Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani at the Hollywood premiere of the film ''Constantine''.]]Gwen Renée Stefani (October 3 1969- ) born in Anaheim, California, United States) is an American singer and actress, and is the frontwoman of the ska/rock band No Doubt. Stefani began enjoying mainstream success with the release of No Doubt's 1995 album ''Tragic Kingdom'', with spawned hits "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs", and "Don't Speak". Follow-up albums did not match the sales of ''Tragic Kingdom'', but were successful on different levels of popularity and in different genres.In 2004, Gwen Stefani wrote and recorded her first solo album ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'', for which she consulted producers The Neptunes, singer-songwriter Linda Perry and OutKast frontman André 3000, among others. The album contained pop music and dance music tracks, including hip hop and slow jam-influences. The third single "Hollaback Girl" was a very successful international single, and became the first U.S. digital single to exceed sales of one million.Although Stefani's natural hair color is brown and she has previously colored it blue and pink, she is known for her famously platinum blond hair and bright red lipstick. She has dark brown eyes.
Summary
Stefani was born in Anaheim, California, in the United States. Her father, Denis Stefani, is Italian American, and her mother Patti Flynn is of Irish and Scottish descent. She has a sister, Jill, and two brothers, Eric and Todd. She attended California State University, Fullerton, and Loara High School (class of 1987), where she was on the swim team. Her first job was scrubbing floors at a Dairy Queen, and she once worked at a department store. Her brother Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt, but eventually left the band to pursue a career in animation on ''The Simpsons''. Other members of the group include Tony Kanal (with whom Stefani had a seven year relationship), Tom Dumont, and drummer Adrian Young. On September 14 2002, Stefani married Gavin Rossdale, former lead singer of the band Bush. In 2003, No Doubt took an unlimited break to concentrate on other projects; Stefani pursued a solo career, releasing the album ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' to great success.Stefani on the cover of No Doubt's ''Tragic Kingdom'', 1995
The band's third album (following their eponymous debut ''No Doubt'' (1992) and ''The Beacon Street Collection'' (1995), ''Tragic Kingdom'', took three years to make. During this time, the band almost split up. The album was released in 1995 and spawned several hits, beginning with "Just a Girl". Following the success of ''Tragic Kingdom'', Stefani became highly popular and recognizable; the tension this produced with the other members of the band was touched upon in their video for the song "Don't Speak". Many of the album's songs, including "Don't Speak" and "Spiderwebs", were inspired by Stefani's relationship and breakup with fellow band member Tony Kanal. Stefani had dated Kanal for seven years until he ended the relationship. She slipped into depression after touring for ''Tragic Kingdom''.The album also spun off the moderately successful hits, "Excuse Me Mr." and "Sunday Morning", which were released as the fourth and fifth singles, respectively.Stefani met Bush guitarist Gavin Rossdale in 1995 at a concert in which she was performing to promote ''Tragic Kingdom''. No Doubt went on to tour as Buor a Group award at the Grammys, the release of ''The Singles 1992-2003'' and ''Everything in Time: B-sides, Remixes and Rarities'' prompted media speculation about a break-up, which the band denied in later interviews.
Solo career
Despite constantly denying she had musical aspirations beyond No Doubt, Stefani's debut solo album, ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'', was released in the United States on November 23, 2004. It managed to sell more copies in its first week than any No Doubt album (309,000), debuting at number seven on the Billboard 200, impressive for a debut solo artist. Her album was certified platinum after only four weeks of sales. Stefani collaborated with songwriter Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes) on the album.Cover of Stefani's Solo CD ''Love.Angel.Music.Baby'', 2005The first solo single Stefani released was "What You Waiting For?" It debuted at number one on the Australian singles chart and at number four on the UK chart, and peaked at number forty-seven on the U.S. chart, making it a relative American flop for Stefani. In Canada, it managed to climb to number eleven, but almost instantly dropped out of the top forty. The song was also only seldom played on Canadian radio. Even though it did not perform all that well on the charts, it was a dance hit, climbing to number one on the U.S. dance club play charts. However, the song received little audience on dance radio, and ultimately did not peak in the top forty.The second single, "Rich Girl," another duet with Eve, was produced by Dr. Dre. Which was an adaptation of an earlier pop song by British reggae musicians Louchie Lou and Michie which itself is partly a cover of the song "If I Was A Rich Man" written by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, from the musical, ''Fiddler on the Roof''. It shot its way into the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number seven, and number three on the Pop 100. It was also featured on a Pepsi commercial, starting on Super Bowl Sunday, 2005. The music video lived up to its name, featuring Stefani and Eve dancing on a pirate ship, where young Asian girls determined the outcome of their adventure.At the 2005 Brit Awards, Stefani won Best International Female Solo Artist.''