Fergalicious

"Fergalicious"
Single by Fergie featuring will.i.am from the album The Dutchess
B-side	"Paradise"
Released	October 23, 2006 (U.S.)
Format	CD single, digital download
Recorded	2006
Genre	Pop music
Length	3:42 (radio edit) 4:52 (album version)
Label	A&M
Producer	will.i.am
Certification	5x Platinum (RIAA)
Fergie singles chronology
"London Bridge" (2006)	"Fergalicious" (2006)	"Glamorous" (2007)
will.i.am singles chronology
"I Love My Bitch" (2006)	"Fergalicious" (2006)	"Hip Hop Is Dead" (2006)

"Fergalicious" is the second single from Fergie's debut solo album, The Dutchess. It features Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am, who also produced the track. "Fergalicious" was not officially released in the UK, where "Glamorous" was officially made the second single instead.^[1] However, "Fergalicious" still managed to chart at number 26 on the UK Official Download Chart.

"Fergalicious" entered the Billboard Pop 100 at number one and entered the Hot 100 at number three before moving up to number two the following week. "Fergalicious" won the Grammy for "Best Pop/Rock Gob Anthem"

Song information

The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 several months after its release. However, "Fergalicious" managed to top the Pop 100 chart and spent fourteen weeks in the top ten of the Hot 100. "Fergalicious" was extremely successful as a digital song. In fact, it's one of the very few tracks which have been certified 2x platinum in the U.S., thanks to the heavy downloads. This achievement was very easy as, in January 2007, it sold 295,000 downloads in a single week, being immediately certificated platinum and holding the record for the most downloaded song in a single week.

The song heavily samples "Give It All You Got" by Afro-Rican and "Supersonic" by J.J. Fad.^[2] It also features elements from "Night Train" by James Brown and "It's More Fun to Compute" by Kraftwerk (both sampled in "Give It All You Got"). will.i.am's opening line is an interpolation of the opening line of 2 Live Crew's "Throw The D." The word "Fergalicious" is a portmanteau of the words 'Fergie' and 'delicious'. Spelling is a large part of the song's lyrics, with vocalists spelling Fergie's name, the word 'delicious,' and a misspelling of the word 'tasty' (the vocalist spells it as 'tastey').

On December 4, 2006, Fergie and will.i.am performed the song live at the 2006 Billboard Music Awards and Big In '06 Awards. In 2007, this song was nominated by rock station WNEW as for "most annoying song" of 2006, but, apart from this, it was nominated for various other awards: in fact, it won the "Sexiest Video of the Year" at MTV Australia Video Music Awards and, always with this song, Fergie was given the award for "Best International Video - Artist" at Much Music Video Awards. "Fergalicious", for unknown reasons, was not released in the UK or Ireland.

Controversy

The song caused controversy between Fergie and Nelly Furtado. In the lyrics, Fergie wrote: "But I ain't promiscuous", which Nelly Furtado thought had referred to her successful single.

Later, in the song "Give It To Me", Nelly wrote a verse, which she confirmed,^[3] directed at Fergie.

Music video

Fergie dressed as a Girl Scout in the music video.

The video premiered on MTV on October 24, 2006 and premiered on Yahoo! Music on October 31, 2006. The music video was filmed in Hollywood, and directed by Fatima Robinson, who also directed the "My Humps" music video. will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas also appears in the video, which features Fergie in a Willy Wonka-inspired factory, called "Fergieland" filled with various types of candy. The video starts with factory workers packaging boxes of "Fergalicious" candy. In the beginning of the video, Fergie sings in a field of candy canes with many other people wearing strange outfits. Throughout the video, she wears a tan and khaki girl scout outfit (it could be noted that Fergie herself was a girl scout^{[citation needed]}), sports a black one-piece swimsuit while lying in a pile of candy, works out in a colorful gym, sings in a room filled with lollipops and other candies while dressed like Shirley Temple, and pops out of a cake while wearing a tiny blue swimsuit with gems encrusted on the exterior. She then starts watching two women wrestle in ice cream before joining them at the end of the video.

References in pop culture

• In the film Epic Movie when Willy Wonka kidnapped the "children" to use their body parts as bits of his candies, he danced to "Fergalicious", thus spoofing the music video.^[4][5]

• Fergalicious is listed in the 2007 Guinness World Records as the record for most downloaded song in a single week.

Track listings

European Maxi-CD

1. "Fergalicious" (Album version) — 4:52
2. "Paradise" — 4:08
3. "London Bridge" (Live version) — 2:43
4. "Fergalicious" (Music video) — 3:52

Australian CD single

1. "Fergalicious" (album version) — 4:54
2. "Paradise" — 4:07

Chart performance

"Fergalicious" debuted at #78 on the US billboard hot 100 and made its initial peak at #3 where it spent several weeks. However after several months of its release, an increase in downloads pushed the song to a new peak at #2. "Fergalicious" also peaked at #1 on the Pop 100 chart, becoming Fergie's second consecutive #1 on this chart. In the UK and Ireland, "Fergalicious" was not released for unknown reasons. In Australia, "Fergalicious" debuted at #11 and soon entered the top ten at #9. After declining for a short period, "Fergalicious" shot up the chart to a new peak at #6 and eventually it peaked at #4, becoming Fergie's second top 5 single there. "Fergalicious" was certified gold by ARIA, and in addition to its top 5 peak, the song spent a total of 27 weeks on the singles chart, whilst its predecessor, reached #3 and remained on the chart for only 18 weeks. In New Zealand, "Fergalicious" earned Fergie her second consecutive top 5 hit, and peaked at #5. In Austria, "Fergalicious" debuted at #50 but managed to peak at #34 several weeks later, which was a little disappointing considering the top 3 peak achieved by its precessor. Despite the song's success in most countries, in countries such as Germany and Canada, the song charted lower than its precessor peaking at #23 and #24 respectively. It was more successful in France where, it peaked higher than its predecessor, peaking at #15, and is currently her most successful single there. In Switzerland and Sweden the song peaked at #29 and #22 respectively. Overall "Fergalicious" entered the top 30 on the majority of the charts it entered. On the united world chart, "Fergalicious" has peaked at #4, based on its success around the world.

References

External links

• Watch "Fergalicious" on Youtube

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