"Wind It Up" is a song by American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani, released as the lead single from her second solo studio album, The Sweet Escape (2006).

Originally written for inclusion on Stefani's Harajuku Lovers Tour, the song was later recorded for the album.

In July 2005, Stefani began writing and recording material with Pharrell Williams in Miami, Florida.

Entertainment Weekly's Michael Slezak found the bassline "rubbery" and criticized the song for lacking a melody as well as its reference to Stefani's own clothing line.

[8] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated that the Neptunes had forced the sampling "into one of their typical minimalist tracks, over which Gwen spouts off clumsy material-minded lyrics touting her fashion line and her shape".

[9] Bill Lamb of About.com rated the song three and a half stars, giving it "high marks for entertainment value", but commented that it sounded like a retread of "Rich Girl" from Stefani's debut album Love.

"[11] John Murphy from musicOMH panned the track as "just horrible, and possibly the worst start to an album this year".

"[16] USA Today's Ken Barnes, however, found the track "campy" and "a tacky attempt at sexiness", adding that the combination of yodeling and the interpolation was "awkward".

[17] Alex Miller of the NME also found the song campy, commenting that its "dumb sexual bravado has all the sophistication of a teenage boy's wet dream", and compared the yodeling, interpolation, and "erotic rap" to "a trench foot which screams for amputation from the tracklisting".

[24] The following week, it rose to number three (behind Take That's "Patience" and Cliff Richard's "21st Century Christmas") with 17,706 copies sold,[25] earning Stefani her second highest-peaking single in the United Kingdom after "The Sweet Escape".

[31] Three years later, on March 14, 2010, the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) certified "Wind It Up" gold.

[38] She pulls the key, a symbol of "the sweet escape", from her mouth, alluding to performances by escapologist Harry Houdini.

After seeing the video, Jimmy Iovine, co-founder of Interscope Records, decided to work with James Cameron to produce other 3-D music presentations.