It was late on Sunday night when the world shifted off its axis. You felt it. I felt it. Florists in Paris, mountain climbers in Nepal, and fishermen on the Atlantic felt it too. Whatever off-kilter cyclical orbit that our planet had been spinning on—causing so much societal torment by way of political upheaval, war, and mass viral sickness over the past six years—finally began to correct itself. A blanket of light spread across the atmosphere. People smiled again!
I’m talking, of course, about the moment that Fergie took the stage for a surprise performance at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards.
No one was quite sure if this fever dream would come to fruition; if the powers that be were still capable of bestowing these kinds of blessings upon us. Jack Harlow, whose song “First Class” samples Fergie’s inescapable 2006 hit “Glamorous,” was scheduled to perform at the show. This was the perfect opportunity to create the kind of viral sensation that the VMAs so rarely see anymore.
It seemed so obvious: All Jack Harlow had to do was bring out the woman whose sampled song made his track a bona fide hit with its call-and-response, “G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S” chorus. Still, I don’t trust a man to ever do anything right. I even took matters into my own hands, tweeting my request into the ether a few hours before the show, hoping my prayer would be heard.
Harlow opened the show performing “First Class” on a set made to look like a fake plane interior with star-studded passengers in each seat. Noticeably absent was Fergie, which nearly incited a riot (in my apartment’s living room), thinking she would be left out of the performance entirely. Then, mere seconds later—to my shock, awe, and delight—Harlow paused. “Ladies and gentlemen, Fergie!” Manifestation works, people.
Like a siren in the mist, Fergie emerged from a cloud of smoke clad in a plush boa, crimped hair, and a sequined dress emblazoned with the words “FIRST CLASS.” The crowd erupted in a deafening cheer, jumping up and down with excitement and threatening to level the floors of New Jersey’s Prudential Center as Fergie and Harlow performed “Glamorous” together. Taylor Swift, my fellow Millennial, was captured in the audience with her jaw on the floor, head bobbing along to the music.
To say this was a major moment for Fergie (and her host of equally Fergalicious fans) would be a massive understatement. The last time Fergie got in front of a camera with this many people watching, things did not go according to plan. In February 2018, Fergie was tapped to sing the national anthem at the NBA All-Stars game. Instead of a more classic take on the song, Fergie took to the mic and opted for a sort of lounge-singer-meets-slam-poet vibe.
Needless to say, it was not received well. This was the performance that launched a thousand memes. Players were caught in the audience trying to hold back their laughter. Two days later, Fergie even went so far as to issue a public apology. “I’ve always been honored and proud to perform the national anthem, and last night I wanted to try something special for the NBA,” she told TMZ. “I’m a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn’t strike the intended tone. I love my country and I honestly tried my best.”
Reading that could honestly make me cry. I genuinely think that’s heartbreaking! I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in her sensible Fergie Footwear heels after that performance. We all saw the memes and the (way too harsh) jokes, but there was also a sect of America-first Twitter weirdos who launched threats and misogynistic vitriol at her.
Besides the fact that Fergie gave us the exact national anthem we deserved at that moment in time, to hear a performer behind endless amounts of cultural classics have to say, “I honestly tried my best,” is just harrowing. This is Fergie we’re talking about here! She is our foremost purveyor of entertainment across all mediums. If she doesn’t want to kowtow to a needlessly conventional display of nationalist propaganda, why should she?
In 2021, before I joined the intrepid team here at Obsessed, I wrote a three-part series of essays about Fergie and her career, entitled “The Fabulous Farce of Fergie Ferg.” The premise of these pieces was really quite simple: Fergie should be considered among the greatest performance artists of all time. Not only is this a woman who has given us a multitude of hit songs (that still slap today—not an easy feat to accomplish!), but she’s blessed our culture with a well of memes that will never run dry.
She was moaning and doing flips on the Today show stage at 8:45 am. She played a sand-dwelling prostitute in Rob Marshall’s Nine and an ill-fated cruise ship singer in the remake of Poseidon. She gave us a defining album of the 2000s and a follow-up that was… pretty good! She was single-handedly responsible for teaching an entire generation how to spell “Glamorous” and “Delicious.” She put the word “Fergalicious” into our collective lexicon and promptly flubbed the song’s rap at the Billboard Music Awards. She had these bangs!
And I know it sounds like I’m half-joking, but that’s because—much like Fergie—I am operating from a place that is equal parts silly and serious. There is no way that a song like “London Bridge” could become a breakout solo hit without being accompanied by a hefty amount of winking. Fergie has always been acutely aware of her place in the culture, whether it be as a solo artist, as a member of Black Eyed Peas, or as a professional meme machine. And she’s been highly successful at each. As Lady Gaga once said, “People take me both way too seriously and not seriously enough.” She learned that at the Stacy Ann Ferguson Institute for Celebrity Edification
To see Fergie emerge on the VMAs stage to so much adoration felt right. It was exhilarating to watch someone get their long-deserved flowers in real time. After more than two decades in the industry, Fergie earned the right to experience that kind of global vindication for her catalog of impeccable work after being relegated to boring punchline fodder for too long.
When “First Class” won the VMA for Song of the Summer later in the evening, Harlow echoed something similar. “To bring Fergie into the mix in this way, it means the world to me,” he said. “It’s truly full circle. We didn’t just pick a random record… ‘Glamorous’ was one of the biggest songs and most important songs of my childhood. It influenced my whole style.”
On Tuesday, Fergie expressed her thanks as well. “Finally catching my breath after all the tears of joy I’ve cried,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m so grateful to have been able to meet this moment. More to come, but wow, what a magical night.”
Whether this is any indication of Fergie having new music in store for us is anyone’s guess, but there’s no time like the present to kickstart the Fergie-aissance. She laid low long enough after the national anthem debacle, and though her VMAs appearance was met with a few expected jokes about it on Twitter, the electric, resounding excitement to see her back in her element was palpable.
Photos from the show of her alongside today’s hitmakers like Harlow and Lil Nas X prove what we have all known deep down: Fergie is timeless. She can make hits just as well as she can make memes. This woman is a one-stop shop for culture and entertainment. Who else operates so successfully at both ends of the celebrity spectrum, and in such feisty, fergalicious fashion? There is no one quite like her. Viva la Fergie!
