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Fergie (singer)

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— CH. 1 · INTRODUCTION —

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Fergie (singer)

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  • Fergie, born Stacy Ann Ferguson, sang on a song that held the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 straight weeks in 2009. That song, "I Gotta Feeling," stayed at number one longer than any other song that year. By then her records had sold on a scale that now passes 30 million in the United States alone. Her route to that point was unusual. It began with a cartoon voice role when she was a child, passed through a girl group whose second album flopped, and included an addiction she later described in blunt terms. Three questions run through this story. How does a child actress become the voice of a chart-topping group? Why did she step out on her own? And what did she build when the microphone was not in her hand?

  • Hacienda Heights, a suburb of Los Angeles, is where Stacy Ann Ferguson was born on the 27th of March 1975. Her parents are Terri and Jon Patrick Ferguson, and she has a younger sister named Dana. At Mesa Robles Middle School and Glen A. Wilson High School she was a cheerleader, a straight-A student, a spelling bee champion and a Girl Scout.

    In 1984 she began voicing Sally Brown, Charlie Brown's sister, in two Peanuts television specials. The first was It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown, and the second, a year later, was Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown. She also voiced the character in four episodes of The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show. That same year she joined the cast of Kids Incorporated and stayed until 1989. She appeared in the first six of the show's nine seasons, which made her its longest-running cast member.

    Music ran alongside the acting. Fergie fronted the trio Wild Orchid with Stefanie Ridel and Renee Sandstrom, who was also a Kids Incorporated star. By 1992 the three were meeting with record labels, yet none offered them a recording contract. A music publishing deal with Sony Publishing came first, and RCA Records signed them in 1994.

    Their self-titled debut arrived in March 1997 and reached only No. 153 on the Billboard 200. The follow-up, Oxygen, came out in September 1998 and sold just 200,000 copies worldwide. From the 16th of June to the 28th of August 1999, the group opened for Cher's Do You Believe? tour alongside Cyndi Lauper, playing 52 cities across the United States and Canada. A third album was finished, but the label declined to release it. Fergie left in September 2001. She told Entertainment Weekly in 2006 that frustration with the band's image and her own drug problems both pushed her out. In 2002 she would join the Black Eyed Peas.

  • Dante Santiago, an A&R music coordinator, made a suggestion while the Black Eyed Peas were recording their third album, Elephunk. He asked will.i.am to invite Fergie to try out for the song "Shut Up." She got the job, bonded at once with the trio, and recorded five more songs for the record. Shortly before Elephunk came out in 2003, Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine offered her a permanent place. She would take over vocal duties and fill the gap left when background singer Kim Hill departed in 2000.

    Rolling Stone later described the shift in the group's identity. Since 2002, it wrote, the band had "hired a blond bombshell named Stacy 'Fergie' Ferguson and gave up their pursuit of backpack-rapper cred." Elephunk then produced "Where Is the Love?", the group's first major hit. It peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts in several other countries. "Shut Up" topped the charts in many markets. "Hey Mama" reached the top 10 in several European countries and peaked at number twenty-three in the United States in 2004.

    Monkey Business was released on the 7th of June 2005 and debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. It sold over 295,000 copies in its first week and was later certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. "Don't Phunk with My Heart" reached number three on the Hot 100 and earned a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. "Don't Lie" reached No. 14 in the United States and No. 6 in both the United Kingdom and Australia. "Pump It" borrowed much of its sound from "Misirlou," specifically Dick Dale's version, and peaked at number 8 in Australia and 18 in America.

    "My Humps" reached number three on the Hot 100 and number one in Australia, the group's fourth chart-topper there. It got heavy radio play despite its suggestive lyrics, and many listeners mocked it. John Bush of AllMusic called it "one of the most embarrassing rap performances of the new millennium." Later in 2005 the group toured with Gwen Stefani as a supporting act. In March 2006 they returned as the featured headliner of the Honda Civic Tour.

