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Shania Twain has been a proud mom since 2001.
The singer welcomed son Eja D'Angelo Lange, 22, on Aug. 12, 2001, with her then-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange.
"My priorities, of course, have changed. He's my focus of every day," Twain said about Eja, pronounced "Asia," in a 2002 interview on the CBC. "He's just brought so much more love into my life."
The "You're Still The One" singer and her then-husband had moved to Switzerland, where she felt she could give her son a normal upbringing. "I would like him to be well-rounded, humble and honest, without having to be deprived to develop that character," she said in 2007. "We go out of our way to try to keep him appreciative. We don't keep him in a bubble."
In 2008, Twain and Lange separated after her husband had an affair with her friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud. Following their divorce, the singer focused on Eja. "As you know, I am a mom and all my energy goes to making sure my little man is healthy and happy in every way," she wrote in 2009.
But Twain happened to find love with Marie-Anne's ex-husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, and they married in 2011. "[He] has been the most constant companion and support for both Eja and I," she said in 2010. "And having gone through the suffering of his family splitting apart at the same time and under the same extreme circumstances, he understands me better than anyone."
The Canadian singer has said she loves being a mother to both Eja and stepdaughter Johanna. "I wish I had more children," she said on ITV's Lorraine in 2017. "I have a beautiful stepdaughter and I have a beautiful son. I'm very happy. I just love being a parent and I would have loved to have had more kids."
Here's everything to know about Shania Twain's son, Eja D'Angelo Lange.
He has a special lullaby from his mom
When Eja was a baby, his country star mom would sing to him. Twain shared the lullaby she made up for her son in a 2005 interview with Tony Danza. She sang: "Eja D, can you count to one, two, three? / Isn't anybody as lovely as my Eja D!"
He liked cooking as a kid
In 2007, Twain shared that 6-year-old Eja liked to help out in the kitchen. "He already likes cooking. He doesn't love cleaning up his toys, but he'll do it," she said.
Eja likely inherited his childhood hobby from his mother. In a 2018 interview with The Mirror, Twain recalled the years she spent away from performing after she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. "I love cooking. ... I did a lot of mothering [while on hiatus]," she said. "I enjoyed those crucial years with my son."
He is a musician
Just like his Grammy-winning parents — Twain has five awards for songwriting and performance, while Lange has five in songwriting and production — Eja is a musician.
"He's been making music for a few years now," Twain told Sounds Like Nashville in 2017. "He's very devoted and a real hard worker. He's got a crazy passion for making music, and it's really fun to watch."
As a listener, Eja has eclectic taste: "He definitely listens to EDM, so that's where he is as a fan, but he listens to all kinds of music. He likes a wide variety of stuff. Hans Zimmer is one of his biggest heroes. There's a real broad spectrum in his life musically, so he makes all kinds of stuff and he orchestrates a lot of things. He loves to arrange music and write music. He's just on his own journey."
The mother-son duo have spent time in the studio together, too. In a 2021 appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan, Twain spoke about her "very musical" son. "As far as writing and producing, every once in a while we get into the studio together," she said. "We send each other ideas."
She added: "I work on a different system than he does, so that can be a little complicated, too, because I'm on Pro Tools and he's on Logic. But otherwise, we just send music back and forth. I use the guitar and he uses synthesizers. You never know, maybe someday we'll come up with something really great."
He doesn't want to become a performer
"He's not taking interest in being a performer, so I'm relieved about that if I was being really honest," Twain told Sounds Like Nashville. "I think he'll enjoy music more just being the creator of the music. It's just really taxing being a performer, being the person out in front, unless that's what he really wants. He just has a quiet confidence about him. He doesn't have that extrovert ... type of personality. I think it will suit him well to be the creator."
In a 2017 interview with the New York Times, Twain reiterated, "He doesn't want to be a performer, so he's more in his dad's realm of things." She added that she had given Eja some of her vocal stem files for experimentation, but she made sure to tell him: "You have to have your own thing."
He enjoys low-key holidays
Eja and Twain keep their holidays simple.
"At Christmas, he'll have only three presents," Twain told The Mirror in 2018. "A lot of people would send him stuff, and ... I tell him that anything he's not using after a month, we're giving to charity."
Twain has been open about growing up in poverty and raising her younger siblings after their mother and stepfather died in a car accident. She told The Mirror that her upbringing informed how she raised Eja. "He'll never know my childhood or the way I grew up, it's like another lifetime away," she told the outlet. "You have to make a real effort not to spoil your children."
She continued: "I have to be careful not to let him have everything he wants, so I've only ever baked a cake for his birthday gift. ... It's all he's known. He expects it. I'd say, 'You know what you're getting from me for your birthday,' and he'd look forward to it."
His independence inspired Twain to focus on her voice
Twain left the spotlight for more than a decade following her Lyme disease diagnosis. She later underwent open-throat surgery and relearned how to use her voice. It was Eja's growing independence that inspired Twain to seek treatment.
"I was on a long sabbatical, and my son was getting older," she told PEOPLE in 2020. "I love being a full-time mom, but I started thinking, 'What am I going to do when I have an empty nest?' I had a problem with my voice; I was avoiding doing something about it."
She added, "As my son got more independence, I had more time to start focusing on my voice and I put all my energy into that. ... I thought that it was just fatigue or burnout. But no — Lyme disease commonly affects the nerves. When I discovered a glimpse of hope, I ran with that."
He has a dog named Luna
Eja has a dog named Luna, who has appeared in Twain's video interviews. In a 2021 appearance on Live with Kelly and Ryan, host Kelly Ripa recalled their conversation a year prior. "Last time we spoke to you, you were in Switzerland and you had a dog named Luna in the background. And Luna's your son Eja's dog?" Ripa asked.
"That's my son's dog, yeah. My son Eja has a dog, Luna, and I miss my son because he's off doing his own thing so I had to get another little baby," she said before picking up her puppy, Camper.
Eja got his love of animals from his mom, who has kept several pets throughout his life. "I've got dogs everywhere and horses," she said. "They keep me inspired and happy."
Twain has taught him about supporting women
"Having a child was a completely life-changing experience," Twain said on Allison Kugel's podcast Allison Interviews in 2020. She shared that she hopes to pass down some of her feminist values to her son.
"I think Eja has learned, just for example, that women are completely capable of their own independence, independent decision making, independent financial support, independent dreaming," she told Kugel. "And also, you know I've always been a strong woman in Eja's life, but I've also reminded him often that I'm not perfect. I have my flaws and my weaknesses and that it's important to have empathy for the people there in your life."
She added that she hopes Eja will support the women around him. "[Women are] not always the pillar, they're not always the rock," she said. "It's good for sons to know that we're human and we all need each other."
It seems that Eja has long had empathy for others. In 2009, Twain recalled that 7-year-old Eja had seen her crying and listening to sad music during her separation. "Eja walked up behind me and asked me why I was crying," she wrote on her website. "He wasn't sad at first — just totally surprised to see his mom crying … and didn't know what to make of it."
She continued, "[I] told Eja that music was very powerful and can make people quite emotional. It can make you want to dance, feel angry, happy or sad and that this song was sad and made me cry. He accepted this, hugged me and went back to what he was doing."
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