Fergie: Snapshot
- Name
- Fergie
- Birth Date
- March 27, 1975
- Birth Place
- Whittier, Calif.
Before the "humps" and "lady lumps," Fergie formed the girl group Wild Orchid. But, when the group fell apart, so too did Fergie; her escalating drug use spiraled into a crystal-meth addiction. With her mother's help, she rehabbed and joined the Black Eyed Peas.
After winning a Grammy with the group, Fergie went solo, releasing her debut album The Dutchess in 2006. As it topped the charts, so did her personal life with hunky fiancé, actor Josh Duhamel.
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Fergie: Five Fun Facts
- At 6, Fergie went to her first concert. "I saw Tina Turner, second row, with my dad," she told Rolling Stone. "She pointed at me. I love how she was energetic and raw. Those early impressions tell you how things are supposed to be."
- Fergie's given name is Stacy Ferguson, but her stage name is actually a family nickname that both her grandfather and father carry as well.
- Fergie and fiancé Josh Duhamel had a lasagna-making contest one night, which she admits she lost. "Mine was a soggy mess, like a big goulash," she told PEOPLE. "I tried to add my own flair and it didn't work."
- "When I first joined the [Peas], my uniform was Dickies and wife-beater tops," Fergie said, according to Teen People. "One day, the guys said, 'Fergie, it's time for a skirt.' I hadn't worn one in three years."
- While recording the Black Eyed Peas album Monkey Business, Fergie and her bandmates stayed at Sting's farmhouse near London.
Fergie: Biography 
- 1984
K-I-D-S!
After lending her voice to various Charlie Brown cartoon specials, Fergie joins the cast of the Disney variety show Kids Incorporated, along with future stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Mario Lopez.
- 1996
Untamed Flowers
Five years after forming the girl group Wild Orchid with fellow Kids Incorporated alum Renee Sandstrom and childhood friend Stefanie Ridel, Fergie and her bandmates release their self-titled debut album. "We were non-categorizable," she tells EW. "Too urban for pop radio and too pop for urban radio." In 1998, the group opens for 'N Sync on a string of tour dates, where Fergie briefly dates Justin Timberlake. "He was 16 and I was 23," she recalls to Australia's Courier Mail. "It was before he got real heavy with Britney." Wild Orchid releases another album two years later before calling it quits in 2001.
- 2001
Put Down the Pipe
After experimenting with drugs in L.A.'s underground music scene, Fergie becomes a crystal meth addict. She shrinks to 90 lbs. and admits to friends and family that she has a problem. "I wasn't liking who I was," she tells PEOPLE in 2006. "So I stopped cold turkey and came clean with everybody." That May, she approaches the Black Eyed Peas's will.i.am and asks him to work on her proposed solo album. He does one better, getting her to sing on the band's upcoming single "Shut Up."
Photo Credits
Top Left: Stephen Danelian/CORBIS
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): MGM/Everett; Barry King/WireImage; Jemal Countess/WireImage