  • September 2006 brought The Dutchess, Fergie's first solo album, although recording had begun in 2005. Its songs came from a seven-year stretch. Jimmy Iovine heard some of the tracks and wanted to release them. Her bandmate will.i.am, an executive producer on the record, said she was "writing about her personal struggles and casting her demons away and feminine power."

    "London Bridge" went to radio on the 18th of July 2006 and reached the iTunes Store on the 7th of August. Its double entendre title caused controversy. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and reached the top ten in over twelve countries. The video was shot on Tower Bridge and featured the Black Eyed Peas members alongside Fergie.

    "Fergalicious," featuring will.i.am, followed on the 23rd of October 2006 and reached number two on the Hot 100. Its video cast Fergie as Willy Wonka in a candy factory. "Glamorous," with Ludacris, was released on the 20th of February 2007 and became her second US number one. It reached the top ten in over seven countries.

    "Big Girls Don't Cry," released on the 22nd of May 2007, topped the charts in ten countries, including Australia, Canada and the United States. It earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and its video starred actor Milo Ventimiglia as her love interest. "Clumsy" arrived on the 25th of September 2007 as the fifth and final single. It reached the top ten in five countries and became her fifth consecutive top-five hit in the United States. That same year the Black Eyed Peas took the Black Blue & You World Tour to more than 20 countries.

  • The E.N.D., short for "The Energy Never Dies," was released on the 9th of June 2009. Its sound leaned toward an electro hop beat instead of the hip pop and R&B feel of earlier albums. It sold 304,000 copies in its first week and debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200. By March 2011 it had sold over 3,000,000 copies in the United States. In France it spent 55 weeks in the top 10, including 11 at No. 1.

    "Boom Boom Pow," the lead single from March 2009, became the group's first chart topper. "I Gotta Feeling" then climbed from number two, behind "Boom Boom Pow," to the top spot in July. Together the two songs kept the Black Eyed Peas on top for 26 consecutive weeks, from the 18th of April through the 16th of October. "Meet Me Halfway" reached number one in the United Kingdom and Australia and peaked at seven on the Hot 100. "Imma Be" spent two weeks at number one, and "Rock That Body" reached number nine.

    In September 2009 the group began The E.N.D. World Tour, visiting Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. The next month they opened five concerts on the North American leg of the U2 360 Tour. On the 31st of January 2010 they performed a mash-up of "Imma Be" and "I Gotta Feeling" at the Grammy Awards. They won three of their six nominations: Best Pop Vocal Album for The E.N.D., Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group for "I Gotta Feeling," and Best Short Form Video for "Boom Boom Pow." Her performance of "Gimme Shelter" with Mick Jagger and U2 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary in 2010 has over 13 million views.

    The Beginning followed on the 30th of November 2010 and received mixed reviews. Its first single was "The Time (Dirty Bit)." The video for "Just Can't Get Enough," directed by Ben Mor, was filmed in Tokyo one week before the earthquake and the tsunami. In May 2011 the group won one of its four Billboard Music Awards nominations, for Top Duo/Group. During a concert at Alton Towers in Staffordshire on the 6th of July 2011, the Black Eyed Peas announced an indefinite hiatus after their current tour. On the 22nd of September, Fergie went to Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas for the unveiling of her wax figure.

  • In 2013 Fergie announced that she had begun writing a second solo album. On the 6th of January 2014 it was announced again that she was starting the process, with will.i.am producing and a release through Interscope. She later told Billboard that motherhood shaped her songwriting. The single "L.A. Love (La La)" reached radio on the 30th of September 2014, debuted on the Hot 100 at number 97, and peaked at number 27.

    On the 22nd of April 2015 she performed with the Black Eyed Peas at Coachella during David Guetta's set. A teaser called "Hungry (1st Byte)" appeared on the 9th of June 2016. "M.I.L.F. $" came out on the 1st of July, inspired by the birth of her son, Axl. She conceived the video herself, and it shows a group of famous mothers as lingerie-clad 1950s housewives. "Life Goes On" followed on the 11th of November 2016.

