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50 facts you missed about Gwen Stefani, the co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band No Doubt.
1. Her full name is Gwen Renée Stefani.
2. She is not only a singer but also songwriter, fashion designer, and actress.
3. She is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band No Doubt.
4. During the band's hiatus, Stefani embarked on her solo career, releasing her debut album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. Inspired by music of the 1980s, the album was a success with sales of over seven million copies.
5. Stefani's second studio album The Sweet Escape was released in 2006. The album produced two successful singles: "Wind It Up" and the album's title track "The Sweet Escape."
6. Including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than thirty million albums worldwide.
7. As a solo artist, Stefani has won several music awards, including one Grammy Award, one World Music Award, one American Music Award, and one Brit Award.
8. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L.A.M.B..
9. Expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line, drawing inspiration from Japanese culture and fashion.
10. Stefani performs and makes public appearances with four back-up dancers known as the Harajuku Girls.
11. She married British musician Gavin Rossdale in 2002.
12. Stefani and Rossdale have three sons.
13. Billboard magazine ranked Stefani the fifty-fourth most successful artist and thirty-seventh most successful Hot 100 artist of the 2000-09 decade.
14. VH1 ranked her thirteenth on their "100 Greatest Women in Music" list in 2012.
15. Gwen Stefani was born on October 3, 1969, in Fullerton, California, and raised in Anaheim, California.
16. She was raised in a Roman Catholic household, and attended Loara High School in Anaheim, California.
17. She was named after a stewardess in the 1968 novel Airport.
18. Her middle name, Renée, comes from The Four Tops' 1968 cover of The Left Banke's 1966 hit song "Walk Away Renée".
19. Her father, Dennis Stefani, is Italian American and worked as a Yamaha marketing executive.
20. Her mother, Patti, is of Irish, Scottish and Norwegian descent, and worked as an accountant before becoming a housewife.
21. Gwen's parents were fans of folk music and exposed her to music by artists like Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris.
22. She is the second oldest of four children: she has a younger sister, Jill; a younger brother, Todd; and an older brother, Eric.
23. Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt, but left the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons.
24. Many of the women in Stefani's family were seamstresses, and much of her clothing was made by them or her mother.
25. At school, she found written work challenging because of her dyslexia.
26. As a child Stefani's musical interests consisted of musicals such as The Sound of Music and Evita.
27. After making a demo tape for her father, she was encouraged to take music lessons to train her "loopy, unpredictable" voice.
28. 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.
29. Stefani was on the Loara swim team in an attempt to lose weight.
30. She first worked at a Dairy Queen and later staffed the MAC makeup counter of a department store.
31. After graduating from high school in 1987, she began attending Fullerton College before transferring to California State University, Fullerton.
32. Eric introduced Gwen to 2 Tone music by Madness and The Selecter, and in 1986, he invited her to provide vocals for No Doubt, a ska band he was forming.
33. Finally, in 1991, the band was signed to Interscope Records. The band released its self-titled debut album in 1992, but its ska-pop sound was unsuccessful due to the popularity of grunge.
34. Gwen Stefani starred in her band, No Doubt, when she was 17 years old.
35. Before the mainstream success of both No Doubt and Sublime, Stefani contributed guest vocals to "Saw Red" on Sublime's 1994 album Robbin' the Hood.
36. Stefani rejected the aggressiveness of female grunge artists and cited Blondie singer Debbie Harry's combination of power and sex appeal as a major influence.
37. No Doubt's third album, Tragic Kingdom (1995), which followed the self-released The Beacon Street Collection (1995), took more than three years to make. Five singles were released from Tragic Kingdom', including "Don't Speak," which led the Hot 100 Airplay year-end chart of 1997.
38. Stefani left college for one semester to tour for Tragic Kingdom but did not return when touring lasted two and a half years.
39. In late 2000, Rolling Stone magazine named her "The Queen of Confessional Pop."
40. 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, Tom Rothrock, Linda Perry, André 3000, Nellee Hooper, The Neptunes and New Order.
41. L.A.M.B. was a commercial success reaching multi-platinum status in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.
42. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, Stefani was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "What You Waiting For?", and at the next year's awards, Stefani received five nominations for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
43. On April 12, 2014, Stefani made a surprise appearance at the Coachella festival, where she joined Pharrell Williams onstage during his set to perform "Hollaback Girl".
44. She and Williams were coaches for season 7 of The Voice.
45. After nine years since the last time, she attended the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards, and during an interview on the red carpet she said, "I didn't know I was gonna have a baby, I didn't know I was gonna be on The Voice, I didn't know I was gonna be writing new music, so I'm just like, what's gonna be next?".
46. Stefani appears as a featured artist on "My Heart Is Open", co-written by Sia Furler, from Maroon 5's V, which was performed for the first time with Adam Levine and an orchestra at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
47. Stefani and Sia Furler worked together on a ballad, called "Start a War" that is expected to be released on Stefani's third studio album as well.
48. Stefani made most of the clothing that she wore on stage with No Doubt, resulting in increasingly eclectic combinations.
49. Stylist Andrea Lieberman introduced her to haute couture clothing, which led to Stefani launching a fashion line named L.A.M.B. in 2004. The line takes influence from a variety of fashions, including Guatemalan, Japanese, and Jamaican styles.
50. The line achieved popularity among celebrities and is worn by stars such as Teri Hatcher, Nicole Kidman, and Stefani herself.
Source: Wikipedia.org
