When three competitors hit the stage as none other than Shania Twain, viewers of ITV’s Starstruck were split.
Yep, you read it correctly: three brave individuals opted to don leopard print and dress up like the country superstar herself, who is also on the judging panel for this series after succeeding Sheridan Smith.
The girls gave it their best, belting out Shania Twain’s popular song, Man! I Feel Like A Woman!, while dressed in instantly recognisable ensembles from various decades.
Shania, 57, was ecstatic about the whole event and was the first one out of her seat to applaud the candidates before showering love on them.
Home audiences, on the other hand…
In fact, several viewers felt the Starstruck hopefuls resembled Carol Vorderman more than the You’re Still The One diva, and many were unimpressed by their changes. They did, however, commend the guts it must have taken!
Several others remarked on how awkward it would have been for the three (well, four, given that one competitor was actually pregnant!) to be singing in front of Shania, joking that the music star would have found it ‘awkward’ to pretend to like the performance.
‘Imagine being on the show to be a shania Twain soundalike and sounding nothing like shania …… in front of Shania’, one Twitter user blasted.
‘How painful it must be for Shania Twain to sit there and pretend to enjoy these three murdering her hit…’, another savage viewer wrote.
‘Who knew Carol Vorderman was a massive Shania Twain fan?!!!’, another joked in reference to the group’s makeovers.
Not everyone was as critical, as many were ‘gutted’ when Team Shania fell to Team Meat Loaf in the final.
‘Seriously Dam gutted team Shania didn’t make it. So good Well done guys, you made my night anyway [sic]’, one person tweeted.
‘WOW ABSOLUTELY SENSATIONAL’, another excited fan wrote. ‘NAILED THE TUNES GIRLS IN FRONT OF THE QUEEN.’
Yet, at the end of the day, Shania’s evaluation was the most important, and it was absolutely fantastic.
In fact, the singer called it a “career highlight” for her.
‘This song has so many words in it, I curse myself every night when I’m on stage,’ she began in her feedback with a laugh.
‘It is hard to find where to take a breath in this one, so great job!’, she told the women. ‘And I think you just really rocked the looks.’
‘Honestly, I’m just really flattered,’ Shania added, after host Olly Murs made a cheeky gag about her ‘still being the one’ despite there being three other Shanias in the room.
‘It’s a career highlight, this sort of thing, really.’
Beverley Knight, another judge who commended the ‘beautiful’ performance, was equally astonished by the turnaround.
‘I would love to see you be even more forward and formidable like Shania is herself,’ she suggested.
‘But, do you know? That was a great effort!’
Starstruck returns next Saturday on ITV1.