Fergie apologizes after NBA All-Star Game national anthem debacle

The singer says she wanted to try something new.

During Sunday night's NBA All-Star Game, Fergie stepped up to the mic to sing the National Anthem. Unfortunately, her jazzy rendition got bad reviews all around.

TheGrio Staff

Feb 20, 2018

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During Sunday night’s NBA All-Star Game, Fergie stepped up to the mic to sing the National Anthem. Unfortunately, her jazzy rendition got bad reviews all around.

At the very least, Fergie now recognizes that the final representation of her performance was actually not the sound she intended.

“I’ve always been honored 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,” she said in a released statement. “I love this country and honestly tried my best.”

The worst national anthem ever?

Fergie’s performance was panned as one of the worst performances of our nation’s anthem ever and was blasted all over social media as such.

NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley jokingly said on the TNT broadcast that he “needed a cigarette” after the performance because it was just that sultry.

But Deadline noted that fellow Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal liked it, saying, “Fergie, I love you. It was different. It was sexy. I liked it. Leave her alone.”

Still, Shaq is definitely in the minority. For those of us that had to watch this debacle, the former Black-Eyed Peas frontwoman’s performance is something that we’ll never be able to un-hear, and the reaction on the court really speaks volumes.

Fergie struggled several times to hit some of the higher notes, and while the basketball players did try their best to keep their composure, some of them simply couldn’t keep from laughing. Draymond Green, for example, was caught on camera chuckling during the performance, along with others who were visibly tickled by the rendition.

Now that she has apologized, we’re sure Fergie, who is a Grammy winning talent, will move on to sing songs that are more accommodating to her voice.