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Shania Twain christened Ottawa’s newest festival site at Wesley Clover Parks on Saturday with a concert extravaganza that pulled in a youthful party crowd of 24,000 people.

It was the biggest single night, and the only outdoor show, of the country-pop superstar’s first tour in more than a decade. Whether her Rock This Country excursion is a comeback or a farewell seems to be up in the air, but to the fans caught up in the moment, it made no difference.

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In thigh-high boots, a red-sequined mini dress and black-fringed jacket, the first of several glamorous costumes, the 49-year-old singer made an eye-popping entrance, strutting her way through the anthemic Rock This Country and the sassy Honey I’m Home before slowing things down a tad for You Win My Love. A terrific band, including three fiddle players, backed her, while the huge stage pulsed with lasers and blasts of pyro.

In the crowd, it was a massive girls’ night out. Of course, there were men in attendance, too, but the vast majority of the audience consisted of smiling cowgirls singing along to every word, unified by the power of sisterhood (and probably a few beverages). Their favourites were the feisty ones: Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?, Don’t Be Stupid, Any Man of Mine, That Don’t Impress Me Much and especially, Man! I Feel Like a Woman.