Why did Fergie's career go down the shitter?

Probably because she kept pissing herself

I always felt she seemed “street” like in the likes to drink and easily provoked into fighting way.

It was when Andrew divorced her, I think.

Maybe she should do a Prince cover. "I just want your extra time and you, piss!"

When you got that Josh Duhamel dick, nothing else matters.

That ghastly American anthem she did a few years ago. Where she looked drunk and high.

She's probably more likely to accidentally shit herself on stage at her age now.

R6 Her career was washed up before that though. I forgot she even existed until that tragic performance went viral.

Anyway, I think her career failed because she isn't that talented, she aged out (she was already pretty old when she went solo), she had drug problems, she got dickmatized by Josh Duhamel and the public got bored of her just like they did with Gwen Stefani and Kelly Clarkson. Rihanna, Katy Perry and Gaga came and it was over.

Kelly Clarkson still had number one songs in the last decade though. She wasn't completely out the way Fergie was. When Fergie and Gwen Stefani both tried to come back a few years ago, it was obvious they were both going to bomb badly. They are both relics of the 00s.

She had a vicious drug and alcohol problem, mixed in with mental health issues.

Zayn Malik had the same problems as Fergie, which is why his career also crashed and burned after initial success. They both had so much potential but pissed it all away.

It was because she didn't know what to do with all that junk, all that junk inside her trunk!

Are the drugs and alcohol to blame for her pissing herself?

Demi Lovato is the millennial version of Fergie.

Meth

🦶👅

Oh. Not me. Well then.

Harry Styles' career seems to be going in the same downward direction as Fergie's.

R9 Ciara could be included too. She had a few hits in the 2010s but she fell off. Her new music isn't that bad but she seems happier being Mrs. Richard Wilson and showing off her body and cute kids on IG.

Honestly I think R1 might be right... Her career pretty much screeched to a halt right after the pee-pee pants photos started circulating the internet.

I give her credit for admitting to using meth. A lot of other people in her industry did meth, they just never admitted it. I think the meth label cheapened her public persona, though.

The Star Spangled Banner was tragic.

Josh Duhamel was the brass ring, but it's hard to be married to someone prettier than you.

Patti LaBelle also peed in her pants on stage.

I sadly suspect her childhood on the set of Kids Incorporated are behind the majority of her issues...

Why didn’t she ever wear anything on stage to absorb her piss? This was an issue that kept happening and she wouldn’t have to use a full on diaper.

I have a soft spot for Fergie since she was peaking as a solo artist when I was a college freshman and finally felt free as a young gayling for the first time in my life. So many fun memories partying with friends and dancing to Fergalicious in bars.

R21 Fergie was bigger than Martika which was criminal. Kids Inc didn't produce that many super-stars like the 90s Mickey Mouse Club did for some reason. Jennifer Love Hewitt also from Kids Inc, did try to be a pop star multiple times but flopped, so she stuck with acting.

She never went to the doctor to get her humps and her lady lumps checked out.

[quote]When Fergie and Gwen Stefani both tried to come back a few years ago, it was obvious they were both going to bomb badly. They are both relics of the 00s.

They’re both too old. Neither one has the style or star power of Jennifer Lopez, or the vocal abilities of Kelly Clarkson.

That Lady Lumps song was so awful. She has bad judgment.

J. Lo isn't a good comparison. She's an actress and her music career peaked in 2001. She is too vain and stubborn to stop trying to make songs despite having no musical talent. She does still gets hits on the Latin/Dance charts and for some reason, still gets booked to sing at live events. I agree she has stage presence and is glamourous.

Kelly is doing talk shows now but she could probably still get hits if she found the right songwriter and promoted it well.

Pink is also still pretty popular.

I'd totally forgotten about her.

Whatcha gonna do with all that junk?

Middlebrow, dull and can’t dance. Gwen Stefani was always at least more fun.

Sadly it’s more memorable than any of her solo work.

Tryna feel my hump hump, lookin at my lump lump.

She had her moment with BEP buts she wasn’t charismatic or talented enough to sustain and build on that success. She’s old now.

[quote] Kelly is doing talk shows now but she could probably still get hits if she found the right songwriter and promoted it well.

Kelly needs a makeover, needs to lose a little bit of weight at least. She's so damn talented and is stuck in this nice girl persona. I think she equates looking good with not being a nice girl. Also, she's really pinging as a lesbian to me, esp. when she shaved the side of her head.