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'''s third single, "Hollaback Girl", produced and co-written by the Neptunes, was released in April of 2005 and became one of the fastest rising songs of the year. In only its sixth week, it hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making Stefani the first white, non-urban, and non-''American Idol'' artist to reach the top spot since Nickelback in 2001/2002 with their hit, "How You Remind Me". The song held this position for one month and subsequently remained in the top ten for an additional two months. In Australia, the song debuted at number one, where it hailed for one week, selling over 5,000 copies.When the song was released in the UK, it debuted at number eight. The following week, it duplicated the same position, confusing many. Due to its large audience in North America, critics assumed that it was a sure-fire number one. Then, in its third week, it fell to number eleven, unable to climb to a higher peak. Despite not being as successful as predicted, it did manage to sell in excess of 50,000 copies. "Hollaback Girl" also helped ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' climb the charts. "Hollaback Girl" has now been certified 5x platinum.In May 2005, while "Hollaback Girl" was enjoying its success, speculation about the next single from ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' grew intensely. At first, it was rumoured that "Bubble Pop Electric", an urban-influenced track about a classic 1980s date was going to be the next single. At the end of the month, "Cool", an 80s influenced pop song about a disastrous relationship that didn't result so horribly, was rumoured to be the next single. As no other song on the album was being thrown into the mix, it was evident that it was going to be one of the two songs. Finally, on June 16 2005, "Cool" debuted on the Billboard Pop Airplay chart at number forty-four, putting a rest to the ongoing rumours. The single went on to reach number thirteen in the U.S., number one in Canada, and number eleven in the United Kingdom."Cool" premiered on ''TRL'' on June 30 2005. The video, filmed in Lake Como, Italy, sees Stefani paying homage to her Italian heritage as well as 1950s bombshells Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, and Brigitte Bardot. The song went gold, but was a very small hit compared to the chartbuster "Hollaback Girl", perhaps partly because of competition with Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together". It was confirmed on September 24 2005 by MTV and Stefani herself that Luxurious was to be the fifth single after "Cool". There was other of rumours going around of what the fifth single would be. Many fans wanted the zany and wild "Bubble Pop Electric" or the laid back and cool "Serious". On October 24 2005, the video for "Luxurious" premiered in Canada on MuchMusic's MuchOnDemand (MOD) program. It is now currently twenty-one on the Hot 100, and at number forty-one on the Canadian BDS Airplay chart.On December 8th, Gwen got nominated for 5 Grammy's. The nominations include Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year & Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.There were plans for Gwen to release a follow-up to L.A.M.B., consisting of leftover tracks from the recording of L.A.M.B., along with new tracks. However, plans for the release (which was expected Q1 2006) have been put on hold indefinitely. Stefani stated she simply wants to "relax...and take a nap". It is unclear at this point whether Stefani will release the follow-up in the near future. Nevertheless, Gwen will still stick to plans with the DVD release of her Harajuku Lovers Tour in 2006.Harajuku Girls
The release of her solo album has also brought attention to Stefani's entourage of four Harajuku Girls. Named Love, Angel, Music, and Baby by Stefani, the Harajuku girls are named for the area around the Harajuku Station of Tokyo, Japan, known as a popular shopping destination and fashion center for teenagers. Following the style of their namesake area, Stefani's Harajuku girls are usually flamboyantly dressed (sometimes in a somewhat "Gothic Lolita" style). They have been featured in her music videos and press coverage and on the album cover for ''Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'', and have a song dedicated to them on the album.However, Stefani's adoption of this component of Japanese culture drew criticism from Mihi Ahn at Salon.com. http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2005/04/09/geisha/, and others who feel that Stefani has stripped Japanese street fashion of its authenticity and created yet another example of the 'submissive asian female' stereotype.Unreleased tracks
- "Veintiuno" written and produced by J.D. Crutch
- "Parental Advisory": produced by Rich Harrison who worked on Beyoncé Knowles' "Crazy in Love". The song pokes fun at dancers with moves better suited for strip clubs than dance clubs.
- "Wonderful Life for Him": written with Linda Perry. Stefani first abandoned this song as it was very personal to her; six months later she rediscovered it and decided to record it. The song is about a boy whom Stefani dated in high school and who had recently died.
- "You Started It": written with Pharrell Williams.
- "Candyland": written with Pharrell Williams.
- "Wind It Up": written with Pharrell Williams.
- "Fine by You": written with Linda Perry. The song is about not being inspired. It was one of the first songs written for the album. It is also known as "Just Fine".
- "Can't Stop the Music" and "Criminal" are two songs that were written with Linda Perry. On the ASCAP website they are listed as being on hold. ASCAP
- "Sparkle": written with Dave Stewart.
- "Average Guy": written with Dave Stewart.
- "Flourescent Lights": written with Tony Kanal.
- "Breaking Up": written with Pharell.
- "Orange County Girl": written with Stefani's mother.
Underground Remixes
- Hollaback Girl Remix - Produced by Dave Jonsen
- Hollaback Girl Remix - Produced by Diplo
- What You Waiting For Remix - Produced by Armand Van Helden
Trivia