49 Fun Facts About Gwen Stefani

Which lipstick colour completes Gwen Stefani's trademark look of platinum blonde hair?

Red. She sang about her make-up ritual on No Doubt's 'Magic's in the Makeup', and in 2022 she turned the look into a business with a cosmetics line of her own.

Gwen Stefani was born in Fullerton and raised in which neighbouring Southern California city?

Anaheim. She finished high school there in 1987, by which time she and her brother were already rehearsing their new band in the family garage.

Before she had a fashion label, where did most of Gwen Stefani's No Doubt stage outfits come from?

She made them herself. Stefani comes from a long line of seamstresses and learned to sew from her mother, a skill that later grew into a clothing label of her own.

Gwen Stefani's father Dennis was a marketing executive for which company?

Yamaha. The job sent him back and forth to Japan for 18 years, and the stories he brought home, of street performers dressed as Elvis and women with brightly coloured hair, gave his daughter a lifelong fascination.

Gwen Stefani's older brother Eric left No Doubt to work as an animator on which show?

The Simpsons. He had been drawing for it since its days as a short on The Tracey Ullman Show, and he once slipped his sister and her bandmates into a crowd scene in the episode 'Homerpalooza'.

No Doubt shared the 2003 Super Bowl halftime show with Sting and which country-pop star?

Shania Twain. She opened the show, No Doubt followed, and Stefani then joined Sting midway through 'Message in a Bottle' for the finale.

Records played by her brother Eric first hooked a teenage Gwen Stefani on which style of music?

Ska. The records were by British 2 Tone bands such as Madness and The Selecter; Eric formed a ska band of his own in 1986, and his sister dressed the part, wearing only black and white.

Before either band broke big, Gwen Stefani sang on 'Saw Red' for which fellow Southern California band?

Sublime. The two-minute duet on their 1994 album Robbin' the Hood borrows a line from 'She's Mine', a reggae song by Barrington Levy.

Which No Doubt album sold more than 16 million copies worldwide?

Tragic Kingdom. Stefani took one semester off college to tour it; the tour ran for two and a half years and she never went back.

Which No Doubt song topped US radio airplay for 16 weeks without ever entering the Hot 100?

Don't Speak. It was never sold as a single in American shops, and the chart rules of the day kept the country's most-played song off the Hot 100 altogether.

Gwen Stefani's 2002 Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration came for which song with Eve?

Let Me Blow Ya Mind. The rock singer's first Grammy came for a hip-hop hit, a year before her own band won one, and the detour pointed the way to her solo career.

Gwen Stefani's 'South Side' collaboration was with which electronic musician?

Moby. Production problems forced him to leave her vocal off the version on his album Play, so listeners heard the duet only when it was restored for the single.

No Doubt's 2003 greatest hits included a cover of which Talk Talk song?

It's My Life. Recorded as the band headed into a long break, the cover reached No. 10 in America, where Talk Talk's 1984 original had stalled at No. 31.

What was the title of Gwen Stefani's 2004 debut solo album?

Love. Angel. Music. Baby. began as a small side project and grew into a full album, built to sound like the 1980s dance records she had loved in high school.

Which Gwen Stefani single was the first US download to sell a million copies?

Hollaback Girl. It is widely read as her answer to Courtney Love, who had dismissed her as 'the cheerleader': Stefani wrote a playground chant and played one in the video.

Gwen Stefani's 'Rich Girl' adapts a 1990s song that itself reworked a tune from which musical?

Fiddler on the Roof. The tune is 'If I Were a Rich Man'; to rewrite the lyric Stefani went back to see the show on Broadway, and came away with its moral that love makes even the poor rich.

Which songwriter co-wrote 'What You Waiting For?', Gwen Stefani's first solo single?

Linda Perry. Stefani arrived blocked and tearful, so Perry stayed up all night building a track, then threw the title question at her; Stefani took it as a dare.

Gwen Stefani made her film debut as Jean Harlow in which Martin Scorsese film?

The Aviator. For a part of only a few lines she read two Harlow biographies and watched 18 of the star's films.

'Wind It Up' featured yodeling and an interpolation of which musical?

The single reached the top 10 in the US and UK.

Which singer features on Gwen Stefani's 'The Sweet Escape', earning her a Grammy nomination?

Akon. He co-wrote and produced the song as well as singing its 'woo-hoo, yee-hoo' hook, and the pair performed it on American Idol when she was a guest mentor.

A member of which British band co-wrote 'Early Winter' for Gwen Stefani?

Keane. Stefani rang pianist Tim Rice-Oxley asking for a ballad in the mould of 'Time After Time'; the next day he played her 'Early Winter' almost complete, the first song he had written outside his band.

Which OutKast star plays 'Johnny Vulture' on 'Bubble Pop Electric', from Gwen Stefani's debut album?

André 3000. Hiding behind the alias, he co-wrote and produced the electro track as well, and plays Stefani's date for a night at the drive-in.

Gwen Stefani's entourage of four backing dancers, named for a Tokyo district, were known as what?

The Harajuku Girls. The four dancers shadowed her through videos, interviews and concerts, appeared on her debut album's cover, and had a song on the record named for and dedicated to them.

Michelle Pfeiffer's character in which film inspired Gwen Stefani's 2006 image makeover?

Scarface. A peach 1970s-style dress spotted on a video shoot set her thinking of Pfeiffer's Elvira Hancock, and the icy look ended up on the cover of her second solo album.

Stefani started wearing a bindi in the 1990s after attending family gatherings with whom?