The Black-Eyed Peas are actually a group of talented musicians. Fergie was just the pretty face/hot body they used to sell their overproduced sound which worked. She tried to go solo with the help of Will.I.Am and her moment but she was a one-album-wonder. BEP still are going strong without her and not much changed. Will.I.Am later was hired by Britney to produce her music during the early 2010s.

I think she just took too long between albums... Her solo debut was a HUGE hit but she was already a bit old for a breakthrough (31 years). Perhaps she should have capitalised more immediately afterward. She was 42 when she released the followup (had some further hits with the Peas though), and it was a hot mess. Poorly promoted, with the novelty ‘MILF MONEY’ lead single, and soon after that, the embarrassing National Anthem debacle.

Since then, a myriad of white or white-adjacent girls with big voices and that 'street' look have come and gone. There just isn't really a place for her in the modern pop music sphere any more. Nelly Furtado who 'peaked' in the same era went into Spanish-language music and indie Pitchfork type albums. I don't know where Fergie could fit in.

She could actually do well as a judge on one of those singing shows or even the Masked Singer a la Nicole Scherzinger or Gwen Stefani (who at least had a longer catalogue of hits and her iconic 90s fashion trends to keep her relevant when she too stopped making music for about a decade during her peak years).

I find this video quite interesting, about the woman who was the lead singer in the group before she quit and they found Fergie.

A reminder of how difficult the music industry is in general, and how Fergie was kind of lucky to be in the right place at the right time too. As much as her career 'went down the shitter' (no arguments here), from an unknown gospel group Wild Orchid to being the token female in a quirky (then-underground) hip hop group that played clubs, rooftops and small festivals, to one of the biggest solo artists on the planet for a brief time... In the end it's a miracle she made it as big as she did anyway.

Fergie was adorable as a little girl on Kids Inc.

She wasn't the worst singer as a kid and teen. I think the drugs fucked up her voice.

[quote]She's probably more likely to accidentally shit herself on stage at her age now.

Well, then, in that case she'll be able to do a cover of Peaches doing a cover of Alanis Morissette doing a cover of her:

I feel sad reading all these replies. I’ve met her a few times and she is such a sweet & down to earth person. I wish only the best for her.

I've never met her or know much about her honestly, but she did strike me that she'd probably be quite sweet.

I will say, neither of them are really my type of music but after listening to them, The Duchess shat all over Love. Angel. Music. Baby.

When you release something as monumentally stupid as "My Humps", you are basically shitting away your future career longevity in exchange for short-term, popularity as a novelty.

The writing was on the wall for her the second that piece of shit song was released.

Maybe because she became a Mother and wants to raise him? Not every actor, singer, performer wants Michael Jackson super fame.

Maybe Fergie realizes she isn't extremely talented. She's probably grateful for the amount of fame she got. She doesn't need to work anyway if she was smart with her money and invested. That attitude is refreshing compared to millions of other hasbeen pop stars who refuse to go away (J. Lo, Jessica Simpson, Nick Jonas, Lindsay Lohan, etc)

I think R36 nailed it. Her time came and went and she didn’t continue striking while the iron was hot for whatever reasons. This had hit written all over it but the interest in her music just isn’t there anymore,

She pissed herself onstage in 2005. Her fame peaked in 2006-07. So it wasn't that.

R45 She was smart enough to marry a guy who isn't a loser, so when they got divorced she didn't have to shell out a fortune in alimony.

20 years ago... memories..

I always laugh at these “why did so and so’s career go down the drain” threads. Because the fact is most celebrities (especially in music) have a short shelf life. If you can manage to last more than 5 years (which she did if you include her time with the BEP) them you’ve done better than most.

But to answer your question, she was a gimmick that ran its course.

R50 I think also is the fact that Fergie keeps a low profile. You don't hear about her much at all. Compared to attention whores like Jessica Simpson, Ciara and etc who make sure the tabloids have articles on them and they show up in Google search results

Does Fergie's pussy stink?

She needed to stop spelling words in all of her damn songs. This isn't fucking Scripps Howard.

Yeah I agree with the people saying she probably doesn’t really want or need to work. She could get a job on one of those stupid realty shows if she wanted people still remember her.

How did I not hear about the pissing?

Kelly Clarkson has both frau appeal and pop-rock is more forgiving than urban (specifically slut anthem subgenre) and teen pop.

My Humps did not kill Fergies career which is actually impressive considering just how derided that song was on its release. I would say the derision rivaled Rebecca Black's Friday. It's one of those songs that people probably secretly bought while they laughed about the song in public with their friends.

"What you gonna do with all that breast... all that breast inside your shirt?" has to be one of the dumbest lines in a song chock full of dumb lines.

