Where did it all go wrong for Fergie?

TEN years ago she was one of the biggest forces in pop — today, thanks to a headline-grabbing performance of the American national anthem, she’s an internet laughing stock.

Where did it all go wrong for Fergie?

THAT national anthem

Yesterday’s woozy, off-kilter rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner before the start of the NBA All-Star game in Los Angeles was destined to live on in infamy before Fergie had even finished singing.

So bizarre was Fergie’s performance, some even questioned whether it was performance art — the ‘national anthem America deserves’ in the Trump era.

Fergie’s proud-as-punch expression throughout the performance was in stark contrast to the horrified looks of the NBA players and celebrity guests, among them Jimmy Kimmel and Chris Rock:

And this wasn’t a one-off — video footage from Fergie’s earlier rehearsal is just as painful, which begs the question: Why didn’t anybody tell her?

Many have compared Fergie’s performance to a classic Saturday Night Live skit, which featured actor Maya Rudolph as a singer massacring the anthem. Side-by-side, the two make the world’s most entertainingly off-key duet:

Fergie herself today issued an apology for the performance, telling TMZ: “I’ve always been honoured and proud to perform the national anthem and last night I wanted to try something special for the NBA. I’m a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn’t strike the intended tone. I love this country and honestly tried my best.”

Sophomore slump

Released in 2006, Fergie’s much-hyped debut album The Dutchess was a certified smash, selling eight million copies worldwide and birthing inescapable hit singles like Fergalicious, Glamorous and Big Girls Don’t Cry.

All eyes were on Fergie to follow it up, but after rejoining the Black Eyed Peas, it would be over a decade until she released her second solo album, last year’s Double Dutchess, delayed for several years as single after single underperformed.

The difference in fortunes was staggering: the album spent just a week in the US top 100 and has sold an estimated 45,000 copies worldwide since its release five months ago.

That’s a staggering 99.4 per cent sales decrease between albums.

And she doesn’t have her hugely successful band to fall back on — Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am recently confirmed that Fergie had left the group amid rumours of tension between them.

“We are now a trio. I don’t know why Fergie isn’t on the project. You will have to ask Fergie that,” the testy rapper told the Daily Star. “You know we are actually capable of doing it without Fergie?”

Stage crashing antics

With the public unreceptive to music she’d spent years crafting, Fergie has taken matters into her own hands in recent months.

She made headlines last December when she crashed actor Armie Hammer’s speech during The Trevor Project’s TrevorLIVE L.A. Gala in Los Angeles. Hammer was midway through honouring designer Tom Ford when Fergie rushed the stage, taking the mic.

The event recognised those working in suicide prevention for at-risk LGBT youth, but for Fergie, it was an opportunity to get the word out about her new single.

“This is not a shameless promotion; I have a lot of shame. I have a new song called A Little Work, and I have a version that has alternate verses. And so, shamelessly — no! Shame! With shame! — I promote the Target version that has these bonus tracks with the alt verses. These are the alt verses. These are the ones that might not be heard by all, but they will be heard by you,” she told the bemused audience, before singing several lines from the song.

The entire ordeal went for several minutes, Hammer politely standing side of stage as Fergie rambled:

Fergie once more grabbed the mic later on at the same event, leading the audience in another extended singalong of her single and encouraging them to buy it on iTunes:

“You don’t know [the song], but you will. Listen if you want ... if you like it, listen. If you don’t, don’t.”

“I wasn’t even planning to speak tonight ... I guess I can’t stand it when everyone is up here singing,” she said.

Cutting her off mid-sentence, a voice came over the loudspeaker and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the unpredictable Fergie,” before introducing the night’s next presenter.

A rep for Fergie later claimed that the entire ordeal had been in fact planned, saying “it was a gag that everyone at the table came up with that fell flat due to timing.”

Public struggles

With its lyrics about “bruises on the heart” and “scars on the mind”, there’s a reason Fergie’s so enthusiastic about the power ballad A Little Work, which was released with an epic 12-minute music video: It deals directly with her own past struggles.

Talking about her time as a singer before finding fame in Black Eyed Peas, the 42-year-old said her vice was the drug crystal meth — commonly known as ice — and became so paranoid she thought the FBI was tracking her.

“At my lowest point, I was [suffering from] chemically induced psychosis and dementia,” she told iNews in December. “I was hallucinating on a daily basis. It took a year after getting off that drug for the chemicals in my brain to settle so that I stopped seeing things. I’d just be sitting there, seeing a random bee or bunny.”

Even when she sought help in a church, she continued to struggle.

“They tried to kick me out, because I was moving down the aisles in this crazy way, as I thought there was an infra-red camera in the church trying to check for my body. I bolted past the altar into a hallway and two people were chasing me,” she said.

“I remember thinking: ‘If I walk outside, and the SWAT team’s out there, I was right all along. But if they’re not out there, then it’s the drugs making me see things and I’m going to end up in an institution. And if it really is the drugs, I don’t want to live my life like this anymore, anyway.’ I walked out of the church ... obviously there was no SWAT team, it was just me in a parking lot. It was a freeing moment.”

The personal admission came months after the singer split from husband Josh Duhamel. The couple — who share four-year-old son, Axl — were married for eight years and announced their separation in September last year.

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