The climax of a record-setting year of success for Fergie and THE DUTCHESS, her RIAA double-platinum worldwide 5 million-selling debut solo album (first release from the will.i.am Music Group, distributed worldwide by Interscope Geffen A&M) was underscored at the 50th annual Grammy Awards nominations -- as her #1 single "Big Girls Don't Cry" was nominated for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance."
Earlier this year, Fergie won "Favorite Female Artist (Pop/Rock)"at last month's 2007 American Music Awards; "Female Artist Of The Year" at the MTV Video Music Awards; and "Top Female Artist" at the Teen Choice Awards.
THE DUTCHESS (released September 19, 2006) has spent 63 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling nearly 3 million copies in the U.S. and another 2 million internationally. The album was hailed by Rolling Stone as "a banging mix of party-starters and down-tempo jams ... pure booty-shaking fun." It's run of consecutive RIAA platinum singles began in the summer 2006 with "London Bridge."
The next three singles from THE DUTCHESS all hit the #1 spot -- the all-time career-defining "Fergalicious," "Glamorous," and "Big Girls Don't Cry." Each surpassed 2 million digital sales along the way, the first time that any artist has had three hits from one album accomplish that feat. Fergie is the only artist to have 4 songs from one album sell over 1 million ringtones. In all, her combined digital singles sales and ringtone sales total in excess of 15 million. "Big Girls Don't Cry" has been named iTunes' biggest-selling single of 2007.
More chart history: When "Big Girls Don't Cry" hit #1 in August 2007, Fergie was crowned the first female artist since Christina Aguilera (in 2000) to score three #1's from one album. Fergie is also the first female artist of the decade to land her first four solo singles in the Top 5 on the Nielsen BDS-powered CHR/Top 40 chart. "Clumsy" is Fergie's fifth single, currently at #6 on the Hot 100 in its 8th week out, with digital sales topping the 550,000 mark.
"THE DUTCHESS has exceeded all of my wildest dreams," says Fergie.
Fergie has been a member of the multi-platinum two-time Grammy Award winning group The Black Eyed Peas for nearly five years, since they became a global sensation with the release of their third album, Elephunk (June 2003, featuring the massive #1 hit, "Where Is the Love?" and the Rap Grammy-winning "Let's Get It Started"). It was followed by their first #1 pop/ #1 R&B crossover album, 2005's triple-platinum Monkey Business, which spun off a trio of smash hits, "Don't Phunk With My Heart" (their second consecutive Rap Grammy), "My Humps" -- which became the first 2-million selling Master Tone of all time -- and "Pump It." The Black Eyed Peas are an international success story, having sold more than 18 million units worldwide.