    In May 2017 Fergie and Interscope parted ways by mutual decision. She launched her own imprint, Dutchess Music, through a global partnership with BMG Rights Management. A Billboard article on the 2nd of June 2017 rumored that she was leaving the Black Eyed Peas. Will.i.am dismissed this and said she was taking a break to focus on solo work. Pre-orders for Double Dutchess opened on the 25th of August, along with "Hungry" featuring Rick Ross and "You Already Know" featuring Nicki Minaj. On the 16th of September she performed a solo set at Rock in Rio for over a hundred thousand people. The film Double Dutchess: Seeing Double screened for one night on the 20th of September, and the album arrived on the 22nd. It debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 21,000 units.

    On the 18th of February 2018, will.i.am confirmed her departure from the band. The same day she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the NBA All-Star Game. People called it a "slowed-down jazzy rendition," and Deadline called it "bluesy" and "breathy." She later admitted, "clearly this rendition didn't strike the intended tone." She went on to host the singing competition The Four: Battle for Stardom, which ran for two seasons on Fox. In September 2018 she re-recorded "Feel It," the theme of The Wendy Williams Show, for its 10th season.

    Jack Harlow's song "First Class," released in April 2022, sampled "Glamorous." Variety reported that her song then gained 70 percent more streams and 125 percent more digital sales. Fergie and Harlow opened the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards with it, her first televised performance in four years. In July 2025 she filmed a second "London Bridge" video for the Netflix drama Too Much, with cast members including Megan Stalter. She said that she wanted to be "a little bit messier, a little bit goofier, and just having fun with life." In October 2025 she joined Ludacris at a show in Atlanta to perform "Glamorous."

  • Poseidon, released in 2006, marked Fergie's return to acting, and she played a lounge singer in the remake. She took supporting roles in Grindhouse in 2007 and in the musical film Nine in 2009. The cast of Nine won the Satellite Award for Best Cast and received nominations from the Critics' Choice Movie Awards and the Screen Actors Guild. She also voiced Jezebel in the comedy Marmaduke in 2010. From the 31st of December 2006 she hosted the pre-taped Hollywood segments of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on ABC.

    In 2007 she launched two handbag collections for Kipling. A year later she signed with Brown Shoe to create a licensed footwear brand, which became two lines. Fergalicious by Fergie sells at lower prices in outlets such as Famous Footwear. Fergie Footwear is an upscale line sold at stores such as Nordstrom. Her first fragrance, Outspoken, launched under Avon in May 2010 with the tagline "Say What You Mean It." Outspoken Intense followed in 2011, Viva by Fergie in 2012, Outspoken Fresh in 2013 and Outspoken Party! in 2015.

    In 2012 she released a 24-piece nail polish collection with Wet 'n' Wild, and a cosmetics line arrived the next year. The same year she became the owner and celebrity partner of Voli Light Vodkas, a low-calorie vodka with natural flavors. In October 2009 she had become a part owner of the Miami Dolphins. She has performed at the team's games many times. Wilhelmina Models represented her from 2007 to 2011, and she worked with brands including Dsquared, Calvin Klein and Marchesa.

    Ferguson Crest, a winery she founded in 2006 with her father, Pat Ferguson, released three wines in 2020. They were a 2012 Syrah, a 2012 Fergalicious and a 2013 Viognier, named after song lyrics. In 2023 Architectural Digest reported that she sold the vineyard property in Solvang, California for $3.7 million.

    Her charity work has included Habitat For Humanity, the Red Cross, Stand Up To Cancer and The Trevor Project. In April 2013 Logo TV gave her the "Always Next, Forever Now" award for her work in the LGBT community. On the 20th of March 2014 she helped announce the Justice Institute on Gender-Based Violence, with Avon Foundation, Vital Voices and the U.S. Department of State. In 2020 all proceeds from the Fergie Footwear holiday shoe went to Dress For Success.

