Fergie and the Black Eyed Peas have reunited for a special reason.
“Finally got to break bread and celebrate our milestone birthdays together,” the singer, born Stacy Ann Ferguson, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, December 13, alongside a series of photos featuring her former bandmates Taboo, Will.i.am and Apl.de.ap. “What a special night with my brothers, filled with so much love 🫛🫛♥️♥️.”
The Black Eyed Peas originally formed in 1995 with Kim Hill as the lead singer. In a 2019 interview with the New York Times, Hill explained her decision to leave the group just as they were climbing the charts.
“It just started to get clumsy and messy,” she said in an op-doc published by the Times. “You want me to grind on will.i.am in a bathing suit? That was being asked of me, never by the guys. That was happening from an executive level.”
Fergie joined the group in 2002 and sang on several of their biggest hits, including “Where Is The Love,” “Let’s Get It Started,” “I Gotta Feeling” and “Boom Boom Pow.” She released her solo album The Dutchess in 2006 while still an active member of the group, and eventually followed that up with 2017’s “Double Dutchess.”
In 2013, Fergie also welcomed her son, Axl, with ex-husband Josh Duhamel, further complicating her ability to perform with the band. In 2017, Fergie quit the group for good.
“As any hard-working mom knows, it is a delicate balancing act that I have to be juggling all the time with the different schedules, the family schedules, the work schedules,” Fergie, 42, told reporters during a TCA panel for her Fox singing competition The Four in January 2018. “Sometimes I’m just a tired mom.”
Rey J. Soul signed on with the Black Eyed Peas in 2018.
“They’re like my big brothers and they’re like my mentors,” Soul told GQ UK in March 2024. “I was growing up in the Philippines and they’ve been together as long as I’ve been alive basically. At first when I joined in, it was really like, ‘Oh my god!’ because I’m a solo artist and they have their dynamic on stage. They’re just so in sync. I’m like, ‘How do I get into this?’”
While Fergie backed away from the group officially, she remained in touch with her former bandmates.
“We try to keep in touch,” Will.i.am, 50, told Billboard of Fergie back in 2020. “We reach out every once in a while and say our hellos and happy birthdays and Merry Christmas and Happy Easter.”
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He added, “She knows where we’re at! We’re at the studio. And we love her, and she’s focusing on being a mom. That’s a hard job, and that’s what she really wanted to do and we’re here for her, and she knows how to contact us for a retreat or a breakaway. We’re respecting her [choice.] We love Fergie, and we don’t want anything but awesomeness for her.”
“Fergie is our sister. So even with these small connections, she’s always going to be our sister,” Ape.de.ap told Billboard. “But unfortunately, our schedule is displaced by [her] wanting to be a great mom, and she wants to focus on that. We support her 100 percent.”
