Stefani told an Asian-American interviewer that she’d had an epiphany while visiting Tokyo’s Harajuku district: ‘My God, I’m Japanese and I didn’t know it.’
«:»US singer Gwen Stefani is once again addressing long-standing charges of cultural appropriation, doubling down on her controversial Harajuku era. The “Hollaback Girl: singer, 53, has faced decades of cultural appropriation accusations, from wearing a bindi – a South Asian religious symbol – in the 1990s to her 2005 “Luxurious” music video, in which she imitated Hispanic culture and seductively danced in an Our Lady of Guadalupe shirt. In 2012, Stefani donned Native American attire in No Doubt’s “Looking Hot” music video, which depicted a Cowboys vs. Indians fight with tepees and feathered headdresses. But the most serious charge of cultural appropriation came from the Japanese-inspired imagery Stefani used heavily on her 2004 album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. , which birthed her No. 1 single “Hollaback Girl” along with her Harajuku Girls entourage and brands such as Harajuku Lovers fragrance. Stefani, who has previously disagreed with criticisms of her Harajuku era, doubled down when asked about the backlash in a new interview published on Tuesday. This time, she cited her father’s job at Yamaha as her inspiration when speaking to Allure’s Jesa Marie Calaor, who is Asian-American. “That was my Japanese influence and that was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline and it was fascinating to me,” Stefani said, adding that her own visit to Harajuku led to an epiphany.
