Gwen Stefani is going for a round of applause with her new single.
The pop star returned to her roots with her brand-new track, “Slow Clap,” the latest offering to appear off Stefani’s upcoming fifth studio album. Stefani's new joint serves as the follow-up to “Let Me Reintroduce Myself,” which the singer issued in December 2020 to tease her highly-anticipated comeback to pop.
Co-written by Ross Golan, the songbird’s new handclap-heavy, reggae-infused cut symbolizes themes of reflection and resilience.
On the peppy production, Stefani sings: “I'll be David, you Goliath / Set the rule and I'll defy it / You'll be angry, I'll be quiet / You'll be purple, I'm the violet / Take a ride 'cause I'm the co-pilot / I'm the ice cream, you're just the diet / Be the captain, I'll be the pirate / You're Billy the Kid and I'll be the Wyatt.”
Speaking about “Slow Clap” in a recent interview, Stefani explained, “It's kind of this place of, you always go through different phases where you question yourself [...] I feel like it's that thing that happens to us throughout life.”
“It starts in high school where you feel like you don't fit in, and then sometimes your weirdness actually is what makes you so special, and so the song is kind of about that,” she continued. “It's also about wanting to just, even though I know I've had my 15 minutes of my time, wanting to kind of double-dip and just get a little bit more.”
On International Women’s Day (March 8), Stefani was spotlighted during iHeartRadio's SeeHer Hear Her: Celebrating Women in Music broadcast. Reflecting on her decades-long career, the No Doubt icon expressed that, above everything else, she wants to be remembered as a songwriter.
Photo: Interscope