WHITE PLAINS, July 16, 2017 (USTA Press Release)
The United States Tennis Association announced Thursday that global superstar Shania Twain will headline the Opening Night Ceremony for the 2017 US Open on Monday evening, August 28, in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The ceremony will be televised live on ESPN2 in the United States and by a host of international broadcasters around the world.
Twain is expected to sing some of her biggest hits, as well as songs from her upcoming album entitled “NOW,” her first album release since 2002. The album will be released on September 29. Prior to Twain’s performance, USTA Chairman of the Board Katrina Adams and tennis icon Billie Jean King will kick off the 20th Anniversary celebration of Arthur Ashe Stadium which opened in 1997. Twain’s performance, which coincides with the 20th Anniversary of her blockbuster album “Come On Over,” will be followed by a special rendition of the National Anthem by a performer to be named later who will be accompanied by the FDNY Color Guard and NYPD Honor Guard for the 16th consecutive year.
With more than 90 million albums sold worldwide, Twain is the top-selling female country artist of all time. She is a five-time GRAMMY Award winner, and is considered the reigning Queen of Country Pop. Twain’s albums include “Shania Twain,” Twain’s platinum-selling 1993 debut; “The Woman in Me,” her GRAMMY winning, double-diamond selling 1995 release; “Come on Over,” the best-selling studio album in Soundscan history by a female artist in any genre and the best-selling country album of all time with more than 40 million units sold worldwide; and “UP!,” her third consecutive diamond-selling album release. Twain is the first, and only, female to receive CMT’s Artist of a Lifetime Award, and she recently received the Icon Award at Billboard’s Women in Music ceremony.
Twenty years ago, the US Open was transformed by the introduction of Arthur Ashe Stadium. The new centerpiece of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Arthur Ashe Stadium provided the game’s greats – and its greatest fans – with a stage unmatched in the sport’s annals. Boasting a capacity of more than 23,000, Arthur Ashe Stadium became the largest tennis-only stadium in the world, allowing the Open to welcome more than half a million more fans than when its namesake won the men’s singles championship in 1968. In 2016, the stadium added a retractable roof, banishing rain delays to the historical record and ensuring that its loyal legion of supporters would continue to experience the grandeur of US Open tennis – and again providing the ultimate showcase for the world’s finest players to complete the toughest two weeks in tennis in the highest of styles.
