Gwen Stefani has been accused of cultural appropriation for sporting dreadlocks in the music video for her new song “Light My Fire”.
The video for the track, which is a collaboration with Jamaican rapper Sean Paul and singer Shenseea, sees American singer Stefani, 52, in dreadlocks and wearing a dress with the colours of the Jamaican flag: green, black and yellow.
Many people on social media called the singer out. “Gwen Stefani is BACK with a cultural appropriation banger,” tweeted one person.
“Y’all. Mother Appropriation is BACK!!!!” posted another. “Where my 2000s No Doubt/Gwen hive at!!!?? ITS TIME!!!”
A third wrote: “Gwen Stefani said f*** your discourse, I’m gonna appropriate like it’s 2004.”
A fourth person joked: “Ahhhh Gwen Stefani went back to her Jamaican roots. Nature is really healing.”
“Gwen we dragged you for this s*** 20 years ago DID YOU NOT LEARN THE FIRST TIME?” asked a fifth.
The Independent has contacted Stefani’s representatives for comment.
Stefani has been accused of cultural appropriation before, when her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. came out.
Comedian Margaret Cho branded the singer’s Harajuku Girls – a group of Japanese dancers she went around with at the time – as a “minstrel show”.
The album had several songs about Tokyo’s counterculture fashion. One of the tracks on the record was called “Harajuku Girls” and the singer based an entire brand on this theme, launching a clothing collection and fragrance line.
In 2019, speaking about the backlash to her Harajuku Girl era, Stefani said: “I get a little defensive when people [call it cultural appropriation], because if we didn’t allow each other to share our cultures, what would we be?
“You take pride in your culture and have traditions, and then you share them for new things to be created.”
