[ENG] Pompermag - Solo star

ficco · Administrator

Fergie is ready for her close-up -- though perhaps not on this particular day. The sole female member of hip-pop quartet the Black Eyed Peas is feeling a bit hungover. Which explains the need for the incredibly dark shades she's sporting in the not-so-bright Times Square restaurant Blue Fin. "Yes, I was a bad girl last night," she acknowledges. "I was partying until the wee hours."

The evening before, to celebrate the release of their new album, the chart-topping Monkey Business (and its smash single "Don't Phunk with My Heart"), the Peas performed at New York's Crobar nightclub -- with Grace Jones as the surprise opening act. "She was fierce," Fergie says of the legendary disco singer. "Her voice has that low, strong tone -- and she manages to reveal her body, bit by bit." Hours later, Fergie made her way back to her hotel room. And now here she sits, saying aloud, "I must look like Puffy the Blowfish." Well, not quite.

These days, with a solo album in the works and a burgeoning film career, Fergie is on a roll. Since joining the Peas, the Los Angeles native has gone from being known by a few to being recognized around the world. Black Eyed Peas fans -- called Peabodies -- are rabid. Nonstop touring and a handful of hit songs -- including "Let's Get It Started" and "Where Is the Love?" (featuring Justin Timberlake) -- from a multi-million-selling album can have that effect. Fergie became a member of the Black Eyed Peas nearly four years ago when founding members will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo were in the midst of creating their third album, Elephunk. They needed a singer for the song "Shut Up." A mutual friend, singer Dante Santiago (who can be heard on the new album), suggested Fergie. "So I auditioned for them," Fergie recalls. "The chemistry was there from the start. We did the song rather quickly. And then [will.i.am] and I began working on my solo album." But before Fergie realized what was happening, her solo project had taken a backseat to the making of Elephunk. She began adding vocals to more and more tracks on the album.

Fergie wears a sweater by Heatherette, unicorn necklace and right forefinger ring by Han Cholo, logo earrings by Chanel, cosmetics by Coty Rimmel. Fragrance: Baby Phat Goddess by Kimora Lee Simmons.

"We'd be working in the studio, take a break to go clubbing, and then go back to the studio to record," she says. "We became friends along the way." What began as a one-off recording session with the Peas turned into a full-time job. By the time Elephunk was released in 2003, Fergie had become the official fourth member of the group. The timing was perfect: Much was riding on the record, as the then trio's previous albums (1998's Behind the Front and 2000's Bridging the Gap) were not exactly commercial successes. According to Fergie, the band wanted "that female sound -- because their hip-hop is so musical." With Fergie now a card-carrying member of the troupe, they scored a global hit with "Where Is the Love?" Following that, "Let's Get It Started" (a reworking of album track "Let's Get Retarded") became the official theme of the 2004 NBA playoffs and finals. Indeed, Elephunk was a massive commercial success around the world. And then, as if on cue, came the backlash.

"The underground [hip-hop] community could not accept this album," Fergie says. To be sure, many found the band's groove-rich musical landscape, as well as their sometimes silly lyrics, to be too mainstream and cloying for their own good. (For the full effect, give a listen to "My Humps" on the new album, on which Fergie sings, "My humps, my humps/ My lovely lady lumps.") "Maybe some people aren't ready for certain things -- and that's OK," the 30-year-old continues. "This band is like musical hip-hop, like theater, in a sense. We are not your typical hip-hop band. The people that come to our shows and buy our records don't seem to mind." Proud of the music she was now making with the Peas, Fergie found all this talk of "selling out" incredibly ironic. Let's backtrack for a moment, shall we? In the mid-'90s, Fergie (or Stacy Ferguson, as she was known then), along with her Los Angeles friends Renee Sandstrom and Stefanie Ridel, formed the postcard-perfect dance-pop trio Wild Orchid. After two RCA albums (blessed with power-packed, gospel-kissed vocals) and an opening slot on Cher's "Believe" tour failed to make the band a household name, a completed third album (Fire) was shelved.

Fergie remembers her stint with the now-defunct Wild Orchid as being too structured and too choreographed. Which perhaps helps to explain her then "relationship with narcotics." She started with Ecstasy, then graduated to smoking crystal meth "all day, all night." She says Renee and Stefanie held an intervention at one point, "but I didn't want to stop, so I thought of the quickest lie I could. I started crying and told them I wasn't on drugs, but that I had been bulimic." According to Fergie, Renee and Stefanie "knew I was really skinny and acting bizarre, but they didn't know much about drugs, so they believed me for a while." Fergie actually took her bandmates with her to support groups for people dealing with bulimia. During those meetings, Fergie would fake stories about her disorder. "It was really twisted," she says. "I didn't stop until I finally hit the point where I was ready within myself."

