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Gwen Stefani & No Doubt's Acclaimed Coachella Set: Why a Reunion Took 9 Years
The "Don't Speak" singer explained why the reunion is happening now in a recent interview.
No Doubt's much-anticipated performance at Coachella 2024 knocked it out of the park. Since the band hasn't performed live together since 2015, fans got the grand reunion that they were itching for.
Originally founded in 1986, No Doubt's current members are Voice Coach and lead singer Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, Tony Kanal on bass, drummer Adrian Young, and trombonist/keyboardists Gabriel McNair and Stephen Bradley. The band has two Grammys and three Top 10 hits in Billboard's Hot 100.
But why exactly did it take No Doubt nine years to perform live together again? Read the answer, below.
Why Gwen Stefani and No Doubt took nine years to play together again
A reason why the frontwoman put her performances with No Doubt on hold for nearly a decade was to focus on her family. When she finished her Sweet Escape tour, she found out she was pregnant with her second son, Zuma, now 15.
"Things change when you have two babies,” Stefani told Nylon in a recent interview. "There was nothing left in me. I had no ideas. I had so much insecurity. I felt like — help!”
She continued, "I would be leaving my family. And if I didn’t come home with a song, I’d be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m such a loser — I didn’t have dinner with my family, and I didn’t write a song.”
However, Stefani was more than excited to perform with her former bandmates again in 2024.
“It just happened so fast, and that’s my favorite kind of thing to happen. We haven’t really figured out the next steps of how we’re going to do this, but we’re just all so excited,” she said. “And I think really just watching the internet blow up [with] how excited that the fans are? It’s inspiring us,” she told People in January.
She continued: “It's just going to be cool. It's just going to be: get up there and do what we always do, which is play our music and try to connect and be so grateful that we got this amazing career that we never expected to have.”
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No Doubt's 2024 Coachella performance
No Doubt's set started off with nostalgic, throwback '90s footage of the band playing across a large screen. Then, they launched into a setlist of some of their greatest hits.
"The group clobbered the audience with one of the most powerful sets in recent Coachella history, a joyous, hyper-energetic romp through their deceptively deep catalog, playing like a young band at the peak of its powers instead of one that hadn’t performed publicly for nearly a decade," Variety wrote of the reunion.
Stefani also took to Instagram to post epic photos of the April 13 performance, including her passionately singing to an eager crowd and posing with her bandmates.
"COACHELLAAAA !! 🖤 ✨ what a NIGHT!!" she captioned the post. See it here.
Olivia Rodrigo's surprise performance with No Doubt at Coachella
To make the night even better, Olivia Rodrigo joined No Doubt onstage in a surprise appearance to sing "Bathwater" with the band. There, Stefani rocked a plaid ensemble and space buns while she and Rodrigo eagerly sang the upbeat track in sync.
"A big thank u @oliviarodrigo for surprising @coachella last night!! we luv u gx" Stefani wrote on an Instagram post of Rodrigo's appearance. Check it out here.
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“Gwen sang about being a woman moving about this world in detail that I had never before heard put to music,” Rodrigo told Nylon. “She unapologetically sings about things ranging from wanting to make out with someone to fantasizing about having a husband and kids. There’s so much heart in every word she says, and every song feels like it’s ripped from the diary of the coolest girl you know.”
No Doubt's Coachella setlist
“Hella Good”
“Sunday Morning”
“Ex-Girlfriend”
“It’s My Life”
“Different People”
“Hey Baby”
“Total Hate ’95”
“Bathwater” with Olivia Rodrigo
“Simple Kind of Life”
“Underneath It All”
“Happy Now?”
“New”
“Just a Girl”
“Don’t Speak”
“Spiderwebs”
