Between Gwen Stefani’s recent illness and her return to the Planet Hollywood stage last week, she also managed to fit in the performance of a memorable duet with her boyfriend and country superstar Blake Shelton–before a packed house.
Stefani’s “Just a Girl,” residency is scheduled to end on May 16.
Gwen Stefani Cancels Shows Due to Mystery Illness
Before her duet with Shelton, Gwen Stefani had recently canceled four shows in a row of her “Just a Girl” Las Vegas residency at the Zappos Theater in Planet Hollywood. While the singer’s absence was initially reported as a “mystery illness”, sources close to the singer revealed that exhaustion was to blame.
The truth is, the 50-year-old singer goes from performing her high-energy shows at Planet Hollywood to being the mom of three very active boys. Stefani shares custody of her sons Kingston, 13, Zuma, 11, and Apollo, 5, with her ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale. The strain of being a working mom simply caught up with her, just as it would for anyone else.
The February 5 date was canceled after Stefani tweeted that she felt “under the weather”. Although she assured fans that she was resting to be at her best, ultimately, the scheduled shows for February 8, 12 and 14, ended up canceled as well.
A Spectacular Return with None Other Than Blake Shelton
In a surprise twist, Shelton took the stage unannounced during Stefani’s February 19th “Just A Girl” performance. Stefani had just–twice–apologized to her fans for recently canceling the earlier shows.
Stefani also told her fans, “I was just thinking about the weirdness of my whole life and career. In fact, it doesn’t feel like a career, it just feels like my life. And then I looked on iTunes this morning and saw that I’m number one on the country chart. I just thought that was kind of incredible.”
It was then that the couple’s hit song, “Nobody But You,” began playing, and Shelton arrived onstage, belting out the song’s opening lines. By the end of the couple’s heartfelt performance, the two were locked in an embrace, before Stefani jumped into Shelton’s arms.
The single and the video for “Nobody But You” premiered on January 21, while the song also appears on Shelton’s album Fully Loaded: God’s Country, which came out this last December. Then, at the Grammys last month, the couple performed it together.
Valentine’s Day was then the chosen date for a behind-the-scenes video release, in which Stefani says, “It’s just such a beautiful, addicting song, you’re addicted to it, instantly.”
Shelton responded by singing, “It’s like drugs, it’s like drugs to me,” which set the No Doubt singer into peals of laughter. “There’s no point to this video, OK? But it’s a cool song.”
The power couple first met in 2014 when Stefani joined The Voice. However, it wasn’t until the two superstars helped each other through their respective divorces in 2015 that they developed a relationship. That was when Blake Shelton ended his relationship with Miranda Lambert and Gwen Stefani divorced Gavin Rossdale.
Blake told Billboard that after Gwen found out that he was divorcing Miranda, she told him she was going through a divorce herself. “That’s how our friendship and bond began. It went from checking in with each other once a week through email, to maybe three times a week, then every day. Next, I gave her my phone number if she ever wanted to text,'” Blake said. “Next thing I know, I’m waking up and she’s all I care about. I’m also wondering if she feels the same about me. Gwen saved my life. Who else could understand what it’s like going through a high-profile divorce with another musician?”
