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Gwen Stefani learned a lot about herself after joining The Voice, which made her appreciate her music career in more ways than one. Despite her successes, Stefani started to doubt she was as good as her accolades suggested.
How ‘The Voice’ helped Gwen Stefani get her confidence back
Despite being one of the world’s most celebrated and popular singers, Stefani still questions if she’s worthy of her successes from time to time. She especially felt symptoms of imposter syndrome after her heartbreaking divorce from Gavin Rossdale. The “Hollaback” singer attempted to make music while still reeling from the split. But it took some time before she got back into creative shape.
“It was so horrible. I was thinking about the children and just trying to fix it,” she once told Stylist (via Shefani). “And I clearly remember sitting with my girlfriend, feeling so embarrassed, and then thinking: I can’t go down like this! I’m not going to. I’ve been given this crazy tragedy that I need to turn into music. So, I booked some recording sessions. And I still remember waking up that first morning, and I was like, ‘F***, why am I doing this to myself? I’m exhausted. And now I need to drag myself to the studio to sing with a bunch of people I don’t know and totally embarrass myself!’”
What also doesn’t help Stefani’s imposter syndrome is the fact that she kept comparing her past and present selves.
“I think that I just started getting so insecure,” she once told Clash about her career. “When you have a long career, you start going, ‘Woah, how did I do that?’”
The Voice, however, reminded Stefani that she was the same artist she was years ago. As one of the show’s coaches, the No Doubt alum often heard some of her greatest hits while judging aspiring artists. Ironically, Stefani received the reassurance she needed just by listening to her past self.
“It really helped to wake me up again,” she said. “To go, ‘I did all those things! Of course I can do that again.’”
How Gwen Stefani feels about ‘The Voice’ contestants covering her songs
Not all of The Voice coaches enjoy contestants singing their songs. Stefani ratted out her co-judge John Legend for feeling more uncomfortable than flattered by singers who pay tribute to his material. Stefani, who may have had a rivalry with Legend, shared her theory as to why Legend hates hearing his records on the show.
“I get really excited. But John Legend is known to not press his button if someone does one of his songs,” Stefani once said in an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers. “And we’re just kind of like, ‘John, you have to press your button. They’re doing your song!’ I guess he gets very scientific about it, and he just gets overwhelmed.”
However, Stefani enjoyed hearing her songs on The Voice even if she wasn’t a part of the show.
“I can’t say when ’cause this hasn’t come out yet. But I know one season somebody did ‘Cool,’ and I wasn’t on that season and was like, ‘Oh my God, they did your song!’ It was a totally weird version of it, and it’s awesome. They’re always doing covers on that show,” she said.
Still, the multi-platinum artist admitted certain songs weirded her out after hearing them again because of how personal they were.
“I love to hear them do it; it’s just that sometimes I feel like because they’re so personal, the lyrics. And then if they’re doing all these fancy vocals on it, I’ll be like, ‘Oh… that’s so weird,’” she said.
