"So I heard that you were talking s––t."
Gwen Stefani told us the real story that inspired her hit single "Hollaback Girl."
Gwen Stefani told us the real story that inspired her hit single "Hollaback Girl."
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MusicTranscript
00:00This s*** is bananas, A-N-A-N-A-N.
00:04I don't think I ever imagined that me being a dyslexic girl that doesn't spell would teach
00:12the entire world how to spell bananas.
00:21I would describe the term hollaback girl as basically someone who is going to be like
00:28going back at somebody that's coming at them.
00:32And it could be, I guess, in a bad way or a good way.
00:36But the way that I use it, like, I wouldn't be that person.
00:42I'm above that kind of thing.
00:48I started hearing like rumors about me, like she's like, she's like a cheerleader, like
00:52a put down, you know.
00:54And so because I kind of always wanted to be a cheerleader and I really like the
00:59costumes and because I kind of threw that back and back in their face when they called
01:05me. So it was like, OK, yeah, I am.
01:08Yeah, I am a cheerleader.
01:09You watch me cheer myself on and get everybody to cheer for me.
01:14So it was kind of like it was my way of kind of answering back, but doing it in, I feel
01:22like, a cool way where I just used my own gift.
01:25Writing this song was all about writing with Pharrell Williams.
01:29And it wasn't just writing with somebody else, but writing with somebody that comes
01:32from a completely different genre of music that never worked outside of hip hop.
01:36And at that time, it was really weird for like our whatever kind of style music, no
01:41doubt, was to work like with hip hop people like that was just weird.
01:45But I was like so intrigued and wanted to work with him.
01:49I had the sense that he was super talented and and he had this freshness about him and
01:56he was not playing by any rules.
01:58You know, we wanted to bring something that was a completely a culture collision between
02:03the two of us. And we were more alike than we could ever imagine.
02:07Like he was into fashion.
02:08I was in a fashion. He loved Japanese culture.
02:10I love Japanese culture.
02:11And we knew when we wrote that song that that song was going to be huge.
02:19It's an inspiring song.
02:21It's a song that you can play like I think it's an amazing song to play at any kind of
02:26a sports event like that to me makes me really happy.
02:30It's an amazing song for dancers.
02:32It's amazing song for, you know, just sitting around with your headphones on getting
02:38recharged, getting ready to do anything.
02:41It's a good driving song.
02:43Doing this song live is it just never gets old.
02:46And I always, you know, either start with the song to be like, let me just explain
02:52something to you.
02:53We're going to start here and we are going to where the show is going to just it's never
02:59going to get below this level.
03:01And when I get to say this is bananas, like it's just like everybody's like, yes, we
03:07get to say I've never talked in depth about this song like this.
03:11This is like the first time like I'm like super old and now I'm like reminiscing back to
03:16try to remember.
03:17And it's it does it makes me feel really proud, you know, to be part of it.
03:21And Pharrell, if you're watching, thank you.
03:23I love you.