke to come up on the stage for an impromptu hips swinging contest with Triston.

Triston at the end of the two-hour episode was the first to be announced into the Top Eight after Ryan revealed that almost 21 million votes were cast.

He was followed by Kaibrienne, Jack Blocker, Julia Gagnon, Abi Carter, McKenna Faith Breinholt and Will Moseley.

Mia Matthews, Kayko and Emmy Russell remained on the stage with only one spot left.

Ryan then revealed that Emmy was the last to make the top eight after the nationwide vote.

The episode opened with Mia, 19, of Centre, Alabama, taking on Shania’s song No One Needs To Know.

Luke pointed out after her performance that Mia messed up on the lyrics.

Jack, 25, from Dallas, challenged himself by performing Believe by Cher with his own spin.

McKenna, 25, of Gilbert, Arizona, performed the 1998 song Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls.

Katy said music was a ‘time machine’ and the performance took her back to age 13 when she had a ‘Meg Ryan haircut’ and wore Diesel jeans.

Kayko, 23, tried out a Britney Spears song in a Bohemian Rhapsody style, but Shania wasn’t impressed.

He changed his song at the last moment to Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus.

Loretta Lynn’s granddaughter Emmy Russell, 25, of Nashville, was encouraged by Shania to go for the yodel while performing her rendition of the 1999 song All The Small Things by Blink-182.

Katy gave Emmy credit for hitting the yodels like Shania requested and for working the stage.

Season eight champion Just Sam, 25, returned to sing One Moment In Time by Whitney Houston in a gorgeous silver mirrored gown.

Confetti fell after her performance as Just Sam finally got her moment after winning the show remotely in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abi Carter, took on the 2002 song Clocks by Coldplay and Shania gave her tips on staging.

Julia performed the 2002 song Here I Am by Shania’s fellow Canadian singer Bryan Adams.

Shania said she was good friends with Bryan, 64, and was impressed by her rendition.

Will, 23, of Hazlehurst, Georgia, belted out Modern Day Bonnie & Clyde by Travis Tritt and Luke afterward said it was ‘perfect delivery’.

Kaibrienne, 20, of Henefer, Utah, was the final performer during the episode and dedicated the 2003 hit Here Without You by 3 Doors Down to her childhood friend Shaylee who died unexpectedly.

Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery, 30, also returned to perform his song Cab In A Solo from his upcoming sixth studio album Rise & Fall due out on May 10.

American Idol will return on Monday with the judges’ song episode.

Katy earlier this year revealed that this season would be her last as a judge on the ABC singing competition show.

She made the announcement in February during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote the show.

Katy joined American Idol for its reboot in 2018 as the singing competition moved from its original home on Fox to ABC.