Gwen Stefani 'Reintroduces' Herself with New Single as She Makes It Clear It's 'Not a Comeback'

"I never expected to be writing, but it was in there. And it's been really, really incredible," Stefani told Apple Music's Zane Lowe

No Doubt, she's the same girl!

On Monday, Gwen Stefani dropped her Latin and reggae-tinged song "Let Me Reintroduce Myself" — and it has quite a few references to the singer's iconic past work!

"In the first place (Place), 'cause you know I'm like organic / And it tastes great (Great), I already gave you bananas (Woo)," she sings, referring to her B-A-N-A-N-A-S line in "Hollaback Girl." "Go ahead and help yourself, me again in your ear / Binge on my music for days 'cause I've been here for years."

"Not a comeback (Oh), I'm recycling me," she continues. "It's not a comeback (Oh), you feel that new enеrgy."

Stefani, 51, worked with Ross Golan and Luke Niccoli on the new track.

The song — which is her first since getting engaged with longtime boyfriend Blake Shelton — comes the same week her duet with him, "Happy Anywhere," is No. 1 on the Billboard country airplay chart.

Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani. Jamie Nelson

Talking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music on Monday, the singer revealed that she "never really was planning to do new music."

"I fantasized about it but I was also like... I don't know," she said. "I always think about artists that I loved growing up, and I think I just want to listen to the songs that I like that they did. And that's nostalgic for me."

The singer also explained how the new song returns to her musical origins, adding that she has recorded "probably 20 songs."

"I never expected to be writing, but it was in there. And it's been really, really incredible," she said. "I mean, there's just nothing else that I do in my life, and I have done so many things, that makes me feel ignited the way a new song makes me feel."

The singer has been teasing "Let Me Reintroduce Myself" for several days.

"i’ve got a new song. i want to play it for u. when are u guys gonna be around?" she tweeted on Thursday before Shelton jokingly responded, "I’ll be around the next week or 2 if that works for you?"

"It was just a full circle, back to my roots, I know what kind of music I want to make," she later added about the reggae-tinged sounds of No Doubt and her new song. "And I want to make music that makes people feel happy."

The singer followed the cryptic post by sharing several photos of her different music eras with the caption "memory lane."

Then, on Friday, the singer posted the single cover for the track. "LET ME REINTRODUCE MYSELF 💥 new single coming 12/7 gx," she wrote.

The cover for the single shows Stefani in the iconic outfit she wore during No Doubt's "Just a Girl" music video 25 years ago, but she leaves the bindi behind, and instead, she adds two necklaces with her last name and that of her fiancé, Shelton.

"When I wrote the song, I was just so naïve. I hadn't written many songs, nobody knew — I didn't even know who I was," she said about the song last year on The View. "I wrote this song because I was just getting in touch with that feeling, when you're born, if you're a female, you just don't think about it, you're just a human and through life, you get this power through your sexuality, but then you're vulnerable at the same time because all of a sudden you're a victim."

Aside from debuting the holiday track "Here This Christmas" and reissuing her You Make It Feel Like Christmas album in late October, her last single was with Shelton for "Nobody but You."

Stefani and Shelton got engaged in October and made the news public then. They've been dating since 2015 when they met on The Voice.

Stefani's last non-holiday album came in 2016 when she released This Is What the Truth Feels Like featuring singles such as "Used to Love You," "Make Me Like You" and "Misery."

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