The bassist is of Indian heritage; she briefly popularised it as an accessory.

For the cover of No Doubt's 2000 album Return of Saturn, Gwen Stefani swapped her platinum hair for which colour?

Pink. She said the bright dye job was her reaction to a temporary break-up, and she has joked that she has not seen her real hair colour since ninth grade.

Gwen Stefani married Gavin Rossdale, frontman of which band, in 2002?

Bush. The couple married twice within a fortnight, first in London's Covent Garden with Stefani in a John Galliano gown, then all over again in Los Angeles.

What is the name of Gwen Stefani's eldest son, born in 2006?

Kingston. His arrival reshuffled her career: with a baby on the way she put her second solo album on hold and released one more single from her debut instead.

Which country singer did Gwen Stefani marry in July 2021?

Blake Shelton. They met as rival coaches in the spinning chairs of The Voice, and married in a chapel on his ranch in Oklahoma.

Which duet with her future husband gave Gwen Stefani her first chart-topper on country radio in 2020?

Nobody but You. Her part on the record was kept secret until a week before its release, and a second duet, 'Happy Anywhere', topped the same country chart a few months later.

Gwen Stefani joined The Voice in 2014 to fill the chair of which pregnant original coach?

Christina Aguilera. What began as maternity cover became a habit: Stefani came back to the panel again and again over the following decade, and finally coached a winner in 2020.

Which pop legend co-wrote, produced and sang on 'Waiting Room' for No Doubt's album Rock Steady?

Prince. He was returning a favour: Stefani had sung on his own 1999 album, and the song they then wrote together waited through one No Doubt record before it found a home on the next.

Which 2015 single about the end of her marriage launched Gwen Stefani's first chart-topping solo album?

Used to Love You. She had scrapped a finished album that felt forced, started again as her 13-year marriage ended, and unveiled the new song on stage in New York.

Gwen Stefani voiced DJ Suki in which 2016 animated film?

Trolls. Her character spins records on DJ decks made of living insects, and Stefani also sings on five songs from the film's soundtrack.

What was the name of Gwen Stefani's 2018–21 Las Vegas residency?

Just a Girl. The show took its name from the 1995 hit she wrote in frustration after her father told her off for driving home late from her boyfriend's house.

Gwen Stefani's fifth studio album, released in November 2024, is titled what?

Bouquet. She recorded most of it in Nashville, trading her usual dance-pop for a 1970s soft-rock sound with a country tinge, and built the whole record around a theme of flowers.

Which star joined The Voice as a first-time coach in the same season as Gwen Stefani?

Pharrell Williams. The two were old studio partners: he had co-written and produced her first US No. 1 single almost a decade before they took their seats on the panel in 2014.

At which 2024 festival did No Doubt play together for the first time since 2015?

Coachella. Ten years earlier, almost to the day, Stefani had crashed the same festival as an unannounced guest in a friend's set; in 2024 the whole band walked on together for the first time in nine years.

No Doubt went to which island to finish recording the Grammy-winning 'Hey Baby'?

Jamaica. The song grew out of the dancehall the band played at its after-show parties, so they took the demo to producers Sly and Robbie, who brought in the deejay Bounty Killer for a guest verse.

What makeup brand did Gwen Stefani launch in March 2022?

GXVE Beauty. The name is pronounced 'give', and the vegan range is built around the bold lip colour that has been part of her look since her band days.

No Doubt's two Grammy wins came for 'Hey Baby' and which other single from Rock Steady?

Underneath It All. Stefani wrote it in about ten minutes in London with Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, lifting its key line from her own journal, and it became the band's highest-charting US single.

Which rapper joined Gwen Stefani on a 2021 remix of her single 'Slow Clap'?

Saweetie. Stefani said she had rarely worked with women in rap apart from her old duet partner Eve, and liked the idea of pairing two artists from different genres and generations.

In 2020, Gwen Stefani revealed that raising her sons had led her to discover she has which condition?

Dyslexia. She said it explained a lot, from failing at school to the path she took instead, and that her boys get the teaching and understanding she never had.

Which hip-hop producer waved away Gwen Stefani's own demos and steered her towards recording 'Rich Girl' instead?

Dr. Dre. Hearing her demos, he told her 'You don't want to go back there' and suggested the old reggae hit instead; then he sent her first version back to be rewritten.

Which No Doubt single was inspired by a persistent admirer who recited bad poetry to Gwen Stefani?

Spiderwebs. The song is about dodging him: its narrator screens her phone calls rather than sit through another verse.

Which No Doubt video was pulled in 2012 after complaints it was insensitive to Native Americans?

Looking Hot. The cowboys-and-Indians video came down within a day; the band apologised, saying it had consulted Native American friends and scholars beforehand and still got it wrong.

Which rapper featured Gwen Stefani on 'Kings Never Die' from the Southpaw soundtrack?

Eminem. The boxing drama was first developed with him in the lead; after Jake Gyllenhaal took the part, the rapper's label released the soundtrack and he supplied its single.

Which record label signed No Doubt and went on to release Gwen Stefani's solo albums too?

Interscope. After the band's debut flopped, the label farmed them out to a smaller imprint, yet years later its chairman was the one pushing a reluctant Stefani to go solo.

Gwen Stefani's 2018–21 Las Vegas residency played at which casino resort?

Planet Hollywood. The 57-show run was due to end in May 2020, but the pandemic postponed its last eight nights and the final curtain came nearly a year and a half late, in November 2021.