Gwen Renée Stefani (born October 3, 1969), is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer, and occasional actress. Stefani fronts the rock/ska punk band No Doubt, whose 1995 album Tragic Kingdom propelled them to stardom, selling 16 million copies worldwide.It spawned the singles "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs", and "Don't Speak". The band's popularity went into decline with its fourth album, Return of Saturn (2000), but Rock Steady (2001) introduced reggae production into its music, and generally received positive reviews.
Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was primarily inspired by music of the 1980s, taking Stefani's work further into more pop and dance music, and enjoyed international success with sales of over seven million.
The album's third single "Hollaback Girl" became the first U.S. digital download to sell one million copies. Stefani's second solo album The Sweet Escape (2006) yielded "Wind It Up", a moderate worldwide success, and "The Sweet Escape".
Including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide.She won the World's Best-Selling New Female Artist at the World Music Awards 2005. In spite of her age, Stefani is known as a fashion trendsetter. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L.A.M.B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture and fashion.
Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls. She married British grunge musician Gavin Rossdale in 2002; they have a son, Kingston James McGregor, who was born in 2006 and are expecting their second child in August 2008.
EARLY LIFE
Gwen Renée Stefani was born in Fullerton, California and raised in Anaheim, California, and grew up in a Roman Catholic household. Her mother named her after a stewardess in the 1968 novel Airport, and her middle name, Renée, comes from The Four Tops' 1968 cover of The Left Banke's 1966 hit song "Walk Away Renée".
Her father, Dennis Stefani, is Italian American and works as a Yamaha marketing executive. Her mother, Patti Flynn, is of Irish and Scottish descent and worked as an accountant before becoming a homemaker. Her parents were fans of folk music and presented music by Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris to their daughter.
She is the second oldest of four children; she has a younger sister, Jill, a younger brother, Todd, and an older brother, Eric. Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt but left the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons. Many of the women in Stefani's family were seamstresses, and much of her clothing was made by her or her mother. As a child, Stefani's musical interests consisted of musicals such as The Sound of Music and Evita.
After making a demo tape for her father, she was encouraged to take music lessons to train her "loopy, unpredictable" voice. Stefani made her onstage debut during a talent show at Loara High School, where she sang "I Have Confidence," from The Sound of Music, in a self-made tweed dress inspired by one from the film.
Stefani was on the Loara swim team in an attempt to lose weight. She first worked scrubbing floors at a Dairy Queen and later manning the MAC makeup counter of a department store. After graduating from high school in 1987, she began attending California State University, Fullerton.
SOLO ALBUM
2004-2006 : LOVE. ANGEL. MUSIC. BABY
Stefani's debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. was released in November 2004. The album features a large number of collaborations with producers and other artists, including Tony Kanal, Linda Perry, André 3000, Nellee Hooper and The Neptunes. Stefani created the album to modernize the music to which she listened when in high school, and L.A.M.B. takes influence from a variety of music styles of the 1980s and early 1990s such as New Wave and electro.
Stefani's decision to use her solo career as an opportunity to delve further into pop music instead of trying "to convince the world of [her] talent, depth and artistic worth" was considered unusual. As a result, reviews of the album were mixed, and it was described as "fun as hell but…not exactly rife with subversive social commentary." The album debuted on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart at number seven, selling 309,000 copies in its first week.
It sold well, reaching multi-platinum status in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Stefani was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and at the next year's awards, Stefani received five nominations for Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
The first single released from the album was "What You Waiting For?", which charted outside the U.S. Top 40, but reached the Top 10 on most other charts. The song served to explain why Stefani produced a solo album and discusses her fears in leaving No Doubt for a solo career as well as her desire to have a baby.
"Rich Girl" was released as the album's second single. A duet with rapper Eve, and produced by Dr. Dre, it is an adaptation of a 1990s pop song by British musicians Louchie Lou and Michie One, which itself is a cover of "If I Were a Rich Man", from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. "Rich Girl" proved successful on several formats, and reached the UK and U.S. top ten.
L.A.M.B.'s third single "Hollaback Girl" became Stefani's first U.S. and second Australian number-one single; it was less successful elsewhere. The song was the first U.S. digital download to sell more than one million copies legally, and its brass-driven composition remained popular throughout 2005. The fourth single "Cool" was released shortly following the popularity of its predecessor, but failed to match its chart success, reaching the top twenty in UK and U.S.
The song's lyrics and its accompanying music video, filmed in Lake Como, Italy, depict Stefani's former relationship with Kanal."Luxurious" was released as the album's fifth single, but did not perform as well as its predecessors. "Crash" was released in early 2006 as the album's sixth single in lieu of Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'s sequel, which Stefani postponed because of her pregnancy.
2006-2008 : THE SWEET ESCAPE
Stefani's second solo album, The Sweet Escape, was released in December 2006. Stefani recollaborated with Kanal, Perry, and The Neptunes, along with Akon and Tim Rice-Oxley from English rock band Keane. The album focuses more heavily on electro/dance music for clubs than its predecessor.[13] Stefani commented that it differed from L.A.M.B. because "I just wasn't inspired to do another album and…I was a lot more relaxed making it."
Its release coincided with the DVD release of Stefani's first tour, entitled Harajuku Lovers Live.
The album received mixed reviews by critics, who found that it "has a surprisingly moody, lightly autobiographical feel...[but] Stefani isn't convincing as a dissatisfied diva" and called the album a "hasty return" that repeats Love. Angel. Music. Baby. with less energy.
Stefani performing "Wind It Up" in May of 2007."Wind It Up", the album's lead single, was panned by critics for its use of yodeling and an interpolation of The Sound of Music but was moderately successful, reaching the Top 20 in most markets.
The title track was well-received. To promote The Sweet Escape, Stefani was a mentor on the sixth season of American Idol and performed the song with Akon. It was an international success and earned Stefani a Grammy nomination. The song is Stefani's most successful song of her solo career. In November 2006, the club single "Yummy" was released as a 3-track maxi promo single and as a 12" vinyl single, both featuring a radio edit, an instrumental and an accapella version of the song.
"4 In The Morning" was released as the album's third single with mediocre success. The album's fourth single was a hybird version of Now That You Got It which featured Damian Marley. The song was a commercial failure and became her first solo single to fail to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Early Winter was released in February 2008 worldwide with initial success on European Charts. To promote the album, Stefani embarked a worldwide tour, The Sweet Escape Tour. The tour covered North America, Europe, Asia and the Pacific and part of Latin America.
Stefani contributed vocals to her husband Gavin Rossdale's highly anticipated first solo record entitled Wanderlust, however, the track "Some Days" on which Gwen sings was not included on the album.
It has also been reported that after she has her next child, Stefani will work on a new studio album with No Doubt.Gwen is a distant cousin of Madonna: “Before ending up in Anaheim, my grandpa first moved to Detroit from Rome. And my dad’s mom’s younger sister’s husband’s mother is a Ciccone.”(wikipedia)
