The Return Of Gwen Stefani

Remember Gwen Stefani from 2004-2007? Yup, Gwen Stefani is part of No Doubt from 1992-2003. In 2004, Gwen Stefani released her debut solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. And it’s smash hit single, Hollaback Girl. Then in 2006, she released her second album, The Sweet Escape and its hit album titled single.

Ten years later after her comeback singles, Baby Don't Lie and Used to Love You, released in 2014 and 2015 respectively, the commercial label primate veteran has returned from a non-mainstream music singer, Blake Shelton. I know country music like Carrie Underwood are popular music. She is back with her long-waited third album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like.

So far, according to Billboard, “Gwen Stefani Scores Her First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart.” Billboard continued, Gwen Stefani debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with This Is What the Truth Feels Like, earning her first chart-topper as a solo artist. The album, her third release, earned 84,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum it sold 76,000 in pure album sales.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new April 9-dated chart (where This Is What the Truth Feels Like is No. 1) will be posted in full to Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, March 29.

This Is What the Truth Feels Like was released on March 18 through Interscope Records and is Stefani’s first solo album since 2006’s The Sweet Escape, which debuted and peaked at No. 3 (243,000 sold in its first week). Prior to that, she reached No. 5 in 2005 with Love. Angel. Music. Baby., which was released in 2004 (bowing with 309,000 sold in its first week).

The new album is supported by its current single, “Make Me Like You,” which recently reached the top 30 of the Pop Songs airplay chart.

Gwen Stefani is, of course, also the lead singer of the band No Doubt, which previously topped the Billboard 200 with its breakthrough album, Tragic Kingdom. The set -- No Doubt's first to reach the list -- led the chart for nine nonconsecutive weeks in 1996 and 1997. The group has since clocked five more charting efforts, including four that hit the top 10.

With Stefani’s solo No. 1, she joins an exclusive club of artists that first reached No. 1 as part of a band or group, and then later earned their own solo leader. (In fact, she's one of only five women to achieve the feat.)

She stands alongside artists like Beyonce, who has five solo No. 1s, in addition to a pair of leaders with the group Destiny's Child. (The group notched chart-toppers in 2001 and 2005; Beyonce's No. 1s happened in 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2013.)

In addition, Gwen Stefani is one of the only five women to have hit number 1 both solo and with a band. The others where Beyonce and Destiny’s Child, Lauryn Hill and The Fugees, Janis Joplin and Big Brother & The Holding Company, and Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac.”

Congrats, Gwen Stefani. You earned it. Let's hope pop veterans including Gwen Stefani gets more attention. Plus, general public really miss Gwen Stefani ever since 2007. I know Gwen Stefani is busy raising her own child. That's because older pop stars don't have time to make future pop music for future young audiences. That's what fans are for. Gwen Stefani is not declining. Pop music is actually very busy focus on modern pop acts like Selena Gomez. So they don't have time to promote Gwen Stefani. But this year, Gwen Stefani is returning to the public and she is going strong.

Let's hope Gwen Stefani will be loved by a whole new generation of fans because Gwen Stefani is not a thing in the past. She needs to stay.

Next time on PM's Music World, we're going to discuss the upcoming Britney Spears album when the ninth album will be released later this year and later, Taylor Swift will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of her music career. So stay tuned.