"You're Still the One" is a song recorded by Canadian singer Shania Twain for her third studio album Come On Over (1997). The song was inspired by criticism of Twain's relationship with her then-husband and producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange and depicts her celebrating their marriage despite the difficulties and differences between the two. Written by Twain and Lange, it is a piano-driven country pop ballad incorporating guitar, organ, and mandolin. Mercury Records released "You're Still the One" to U.S. contemporary hit radio stations on January 13, 1998, as the album's first pop radio single. The song was later serviced to U.S. country radio stations as the third single from Come On Over on February 13, 1998.
"You're Still the One" received positive reviews from music critics, who praised its romantic lyrics and crossover appeal and deemed it one of Twain's best songs. At the 41st Annual Grammy Awards in 1999, "You're Still the One" garnered four nominations, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. It was a crossover success, peaking at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and being certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It also reached number-one in Australia and peaked at number 10 in the U.K.
The music video for "You're Still the One", directed by David Hogan, shows Twain singing on a beach and male model John Devoe in a beach house. It was nominated for Best Female Video at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, making Twain the first female country artist nominated for an MTV Video Music Award. Twain has performed "You're Still the One" at television shows and included it on the set lists of various concert tours and residency shows. The song was covered by several artists, including Paula Fernandes who released a duet with Twain in 2014.
Background and writing
Upon signing with U.S. label Mercury Nashville Records in 1991, Canadian singer Shania Twain released her eponymous debut studio album in April 1993. Despite the album being a commercial failure and selling only 100,000 units, Twain's singing voice and the music video for "What Made You Say That" caught the interest of Zambian record producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The two started collaborating on songwriting via phone calls and met for the first time at the Fan Fair festival, in June 1993. Soon after, they established a romantic relationship and wedded in December 1993. However, their relationship was criticized and viewed with skepticism by industry observers, who noted their different cultural backgrounds and the 17-year age gap between the two. Lange's artistic involvement in Twain's second studio album, The Woman in Me (1995), also sparked speculation that he was "a Svengali-like producer who demands total control in the studio and treats Twain as a puppet".
Twain herself noticed that people did not believe in their relationship, arguing that the differences between the two would make it unlikely to succeed; "They say, well, he married a young, good-looking girl, and she married a successful producer. So people thought it was based on that and certainly couldn't last". Twain wrote the autobiographical "You're Still the One" in response to the criticism and as a tribute to her successful marriage with Lange. She began working on the song by playing guitar and being in an introspective "folky singer/songwriter" state of mind. As she was composing lyrics and singing the chorus melody repeatedly, Lange came up with the counter-melody "You're still the one". Twain recalls that "all of a sudden we had a hit chorus" and that the song was completed shortly after. "You're Still the One", along with the rest of Come On Over (1997), was recorded at Masterfonics Tracking Room in Nashville, Tennessee, and mixed by Mike Shipley. Lange produced the track and sang background vocals.