On October 3, 1969, Gwen Stefani was born. As the lead singer of No Doubt, and later as a solo artist, Stefani has been one of the most popular singers of the last twenty years.
Stefani grew up in Anaheim, where No Doubt was formed in 1986 by her older brother, Eric, and his friends. Stefani was originally a backup singer in the group. No Doubt saw a lot of membership changes in its early years, but was a fairly large band in the beginning, with as many as 9 or 10 members.
By 1989, Stefani had become the band’s lead singer. Her stage presence helped No Doubt to get a contract with Interscope Records in 1990, and they released their debut album in 1992. It was an album of upbeat pop, strongly influenced by ska and Jamaican pop; at the height of the grunge era, that didn’t sell very well.
No Doubt began work on a new album in 1993, but Interscope wasn’t happy with the band’s direction and asked them to work with an outside producer. Eric Stefani was unhappy about giving up control, and he left the band in 1994 to return to his career as an animator. He worked for several years on The Simpsons, and drew his sister and the rest of No Doubt into the background of one episode, set at a rock festival.
In 1995, No Doubt released The Bacon Street Collection on their own label. It was made up mostly of the material that Interscope had rejected, and had more of a punk and grunge sound than their debut album. It still wasn’t a huge seller, but it sold better than the first album had.
The band’s breakthrough came later that year with Tragic Kingdom. The album went to #1 and earned No Doubt Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. Most of the songs were written by Stefani after the end of her 7-year-relationship with bandmate Tony Kanal.
The biggest hit from the album was “Don’t Speak.” The label chose not to release the song as a commercial single, which meant that under the rules at the time, it wasn’t eligible to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. But it was #1 on the Radio Airplay chart for 16 weeks—a record, at the time—and surely would have spent several weeks at the top of the main chart had it been eligible. The song received two more Grammy nominations.
The band took a few years before beginning work on its next album. During the break they did some side projects, recording songs for some movie soundtracks—“Snakes” for Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, and with Elvis Costello, “I Throw My Toys Around” for The Rugrats Movie. Stefani also began working as a solo artist, contributing to albums by The Brian Setzer Orchestra, “You’re the Boss”, and Prince, “So Far, So Pleased”.
No Doubt, now down to a quartet, returned in 2000 with Return of Saturn. The ska and reggae elements that had always been there were still present, but the tone was darker with some hints of new wave, and the album was heavier on ballads. Return of Saturn reached #2 on the charts, but none of the singles were particularly successful.
They had better luck the next year with Rock Steady. The Jamaican influences came from dancehall this time around, and the album’s two biggest hits were both Grammy winners—“Hey Baby,” which featured Bounty Killer; and “Underneath It All,” with Lady Saw.
After releasing a greatest hits collection in 2003, No Doubt announced that the band was going on hiatus. Stefani began working on her first solo album.
Love. Angel. Music. Baby. arrived in 2004, and it was a very different style from what Stefani had done with No Doubt. The style was 80s dance music; Stefani listed Madonna, Depeche Mode, Lisa Lisa, and The Cure as major influences on the album. The big hit was “Hollaback Girl,” which reached #1 on the singles chart, and was the first song to sell a million copies as digital downloads in the United States.
Stefani’s follow-up, 2006’s The Sweet Escape, added some contemporary and electronic elements. Critical response was mixed, with many thinking that the new album was a pale imitation of her first.
No Doubt reunited in 2008 and announced that a new album would be released in 2010. In a 2011 interview, Stefani said that she had no plans to continue as a solo artist. It took until 2012 for No Doubt to actually finish the new album. Push and Shove was moderately successful, but its biggest single, “Settle Down,” barely made it into the top 40, and the band had to take down its video for “Looking Hot” when Native American activists complained that its “cowboys and Indians” imagery was offensive.
No Doubt announced another hiatus in 2013. The band has reunited for an occasional concert since then, but there appear to be no plans for a major tour or recording project.
In 2014, Stefani contributed to songs by Calvin Harris, “Together”, and Maroon 5 “My Heart Is Open”, and joined the judging panel of the TV singing competition The Voice. She’s taken part in four seasons of the show and is scheduled to appear in its next season. She released a pair of singles that were announced as teasers for her third album, but they were met with indifference; Stefani ultimately scrapped the work she’d done for that album before starting over.
She continued to appear with other artists in 2015, recording with Eminem, “Kings Never Die”, and Snoop Dogg, “Run Away”, and contributing a cover of “Rainbow Connection”, to an all-star album of Disney songs.
Stefani’s revamped third album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like, arrived in 2016, and climbed to #1 on the album chart. Like No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom, this was a breakup album, mostly written after her divorce from Gavin Rossdale. She also contributed several songs to the animated movie Trolls, in which she voiced one of the troll characters.
In 2017, Stefani released a Christmas album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas. The title song was her first collaboration with new romantic partner Blake Shelton, another judge from The Voice. They’ve since recorded several singles together, of which “Nobody But You” has been the most successful.