Gwen Stefani

 NY What all this means for Gwen Stefani—who's back with No Doubt this year for a tour but hasn't tried to record with them since her solo explosion—I can only guess. • Speaking of D-Day-like release strategies: Disney's unstoppable Operation Miley Cyrus ...

By Maura Johnston Meet BC Jean, the California singer-songwriter who wrote Beyonce's gramatically correct wish to grow a pair for a day, "If I Were A Boy." Jean, who idolizes Gwen Stefani and is young enough to be one of those performers who was "influenced" by Britney Spears, has her take on the track stream...

By Anthony Miccio Stump et Al. are seen by their hip-hop collaborators, I think, as living samples, picked out of the musical spectrum because their voices have some distinctive quality that the Roots or Kanye West or Dr. Dre want on their track. And, indeed, all three of those artists are known for eclectic re...

By Anthony Miccio While the performer's rap sheet does include a half-dozen arrests, Akon has only been convicted of one felony, for gun possession. That 1998 New Jersey case ended with a guilty plea, for which the singer was sentenced to three years probation. Another 1998 bust, this one in suburban Atlant...

By Anthony Miccio It's not fair. Akon gets to have multiple wives. I don't. Akon gets to hump teenage girls on stage and throw teenage boys off. I don't. Akon gets to write a hit song about how he didn't respond to the press furor about his wanton ways because he was on tour with Gwen Stefani. I don't, and I wasn't. I bet yo...

By mjohnston 20. Foo Fighters - The Pretender 19. Elliot Yamin - Wait For You 18. Ludacris f/Mary J. Blige - Runaway Love 17. Matchbox 20 - How Far We've Come 16. Amy Winehouse - Rehab 15. Gwen Stefani f/Akon - The Sweet Escape 14. Carrie Underwood - Before He Cheats 13. The All-American Rejects - It Ends Tonight

By Chris Molanphy • Gwen Stefani feat. Akon, "The Sweet Escape": All about timing. It never went to No. 1, but it peaked at No. 2 in a long, ideally timed chart run starting in late winter, cresting in April and still holding as late as September. Amassed big sales points and consistent airplay throughout its run. An...

By mjohnston Three years after its initial release, Louis Vuitton has at long last succeeded in barring the video for Britney Spears' 2004 track "Do Somethin'" from being shown in France because of "an unauthorised close-up shot of Louis Vuitton fabric." Said shot comes at around 40 seconds into the c...

By mjohnston Gwen Stefani is the linchpin in a $300 million ad campaign for Hewlett-Packard, in which the pop star's image and clothes stylings will be used to lure people into "better use the web to custom-produce everything from invitations and greeting cards to concert souvenir books"--and prin...

By jharv Akon has told the NME that he wants to hook up with Fall Out Boy, Blink 182, Good Charlotte, Beyonce, Gwen Stefani, and Akon, if he has the time. We've already heard the spoiled fruits of an Akon/Stefani collaboration, and a song with Beyonce should guarantee a few million units sold, if noth...

By mjohnston Akon has posted a song apologizing for most of his recent transgressions—at least all of those that predate that fan-tossing incident—to his MySpace page. Called "Sorry Blame Me," the track addresses a few people Akon has wronged, including, apparently, his mom; the last verse of the so...

By Brian Raftery On Friday, Verizon Wireless announced that it was ending its association with Akon, the Senegalese crooner responsible for such hits as "Smack That," "I Wanna Fuck You" and "Can You Guess What I Want To Put In You (Here's A Hint: It's My Penis)." The company not only dropped Akon from its onl...

By mjohnston But then came "The Sweet Escape" - specifically, the song "Orange County Girl," in which Gwen, who now lives with husband Gavin Rossdale and son, Kingston, in London, had the gall to downplay her calculated popularity, her fame and fortune, and claim to be "just an Orange County girl livi...

By mjohnston Tonight: Gwen takes the Idol stage with Akon! We hope the camera cuts to Simon at least once during her performance, because we want to see if he'll be rolling his eyes, too. American Idol [americanidol.com] Earlier: Idolator's American Idolatry archives

By mjohnston Chris Richardson - "Don't Speak" by No Doubt Gina Glocksen - "Just Like a Pill" by Pink Haley Scarnato - "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper Jordin Sparks - "Hey Baby" by No Doubt Lakisha Jones - "Love Has a Mind of Its Own" by Donna Summer Melinda Doolittle - "Sunset People" by Donna Summer

By Brian Raftery 1. Fergie ft. Ludacris, "Glamorous" (Interscope) 2. Mims, "This Is Why I'm Hot" (Capitol) 3. Akon, "Don't Matter" (Universal Motown) 4. Gwen Stefani ft. Akon, "The Sweet Escape" (Interscope) 5. Gym Class Heroes ft. Patrick Stump, "Cupid's Chokehold" (Lava)

By mjohnston An article from today's New York Times looks at music videos' experimentation with 3-D: A little past the two-minute mark, the music video for Gwen Stefani's recent single, "Wind It Up," finds her chained to a fence while a flurry of bubbles and snowflakes float by. Viewed from a certain pe...

By mjohnston Spandexed jailhouse fashions. Gold-plated barbells and buildings. A convenience store and a police department that share Gwen Stefani's "double-g, but not Gucci" branding. A song that sounds like it was shelved in 1991 after being written for Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat. Is the video for "T...

By Brian Raftery If you know where to look, you'll be able to find Gwen Stefani's yodel-addled new album The Great Escape, which has gone and done leaked itself onto the information superhighway. Here's "Yummy," the "disco Tetris" collaboration with Pharrell, which sounds suspiciously Fergilicious:

By mjohnston 9:11 p.m. The Red Hot Chili Peppers win favorite pop/rock group, thus averting the wormhole in the universe that would have opened if the lead singer of Bush were to give an award to Nickelback. 9:10 p.m. Wow, a Gavin Rossdale appearance! This must be 1995!