Gwen Stefani jumped from ska to pop to country without ever missing a beat, but reports say that it’s her foray into country that has some of her new husband’s fellow musicians furious.
Gwen Stefani Storms The South
“Gwen: Backstabbed By Country Stars” reads the headline out of Star. According to the outlet, Stefani is finding out the hard way that “Nashville nice” is just a myth. Stefani and her husband, Blake Shelton, released a duet together entitled “Nobody but You,” which immediately shot up the country charts and landed a nomination for Music Event of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards. An insider source says that outside of the Academy, the rest of the country world isn’t pleased with Stefani’s leapfrogging to the top of an entire genre with a single song.
“They’re shaking their heads and saying what makes her think she can be one of them,” the source says. Making matters worse is the fact that Gwen Stefani “turned her nose up” on Shelton’s rural Oklahoma home and instead retreated back to Encino, California, to drop $13 million on a ritzy mansion, which is pretty dang far from the South.
“No one admits it on record,” the insider concludes. “But privately, there’s a big disappointment that she rode into the South and took what she wanted and went back to Hollywood. The world of country can be highly tetchy. You can’t just waltz in and out when you choose!”
Nashville Shuts Out Stefani?
This is a bit of an inflammatory story, pitting country’s homebase against one of the glitziest stars to call California home. That being said, it also looks like an extremely suspicious one. For starters, we could find no evidence of the apparent fury towards Stefani’s so-called intrusion. Her and her husband’s fellow The Voice alum John Legend was also nominated at ACM Awards, as was Stefani’s fellow pop icon P!nk.
Justin Bieber claimed more than a handful of nominations at last year’s ceremony. Lil Nas X, Bebe Rexha, and other non-country artists have also received nominations, and heck, even the Backstreet Boys performed at the 2017 ACM Awards ceremony alongside Florida Georgia Line. We haven’t heard any stories about Nashville raging against Backstreet for not moving to the South, either.
Did She Really Choose The O.C. Over OK?
While we don’t doubt that there are some members of the Nashville and country communities that are displeased with Stefani’s performance, we don’t think that she’s in for some sort of rude awakening or scary confrontation like Star‘s article implies. The ACM Awards went off without a single blow being exchanged or cowboy getting thrown through the window, unsurprisingly, and Shelton and Stefani went home without an award. We’re also pretty skeptical of the idea of senior members of country music monitoring Gwen Stefani’s real estate choices — or that anyone at Star is either.
The music video for “Nobody but You,” which won Best Video at the Country Music Awards, features the two kissing and happily watching construction on the Oklahoma estate. That’s the exact opposite of turning one’s nose up. Shelton and Stefani, like most celebrities and massively successful country artists, call a number of places home, including the mansion in Encino — that they bought together — and the sprawling complex in Oklahoma. Nothing in Star‘s story adds up.
That’s Not All
There’s also the fact that this isn’t the first sketchy Star story we’ve busted. Back in April, we called out the tabloid for its bogus report about Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton retiring to Oklahoma and getting out of the industry as soon as they were married. Now that they’re husband and wife, they’re still massively involved with Hollywood.
It also claimed that Shelton was scared about what he’d see at the altar due to Stefani’s “extreme” cosmetic surgery and fillers. Instead, the wedding went off without a hitch and Stefani looked as flawless as usual. If we’re ever desperate for a Shelton and Stefani update, we’ll skip Star and settle for a music video — at least we’ll know we’re seeing something real.
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