Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefaniis an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer, and actress. She is the co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band No Doubt. During the band's hiatus, Stefani embarked on a solo career where she pursued an interest in mainstream popular music. The singer has explored a variety of genres throughout her career, including dance, dancehall, electro, hip hop, and reggae. She has been called a "pop princess" by numerous publications and has inspired several musicians over the years...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPop Singer
Date of Birth3 October 1969
CityFullerton, CA
CountryUnited States of America
It was the last song written on the album, and we had already finished the album. We just decided it wasn't good enough.
To work with the people I worked with and put myself in that vulnerable position as a songwriter and collaborate with some talented people and still be free is really challenging. That was the hard part,
I was ... writing that song (with) tears streaming down my face. To me it'sa snapshot of (a) time period of my life, and ... that's the song that kind of took us around the world.
Suddenly the song had this attitude, ... It was like, kind of, 'Oh! Where did the attitude come from?'
I clearly remember writing songs [when I was young] and the power that it gave me of feeling like somebody. My whole life changed when I wrote those songs, even before anyone ever heard them. It wasn't a commercial thing.
I think when I first started discovering I could write songs, I was so naive. And it was after I got broken up with and had my heart sliced up into a bunch of little pieces that I was like, "I'm going to say this." I didn't even know how to play guitar.
I think after doing Push and Shove and having it not be successful, I lost a lot of confidence. Songwriting, for me, has always been traumatic, and I've always made all these excuses. But I've realized that you have to just accept that it was a gift: "I don't know where it came from, I don't know how I did it, but I did write all those songs, and I gotta do it again."
I remember so vividly the first song I ever wrote. It was called 'Different People.'
Out of all the artistic things I do, music is the most rewarding because it's so hard to write songs.
It feels like the more I'm out there in the public eye, the more criticism I get. You need to have confidence - that's what it takes to walk out there and sing a song in front of a huge group of people.
Writing songs is super intimate. It's a bit like getting naked.
I don't mean this in a stuck-up way, but I needed an attitude song.
When you write a great song, it just blows you away. When you write a song that connects with people around the world - I mean like it actually transcends language barriers - you see how it can affect people, and it's quite a tall order to follow up on.
My songs are basically my diaries. Some of my best songwriting has come out of time when I've been going through a personal nightmare.