Her No. 1 fan! Gwen Stefani kicked off her Just a Girl residency at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on Wednesday, June 27, with a very special guest in the audience: her boyfriend, Blake Shelton.
The couple — who began dating in November 2015, as Us Weekly exclusively revealed — cozied up together on the red carpet before Stefani, 48, took the stage. Throughout the entire concert, Shelton, 42, held his girlfriend’s youngest son, Apollo, 4, on his lap. (She also shares sons Kingston, 12, and Zuma, 9, with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale.)
“It was the sweetest thing ever,” an onlooker tells Us. “[Blake] looked like a total father figure to him. He is so smitten with Apollo, and Apollo seemed just obsessed with him. They all seem very much like a family. … [Apollo] was taking some of his snacks and feeding Blake. It was adorable.”
Stefani made several references to her relationship with the country singer during her show. While performing No Doubt’s “A Simple Kind of Life,” she strutted down the catwalk and pointed directly at her beau during the lyric, “You seem like you’d be a good dad.” Later in the evening, she told the audience, “You don’t know what it’s like to be able to wear a cowgirl costume right in front of Blake Shelton. It’s my dream come true. Thanks for sharing this with me.”
The pop star ran through 25 songs on Wednesday night. She opened her show with her 2004 single “Holdback Girl” before rocking out to No Doubt classics such as “Hella Good” and “Don’t Speak.” She also performed many of her biggest solo hits, including “What You Waiting For?” and “The Sweet Escape,” as well as a cover of Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”
“This is a crazy night because it’s the first night and one I will remember for the rest of my life,” she told the crowd. “You guys have a huge responsibility. … You are the first motherf–kers to go out and get a ticket.”
During one video interlude, Stefani referenced the aftermath of her 2016 divorce from Rossdale, 52. She admitted that she had been “unlucky in love” and once “felt like I was losing everything.” She added, “I lost my ability to have any confidence. … And when I look back at all the times that my heart was broken, it was always music that healed me. I realized I had to find that inside of me and find my gift again and find my confidence and get it back, and I needed to express all the pain and anger and betrayal that I was feeling, and I had to remind myself that there is a life and a purpose.”
The three-time Grammy winner paused her show at one point to bring a lesbian couple on stage. “One woman had on an ‘I’m Her Gwen’ hat and the other had an ‘I’m Her Blake’ hat,” a second concertgoer tells Us. “It was a cute moment, and Gwen was obviously very excited.”
Just a Girl concludes its 25-date run on March 16, 2019.
