Halsey Says Gwen Stefani ‘Has Always Been a Huge Inspiration’ for Her Music

Halsey premiered her new Amp radio show Halsey: For the Record this week, and during the debut episode, they opened up about looking up to Gwen Stefani.

“Gwen is definitely one of those artists,” the “I Am Not a Woman, I Am a God” singer said. “When people ask me who inspires my music…Gwen has always been a huge inspiration for me from like wearing white tank tops onstage and low-rise pants to wearing my hair in space buns, to doing my own makeup, because Gwen used to and still does. I think she has a cosmetic company as well. Shout-out Gwen.

“Every night before I go onstage, I watch Tragic Kingdom Live at the Forum,” Halsey continued. “That’s another way that she inspired me – let’s be honest here. [No Doubt‘s] record is called Tragic Kingdom, mine was called Hopeless Fountain Kingdom … those little breadcrumb trails are kind of all over the place.”

No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs” (from Tragic Kingdom) was on the playlist for the first episode, as were PJ Harvey’s “Down by the Water,” BOA’s “Duvet” and Halsey’s own “You Asked for This.”

Stefani and her bandmates dropped their smash third album in October 1995, while Halsey’s sophomore LP was released in November 2017 — though both studio sets served as each artist’s very first (and so far only) No. 1 on the Billboard 200 of their respective careers. (Stefani would go on to score another chart-topper as a solo artist thanks to 2016’s This Is What the Truth Feels Like.)

Back in August, Halsey took part in the viral “Teenage Dirtbag” trend that swept through TikTok. Meanwhile, Stefani is currently battling it out on her sixth season as a coach on The Voice.

Listen to Halsey’s radio show on Amazon’s live radio app here.