Dressed in a white with red polka dot puffed taffeta mini skirt dress with her platinum hair done up a double bun, Gwen Stefani brought her No Doubt hit “Just A Girl” to the 2023 CMT Awards on April 2 as a duet performance with Carly Pearce.
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Dressed all in black, Pearce contrasted Stefani’s popping outfit and took on some of the verses of the 1995 No Doubt hit, off the band’s breakthrough album Tragic Kingdom.
Written by Stefani in 1994, “Just A Girl” was also the first song she wrote for No Doubt after her brother Eric, who was the key songwriter, left the band. “I was in this all-guy band and all my friends were guys,” said Stefani. “I just had this point of view and I wanted to play on that. I thought it was really appropriate and really real to who I was.”
The idea for “Just A Girl” first came to her after her overprotective parents lectured her for coming home late one night from her bandmate, and former boyfriend, Tony Kanal’s place.
“I can remember thinking, ‘Wow, I’m in the car right now, I’m driving home, it’s like one in the morning and if something did happen to me, I’m vulnerable because I’m a girl,’” said Stefani in a 2017 interview. “And you start to think, ‘Wow, maybe people actually look at me differently because I am a female’”
In 2017, Stefani dropped a holiday album You Make It Feel Like Christmas, several years after the release of No Doubt’s sixth album together Push and Shove. In 2019, Stefani collaborated with her husband Blake Shelton for a duet on “Nobody But You,” followed by their “Happy Anywhere,” off Shelton’s 2021 album Body Language.
Pearce, who recently made her 100th performance at the Grand Ole Opry, released her third album 29: Written in Stone in 2021 and her first live album, 29: Written In Stone (Live From Music City), in 2023, featuring Ashley McBryde for a duet on “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” along with Lee Brice on their hit duet “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” and Jenee Fleenor playing fiddle on the title track, among others.
Read the full story behind “Just A Girl” HERE.
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for CMT
