SANTA MONICA, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Interscope Records) - 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 No 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 No 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 No 1 in August 2007, Fergie was crowned the first female artist since Christina Aguilera (in 2000) to score three No 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 No 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 No 1 hit, "Where Is the Love?" and the Rap Grammy-winning "Let's Get It Started"). It was followed by their first No 1 pop/ No 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.
