WASHINGTON • Country-pop superstar Shania Twain (left) apologised on Sunday night for saying she would have voted for United States President Donald Trump.

On Sunday morning, The Guardian published a long profile of Canada-born Twain, timed to her new tour that will begin next week.

In the second-to-last paragraph, the 52-year-old revealed that if she had been eligible to vote in the 2016 presidential election, "I would have voted for him because even though he was offensive, he seemed honest".

She said: "Do you want straight or polite? Not that you shouldn't be able to have both. If I were voting, I just don't want bull****. I would have voted for a feeling that it was transparent. And politics has a reputation of not being that, right?"

Her quote went viral on social media and, hours later, "Shania Twain" was trending worldwide on Twitter. The hashtag #ShaniaTwainCancelled also had hundreds of tweets.

Twain, the highest-selling solo female artist in country music history, apologised after the backlash intensified.

She called her answer to The Guardian "awkward" and said she wished she had given it more context. She also emphasised that she does not endorse Mr Trump.

She emphasised inclusivity and that she is "passionately against discrimination".

Many were discouraged by someone considered an LGBT-friendly artist saying she would vote for Mr Trump, who supported a ban on transgender people serving in the military, among other policies.

These days, it is unusual to see a country singer make any sort of political statement, but Twain has operated outside the typical Nashville, Tennessee, realm for years.

After selling millions of albums in the 1990s and early 2000s (including the hits That Don't Impress Me Much and Man! I Feel Like a Woman), she took a break from music. In September, she released her first album in 15 years, titled Now.

WASHINGTON POST