  • The RIAA credits Fergie with 27.5 million albums and singles sold in the United States. Worldwide, her solo sales exceed 7.2 million albums and 29 million singles. With The Dutchess she became the first singer since Milli Vanilli's Girl You Know It's True in 1989 to land five singles from a debut album in the top five of the Hot 100. She also set a digital-era record for the most multi-platinum singles from one album, which stood until 2012. Only one woman, Christina Aguilera, had earlier placed three number-one Hot 100 singles from one album in the 21st century. Fergie has been nominated for twenty Grammy Awards and has won eight. Blender named her woman of the year in 2007, and Billboard did the same in 2010.

    In a 2006 interview with Rolling Stone, Fergie rejected the label of rapper. She said, "I love imitating instruments, sometimes you can't understand what I'm saying because I'm going for an instrumental sound." She names Selena as her first influence. Roxanne Shante, Monie Love, Salt-N-Pepa and J. J. Fad are artists she looks up to, and The Dutchess pays homage to them. For Double Dutchess she cited Beyonce, Amy Winehouse and Guns N' Roses. Writing in Paper, Katherine Gillespie said she "inspired millions of 14-year-olds to spend their allowances on cargo pants." Ariana Grande, Alessia Cara and Ava Max are among the artists she has influenced.

    Crystal methamphetamine addiction began while she performed with Wild Orchid and continued after she left. In September 2006 she called the drug "the hardest boyfriend I ever had to break up with." She linked it to her years as a child actor, saying she had learned to suppress her feelings. She says hypnotherapy helped her overcome it. Fergie is bisexual, and she credits her mother with teaching her that every person is God's child.

    She met actor Josh Duhamel in September 2004, when she and the Black Eyed Peas filmed a cameo for his show Las Vegas. They became engaged in December 2007 and married in a Catholic ceremony on the 10th of January 2009. In 2013 she filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court to change her name to Fergie Duhamel. The couple announced their separation on the 14th of September 2017. Duhamel and Fergie have one son. Divorce papers were filed on the 1st of June 2019, and the divorce was finalized that November. In January 2025 firefighters saved her Brentwood home in Los Angeles from the Southern California wildfires.

Updated

Common questions

Who is Fergie the singer?

Fergie is Stacy Ann Ferguson, an American singer, songwriter, actress and businesswoman born on the 27th of March 1975 in Hacienda Heights, California. She was a member of the Black Eyed Peas from 2002 to 2018 and also had a solo career.

What was Fergie's first solo album and how did it perform?

Fergie's first solo album was The Dutchess, released in September 2006. It peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and produced the number-one singles "London Bridge," "Glamorous" and "Big Girls Don't Cry."

How did Fergie join the Black Eyed Peas?

Fergie joined the Black Eyed Peas in 2002 after A&R coordinator Dante Santiago asked will.i.am to invite her to try out for the song "Shut Up." Interscope chairman Jimmy Iovine later offered her a permanent place, filling the gap left by Kim Hill.

What was Fergie's career before the Black Eyed Peas?

Fergie starred on Kids Incorporated from 1984 to 1989 and voiced Sally Brown in Peanuts television specials. She also fronted the girl group Wild Orchid, which released two albums before she left in September 2001.

How many Grammy Awards has Fergie won?

Fergie has won eight Grammy Awards from twenty nominations. Her wins include Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group in 2005 and 2006, and Best Pop Vocal Album in 2010.

What business ventures does Fergie have?

Fergie has launched handbags for Kipling, footwear lines with Brown Shoe, fragrances with Avon, and nail polish and cosmetics with Wet 'n' Wild. She also became a part owner of the Miami Dolphins in October 2009 and co-founded the winery Ferguson Crest in 2006.

When did Fergie leave the Black Eyed Peas?

Will.i.am confirmed Fergie's departure from the Black Eyed Peas on the 18th of February 2018. She had been focusing on solo work since 2017, when she released Double Dutchess.

All sources

212 references cited across the entry

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