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    SpongyFrogReid McCarter
    2/20/18 11:13am

    Well, there are two separate problems, in my opinion: First, all the ‘bad singing’ stuff the vocal coach is mentioning. Second, the issue of taste: The National Anthem is not supposed to be sung as a seductive torch song, where the singer eye-fucks the audience. This came about as the result of Fergie being a trashy person and having poor taste.

    The first issue bothers me, but it is partially a result of Fergie trying — desperately — to sound ‘sexy.’ And that makes issue two the bigger problem.

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      BeerBurnersAreBetterSpongyFrog
      2/20/18 11:24am

      I think she was going for this feel (also from an all-star game in LA) but because she’s not Marvin f’ing Gaye it didn’t work. They should have just played this on the jumbo-tron. Unique as shit, powerful and sexy cause he couldn’t help it.

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      68CommentsSpongyFrog
      2/20/18 11:31am

      Trashy? You act as if she sauntered off to the side of the stage, squatted down and pissed her pants in the middle of the show.

      I mean come on, that was like 20 years ago...

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    CineCraftReid McCarter
    2/20/18 11:24am

    As an aside, I just LOVE people like this guy, who bring such expertise to the discussion. I know nothing about music or singing from a technical perspective, and so I really loved hearing him discuss her performance in such an analytical way.

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      Insert Pun HereCineCraft
      2/20/18 11:44am

      Agreed. I went into this expecting several minutes of shade, but actually learned something instead! We need more people like this in our online lives.

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      KatmanduCineCraft
      2/20/18 12:11pm

      Once upon a time I did a lot of singing and, although I never had formal training, I knew how to “open” my voice to get a fuller, richer sound that also managed to be help keep it on-key. If I, a little amateur, garnered that ability just through school choir then there’s no excuse for Fergie not knowing how to do it too.

      Fergie just doesn’t know how to sing.

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    whatthedastReid McCarter
    2/20/18 10:59am

    Here’s a thought:

    Fergie can’t actually sing correctly.

    She has always sang this way,

    Auto-tune makes her sound good (recorded) compounded by her melodies never actually asking much from her.

    Also—Are there any public recordings of her singing without any accompaniment (other than this instance)?

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      Pink Floyd Mayweather IIIwhatthedast
      2/20/18 11:22am

      She’s actually a really good singer; doesn’t have the widest range, but she isn’t a bad singer fundamentally. But she tried to stylize this performance, and the choices she made were awful, both fundamentally and in execution.

      Here’s an acoustic performance. Still doesn’t hit every note perfectly, but hits more than she doesn’t..

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      Mr GlitchPink Floyd Mayweather III
      2/20/18 11:58am

      I’d say she can sing about as well as 90% of white women everywhere.

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    Ferdinand CesaranoReid McCarter
    2/20/18 2:56pm

    Fergie has done plenty worth praising. For example, her version of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” with Slash’s band.

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      DanniellaBeeFerdinand Cesarano
      2/20/18 5:22pm

      I don’t have a problem with Fergie but her version of Sweet Child of Mine is...not good.

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      SmaugTheUnpretentiousFerdinand Cesarano
      2/20/18 7:54pm

      This just sounds like OK karaoke. Literally, just some rando lady that got up at karaoke because she really likes Sweet Child, ya did good rando lady, but a record deal isn’t coming your way.

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    Cooking with CranstonReid McCarter
    2/20/18 11:00am

    I just assumed poor Fergie was severely disadvantaged without an army of sound engineers and post-production clean up.

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      scrawlCooking with Cranston
      2/20/18 7:20pm

      These days it takes just the one engineer and a copy of Melodyne, but yes.

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    JulianReid McCarter
    2/20/18 6:06pm

    I am the only person who thought it wasn’t all that bad. At least compared to these.

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      PaulerJulian
      2/20/18 7:46pm

      I watched this last night and Good Lord, I would listen to Fergie’s version again before subjecting myself to Christina’s.

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      SmaugTheUnpretentiousJulian
      2/20/18 7:56pm

      Yes

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    ArgieBargieReid McCarter
    2/20/18 10:50am

    America shocked to find out the lady from Black Eyed Peas can’t actually sing

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    The Wilford Brimley ExplosionReid McCarter
    2/20/18 12:00pm

    You know what Fergie doesn’t get enough criticism for? The fact her entire brand is stolen from a former royal who was kinda sorta famous in the tabloids for a few years in the ‘90s.

    She basically decided “hey, there’s a duchess in Britain who has the same name as me. I’m going to take her nickname and refer to myself as ‘Du(t)chess’ in songs and album names.”

    That should have been our first clue that this woman doesn’t have a creative bone in her body.

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    Joe BelkinReid McCarter
    2/20/18 8:41pm

    She’s not a real singer, she’s an entertainer in a pop band that spent a lot of time in the studio mixing and sweetning her voice ... and depended on music videos to sell their tracks so they found a girl that appealed to some record buyers. She was doing her best ... LITERALLY and Figuratively. Not sure why people expected more though than she should have realized this gig was not for her.

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    Burt FlemingReid McCarter
    2/20/18 11:41am

    Excellent analysis of the Fergie anthem by O’Neil Gerald. This video shows he is a great coach as he especially could have trashed Fergie and dragged her through the coals but chose to not only offer up constructive criticism but also offered many ways that even a professional Grammy winner may improve.

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