Gwen Stefani breaks down in tears on The One Show and snaps at host Jermaine Jenas

Gwen Stefani broke down in tears during her interview on The One Show after a surprise appearance from one of her music idols.

The 53-year-old pop icon joined Alex Jones, 46 and Jermaine Jenas, 40, on the sofa for a chat about her upcoming single 'True Babe' and her concert with Pink this weekend in London's Hyde Park.

After gushing about how much she loves the UK and old school Ska music, the two presenters pulled the classic 'surprise' talk show stunt on the 'Wind It Up' hit-maker.

BBC

“My older brother was bringing home music… The first record was Madness, and that was what got us into all the ska music,” Gwen shared about her childhood idols. “Then The Selecter with Pauline Black.

“She was really the only girl that was out there in that kind of scene… Everything about my style was trying to take from her because her style was so extreme. So [I’m] definitely a huge fan, and I wouldn’t be me without The Selecter and all those bands. Definitely.”

Singer Pauline Black, 69, who is best known for founding the iconic British Ska band, The Selecter, recorded a beautiful video message for Gwen, who happens to be a huge fan of Pauline and the band.

When the camera cut back to Gwen in the studio she was clearly overcome with emotion as she wiped tears from her eyes.

"Zoom in guys, these are real tears," she said. "Wow I'm shaking. I can't believe that. That is incredible."

Former professional footballer Jermaine told Gwen: "I can understand why."

The No Doubt frontwoman jokingly hit back: "You don't understand anything, OK?"

"You tell him, Gwen," Alex joked, joining in on the cheeky exchange.

BBC

Gwen went on to explain how big of a Pauline fan she is. "She was my idol when I was like 13 and she just talked to me, it's crazy. You don't understand too because the music was very underground, we discovered it," she wrote.

"Nobody knew what it was. They were singing about London so I became a huge fan."

Gwen rose to fame as the lead singer of the ska-inspired rock band No Doubt. The band formed in 1986 and continued performing and releasing new music consistently from 1986 to 2004, and again from 2009 to 2015.

Together they released some of our favourite hits of the 1990s and 2000s, including ‘Don’t Speak’, ‘Just a Girl’ and ‘Underneath It All’.

Gwen embarked on a solo career in 2004 and blessed our CD and MP3 players with playlist juggernauts like ‘Hollaback Girl’ and ‘Cool’.