Gwen Stefani Tops Billboard 200 Album Chart
Things are looking good for Gwen Stefani. Billboard has some good news for the superstar.
“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.”
Billboard adds that Stefani’s last solo album, The Great Escape, debuted at No. 3 in 2006 with 243,000 copies sold. Unfortunately, Gwen Stefani’s single “Make Me Like You” is only at No. 97 this week on Billboard‘s Hot 100, but it did peak at No. 54 recently. Artists over 40 still face an uphill battle in getting radio stations to play their music and Mariah Carey, Madonna, and Janet Jackson are three artists who have recently faced difficulty with radio airplay, despite having critically acclaimed songs.
This Is What The Truth Feels Like has garnered mixed reviews for Ms. Stefani.
“If these Top 40 fixtures make the album feel in keeping with current radio pop, they don’t crowd Stefani with unnecessary bells and whistles. Her singing–and, more important, what her singing is saying–is always front and center, which gives the music an intimate quality even at its most polished,” says Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times.
However, Pitchfork wasn’t as thrilled with Stefani’s effort.
“Stefani’s focus on the good times alternates with songs where she expresses cartoonish anger by awkwardly rapping and shouting non-sequiturs (‘Naughty,’ ‘Red Flag’), and neither mode plays to her strengths as a songwriter and signature vocalist. Her best songs are the ones in which she is audibly upset.”
Perhaps the worst review came from Pretty Much Amazing.
“It’s pretty easy to understand why This Is What The Truth Feels Like is such a monumental failure. For one, she’d scrapped the album numerous times amid tight deadlines. Secondly, her label advised her against writing ‘personal’ songs despite the fact that her thirteen-year marriage had just fallen apart,” claims critic Daniel Bromfield.
Loved Gwen Stefani when I was little and still love her now. Her new album was worth downloading.
— Tara Elaine (@TaraWoder) March 27, 2016
Gwen Stefani recently spoke about how she would feel if she had a gay son. Entertainment Tonight had the news.
“I would be blessed with a gay son,” she said. “I just want my boys to be happy and healthy, and I just ask God to guide me every day to be a good mother because it is not an easy job,” Ms. Stefani says.
The article added that Gwen prepares for the possibility of having a gay son by asking her gay friends what it was like growing up. Ms Stefani has a huge gay fanbase, so her comments, at least according to Twitter, were well received.
Gwen Stefani, 46, keeps heading towards an age where female pop stars are no longer welcome. However, you can expect Ms. Stefani to remain relevant as long as she wants to be.
[Photo by Paul Hiffmeyer/Getty Images]