During her recovery process, Fergie realized that she should have left the trio years before. But friendships can forge a strong bond. "We were like sisters," she says. "And because I didn't know how to say 'no,' I dove into alternate methods to satisfy my creative energy. When I found myself talking to my hamster for eight hours, I knew it was over. It was time to quit."

Ron Fair, who signed Wild Orchid to RCA in the mid-'90s -- and who executive-produced the group's albums -- notes that Fergie simply needed to come into her own as a person and as an artist. Between the time of Wild Orchid and the Black Eyed Peas, "Fergie stopped trying so hard," explains Fair, who is now the president of A&M Records, home to the Black Eyed Peas (he is an executive producer on Monkey Business). "She became more confident, more herself. In the process, she became cooler."

With the Black Eyed Peas, Fergie was -- and is -- ableto bust out and be spontaneous. "What's so fake about that?" she cannot help but wonder. "What's so fabricated about live musicians freestyling onstage or MCs doing the same thing? Here I am, feeling that this is the most pure thing I've done in my life. And people call it selling out. I've gotten over trying to be accepted by all people. I am what I am. And [the Black Eyed Peas] are what we are."

Since the get-go, Fergie has been one determined soul. If truth be told, she owes her career to Donna Summer. One day, when Fergie was a little girl, her mom heard her singing along to "She Works Hard for the Money." Impressed by what she heard, mom got Fergie involved in Karen's Kids, a children's group that performed in the malls of California -- and once in downtown Las Vegas, "where one guy screamed, 'Move over, Judy Garland!'" Fergie notes, laughing. Two years later, an eight-year-old Fergie joined the cast of Kids Incorporated, a popular TV show that served as a breeding ground for such stars in the making as Martika, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Mario L—pez. Here, Fergie learned how to harmonize, how to stand behind a mic and how to perform in front of an audience. "I felt that I was with my people, my folk, my species," she says of her fellow cast members. "It was my summer camp for five years."

Kids Incorporated was not Fergie's only appearance on the small screen. She appeared in TV commercials for McDonald's, Duncan Hines and Hello Kitty -- as well as one for "a cheese-puff-esque product." She also appeared as a "hoochie" and a "nerd" on Married . . . with Children and Mr. Belvedere, respectively. And, yes, that was her voice as Sally Brown in Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown and It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown. As for her two-minute stint in the 1987 horror flick Monster in the Closet, well, she'd rather not discuss it.

But she will discuss her role in the forthcoming remake of the 1972 disaster classic The Poseidon Adventure. She plays the ship's lounge singer. No, she does not tackle the original movie's Oscar-winning song "The Morning After," which was lip-synched in the film by Carol Lynley's Nonnie Parry character. In the 2006 version of the film, Gloria replaces Nonnie -- and Gloria, by way of Fergie, doesn't need to lip-synch. Fergie will sing "I Won't Let You Fall," which she describes as a dramatic power ballad. She wrote the song with will.i.am and other band members. "It will be the first time people see me as a solo artist," Fergie says. "It will give people a sense of what I can do vocally."
Which should bode well for her solo album. The disc, which Fergie describes as a lifelong project, should be available next year. Like Gwen Stefani before her, Fergie will be striking out on her own -- while maintaining her relationship with the band that helped get her to this point. In this way, like Stefani, she'll be keeping her solo work as a side project. "It will be more like a break from the band," Fergie says. "I don't see the Black Eyed Peas door closing." And if the solo album is a huge hit? Well, she says, without missing a beat, "It will be for that moment only. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it." That said, Fergie says she sees herself continuing to record and tour with the Peas.

"This is a band that does not like to be pigeonholed," Fair says. To illustrate, he points to will.i.am, who has already collaborated with other artists as a songwriter/producer, and to apl.de.ap and Taboo, who are currently exploring outside music and film projects. "It's all positive," Fair adds. "They've established themselves as a band. Now each member wants to spread his or her artistic wings."

Now, about Fergie's close-up. She says she's been ready for it since the age of six, when, as a member of Karen's Kids, she was singing "On the Good Ship Lollipop." She adds, "I've had a lot of gigs, which has prepared me for now. I've waited patiently to be the only one in the close-up -- and I'm ready for it." ♥

Styling by Aimee Phillips
Market Editor: Kristina Dechter
Photographer's assistant: Gregory Goode
Stylist's assistant: Lysee Webb
Hair by Luke Baker/Unite Eurotherapy at L'Atelier NYC
Makeup by Mally Roncal/Mally Beauty at Contact
Makeup assistant: Christine Fulwiler
Nail technician: Roxanne Valinoti at Creative Nail Design
Special thanks to Bea Forkan