Gwen R. Stefani

Gwen Stefani

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Gwen Stefani
Stefani at Bloomingdale's celebration for Fashion's Night Out in New York City on September 10, 2009
Background information
Birth name	Gwen Renée Stefani
Born	(1969-10-03) October 3, 1969 (age 43) Fullerton, California, U.S.
Genres	Pop, dance, rock, electronic, R&B
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, record producer, fashion designer, dancer, actress
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1986–present
Labels	Interscope
Associated acts	No Doubt, Eve, The Neptunes, Sublime, Dr. Dre, Akon, Outkast
Website	www.gwenstefani.com

Gwen Renée Stefani ( /stɛˈfɑːni born October 3, 1969) is an American singer-songwriter, fashion designer and occasional actress. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded Love. Angel. Music. Baby., her first solo album, in 2004. Inspired by music of the 1980s, the album was a success with sales of over seven million copies. The album's third single, "Hollaback Girl", was the first US digital download to sell one million copies. Stefani's second and final solo studio album, The Sweet Escape (2006), yielded "Wind It Up", "4 in the Morning", and the highest-selling single "The Sweet Escape". Including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than forty million albums worldwide. She won the World's Best-Selling New Female Artist at the World Music Awards 2005.
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 dancers. She married British grunge musician Gavin Rossdale in 2002 and they have two sons: Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, born May 26, 2006, and Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale, born August 20, 2008. Billboard magazine named Stefani the fifty-fourth artist and thirty-seventh Hot 100 artist of the 2000–09 decade

Early life

Stefani was born and raised in Fullerton, California, and grew up in a Roman Catholic household. She attended Loara High School in Anaheim, California.She was named 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 worked as a Yamaha marketing executive. Her mother, Patti (née Flynn), is of Irish and Scottish descent and worked as an accountant before becoming a homemaker. Gwen's parents were fans of folk music and exposed her to music by artists like Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris. She is the second oldest of four children: she has a younger sister, Jill Stefani, a younger brother, Todd, and an older brother, Eric.Eric was the keyboardist for No Doubt; he left the band to pursue a career in animation on The Simpsons on the Fox TV network.
Many of the women in Stefani's family were seamstresses, and much of her clothing was made by them or her mother. In school, she was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, for which she's been medicated ever since.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 at a Dairy Queen and later manned the MAC makeup counter of a department store. After graduating from high school in 1987, she began attending Fullerton College before transferring to California State University, Fullerton.

Music career

[edit] 1986–2004: No Doubt

Main article: No Doubt

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.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. 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. 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. 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'; one of them, "Don't Speak", led the US Hot 100 Airplay year-end chart of 1996. Stefani left college for one semester to tour for Tragic Kingdom but did not return when touring lasted two and a half years. The album sold more than sixteen million copies worldwide, and received several
Grammy Award nominations

Personal life

Soon after Stefani joined No Doubt, she and bandmate Tony Kanal began dating.Stefani stated that she was heavily invested in the relationship, commenting that "...all I ever did was look at Tony and pray that God would let me have a baby with him." During this time, the band almost split up because of the failed romantic relationship between Stefani and Kanal. Kanal ended the relationship. Their break-up inspired Stefani lyrically, and many of the album's songs, such as "Don't Speak", "Sunday Morning", and "Hey You", chronicle the ups and downs of their relationship.
During mid-1995, No Doubt and rock band Goo Goo Dolls went on tour opening for alternative rock band Bush. Stefani met Bush guitarist and lead singer Gavin Rossdale. They married on September 14, 2002, with a wedding in St Paul's, Covent Garden, London. A second wedding was held in Los Angeles two weeks later. According to Stefani, it was held so that she could wear her custom-designed wedding dress by John Galliano twice. A paternity test in 2004 revealed that Rossdale had a daughter, Daisy Lowe (who was fifteen years old then), from a previous relationship with model and designer Pearl Lowe. Stefani was "devastated and infuriated" at the discovery, leading to a rocky patch in her relationship with Rossdale. Though Rossdale remains Daisy's godfather, he has severed all ties with the Lowes.Stefani's song "Danger Zone" was widely believed to be about the discovery and its aftermath, which has proven to be impossible because the song was written prior to the incident