I read somewhere that Will.I.Am wanted to give "Beep" to Fergie too, but she didn't take it.

I always thought Will.I.Am is one those talented people who dumbs himself down because he knows what sells. Hence, why The Black Eyed Peas went from a respected alternative hip hop group to "Boom Boom Pow".

Me too, R59. Someone who knows how to play the "pop" game but that's not all he is.

Just rewatched Alanis' parody, haha. It does go on just a bit too long for me, but I do love that she did it. I love when she wags her finger during the "you can look but you can't touch" bit... that was something that seemed to be in EVERY pop song of the time, scantily dressed female pop singers, rubbing their bodies and being over sexed and telling the listener: "keep your hands to yourself".

The "Muffin Top" song from 30 Rock nails this too. It almost feels weirdly nostalgic now, haha.

[quote] I always thought Will.I.Am is one those talented people who dumbs himself down because he knows what sells

He is pretty talented actually especially as a producer. It's sad that he dumbs themselves down but at the end of the day, he needs and wants to make money. It's cynical but it is what it is and he's laughing all the way to the bank.

Well, he fucked up "Britney Jean".

No, Britney the robot fucked up Britney Jean. Thousands of producers did their best but could not help her sound human. And the leaked demos were embarassing.

Yes those leaked demos were tragic. Given she's mentally a child. We can't be too harsh on her. Will.I.Am is not a miracle worker and he got her hits with Femme Fatale. So he deserves his props.

The lovely Joanna Lumley did a documentary with Will.I.Am - has anyone seen it? I haven't so far.

She took time off to shit out a kid/start a family with her homophobic husband Josh Duhamel. Sadly for her though, when you’re a meth faced pant pisser you can’t afford such luxuries as taking time away from the public. You’re lucky we acknowledged you and bought your music the first time.

Once Duhamel divorced her it was apparent that even he was over her and he promised to love her forever so why on earth would we want anything to do with her?

I was just going to post that r60. I love that version lol

If they could make "Blackout" during that period in her life, they could have made a decent "Britney Jean" album. Will was the EP so he takes most of the blame.

R66 Duhamel's not homophonic when it comes to two women. There was gossip that he liked to watch Fergie with other women and that they liked to pick up college students for threeways. Then they would go to Sunday mass the next day. Such a typical bro.

Speaking of Black Eyed Peas parodies, this skit from SNL has been burned into my brain... with Amy Poehler as Fergie.

"You got the cash? The Peas will show! One evening with Fergie: 25k. The two black guys: 10k. Order now, and we'll throw in that really scary weird guy who dances - FOR FREE!"

I also give kudos to Will.I.Am's success at making cynical pop hits. Did you know he was originally signed to Eazy-E's Ruthless Records? Talk about an interesting career trajectory. He also made a fairly decent album with Sergio Mendes of all people.

Nick Kroll also did a fairly withering summation of his career:

because of this

I can’t believe it took her 11 years to release a follow-up to The Dutchess. She should have released another solo album in 2008 or 2009 given the momentum she had with the singles from the first album. Although, the BEP with Fergie were massive in 2009, she would have been better off in the long run continuing to establish herself as a solo artist.

Does she use more when she's in the public eye, though?

I think Fergie just never took her solo career as a serious commitment. Same with Gwen Stefani and her solo career. And they both had such huge debut albums with multiple hit singles. Fergie went back to BEP immediately while Gwen tried to stick around longer but she just didn't have the talent as a solo artist either. They both were pretty old when they went solo also, so they couldn't solely heavily on their sex appeal.

R75, Gwen did have a decent followup to LAMB but it wasn't as great and then she waited until a few years ago to follow that up.

I thought Fergie was talented but I didn't realize how little her albums utilized her talent until I saw clips of her from Kids Inc. She was belting out songs form an early age, and was extremely versatile. She and Martika basically covered every major hit from that era. Only Big Girls Don't Cry gave glimpse of the artist she could have been. She may have been lucky but if her success came earlier (before popular music started turning into shit), I have no doubt she would have had a more impressive career.

R77 I do wonder if she had leaned more into her 'Big Girls Don't Cry' style of music rather than 'Milf Money' when she came back to her solo career, would she have been more successful? As someone already a little older she might have added quite a bit of longevity to her music career, outside of the fickle, ageist world of pop / hip hop. I could see her doing Sheryl Crow-esque albums, Colbie Callait type stuff.

Has she done an album of standards yet?

R79, she will do a medley of Somewhere over the Rainbow and My Humps. Can you imagine?