This article is about the debut album of Fergie. For Bo Diddley's guitar player, The Dutchess, see Norma-Jean Wofford. For the film, see The Duchess (film).
Untitled
The Dutchess is the solo debut album of American pop singer Fergie, who is a member of the Black Eyed Peas. The album was first released in the U.S. on September 19, 2006. The Dutchess was available both as an edited, clean version and a Parental Advisory version and was released internationally quickly following the U.S. release. As of 2008, the album has sold more than six million copies worldwide. Due to the success of the album, it was re-released with bonus tracks and new covers in Japan, Australia, and the United States. The album produced 5 top five singles in the U.S., including three number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, "London Bridge", "Big Girls Don't Cry", and "Glamorous", as well as the number two single "Fergalicious" and the number five single "Clumsy". All five of the aforementioned singles have sold over two million digital downloads each in the U.S., thus setting a new record in the digital era for the most multi-platinum singles from one album.[1] The song, "All That I Got (The Make Up Song)" has been remixed slightly and used as one of the two main music themes for Tyra Banks' talk show, Tyra. According to Label, the album has sold 8 million copies worldwide, and is the thirty-second best-selling album of the 2000s.
History
The title is a derivation and misspelling of the title "The Duchess of York", as Fergie (a derivative of her last name "Ferguson") and Sarah Ferguson, the real Duchess of York, share a surname and nickname. Will.I.Am was an executive producer for the album. Ludacris, B-Real from Cypress Hill and Rita Marley all make guest appearances.[2] Fergie has made it clear in interviews that she will still be an active member of the Black Eyed Peas.
In Australia, with the success of her first number-one single "Big Girls Don't Cry", the album peaked at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart on July 23, 45 weeks after it was released. The album has shifted over 210,000 copies and is certified triple platinum by ARIA. It has spent an impressive 62 weeks inside the nation's top 50, and 21 weeks inside the top 10.[3] It spent four consecutive weeks at number one.[4] Fergie has also had five consecutive top 4 hits from a debut album, the first artist to do so was Mariah Carey with her 1990 album, Mariah Carey, which had four consecutive number ones. Due to the re-release of The Dutchess in the U.S, the original album bounced back from #104 to #28, because of the 11,000 copies of the deluxe edition sold in its first week.
On December 21, 2007, Fergie performed "Finally" on the 9th Annual A Home for the Holidays special on CBS and on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2008 on ABC, where Ryan Seacrest announced that it would be a single in 2008. It was released to radio on February 26, 2008.[5] Fergie's current single is "Finally". The music video for "Finally" was filmed by Marc Webb, but has yet to be released.[6] Some songs were written with Fergie's old band, Wild Orchid members Renee Sands, and Stefanie Ridel.
Release and reception
The Dutchess debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 in the United States with sales of more than 150,000 in its first week.[7] 51 weeks after its release, The Dutchess climbed to a new peak of number two in the U.S.[8] In the UK, it debuted at number 27 with 9,110 copies sold.[citation needed] The song "Losing My Ground" was the upcoming single, though it was replaced for "Glamorous" for unknown reasons. In a matter of weeks it dropped out of the chart altogether until the success of "Glamorous" when the album shot up from 77 to 28. Again, after the success of "Big Girls Don't Cry", the album climbed to 19 and after dropping a few places, went back up to its number 18 peak. To date, the album has produced three Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits, including "London Bridge", "Glamorous", and "Big Girls Don't Cry", with "Fergalicious" peaking at number two. Fifth single "Clumsy" peaked at the number five on the chart. A remix of "Big Girls Don't Cry", which features Sean Kingston, became an iTunes-only single and the new song "Pick It Up" (which appears on the Japanese re-released edition of the album) will become a single in Japan.[citation needed]
The album has been re-released in Japan on November 7, 2007 with six new songs, including "Pick It Up" featuring will.i.am.[9] The re-release also has a new, exclusive cover of Fergie popping out of the cake seen in Fergalicious. In Australia there was an "Australian Tour Edition" release, which contains six bonus tracks, including the Pajon Rock Mix included in the Japan re-release and a new Collipark remix of "Clumsy". The album does not feature "Pick It Up". The album had different release dates nationally, and ranged from January 10, 2008 and January 14, 2008. According to Access Hollywood, "The Dutchess" was re-released which the name "The Glam Dutchess Deluxe Edition" worldwide on May 27, 2008.[10] Before its release, Fergie's label's website (Interscope) officially confirmed that "Deluxe Edition" would contain four bonus tracks and a new cover.[11]
Fergie re-released a Deluxe Edition of The Dutchess on May 27, 2008 and on May 31, 2008 in Australia.[12] It has four bonus tracks which are "Labels or Love" (from the Sex and the City Movie), "Clumsy (Soulja Boy Remix)", "Barracuda" and "Party People". It comes with an illustration poster of Fergie, a coupon for any Fergie merchandise and a ConnecteD access to videos.
Initial critical response to The Dutchess was average. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 58, based on 15 reviews.[13]
Singles
From Standard Edition
"London Bridge", also known as "London Bridge (Oh Shit)" (or "London Bridge (Oh Snap)" for the edited version) is a song co-written by Fergie. It was released as the lead single from the album on July 18, 2006, and was Fergie's first single as a solo artist. As of January 1, 2008, the single has sold 1,792,912 copies in the U.S.
"Fergalicious" is the second single from the album, The Dutchess. It features Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am, who also produced the track. "Fergalicious" was not officially released as the second single in the UK, where "Glamorous" was officially made the second single instead. However, "Fergalicious" still managed to chart at number 26 on the UK Official Download Chart and will be released as the fourth single there, over a year after the song's initial release, as a double A-side with "Clumsy". This is possibly due to the huge success of "Big Girls Don't Cry" in the UK which reached #2, saved the album, and even made it reach a new peak position at #18. As of August 2008, the single has sold over 2,700,000 copies.
"Glamorous" is the third single of The Dutchess; the song features Ludacris. The beat was originally presented to Gwen Stefani as a remix for her single "Luxurious", but the singer ultimately decided not to use it. Ludacris' verse is leftover from that version. In March 2007, the song became Fergie's second number-one single in the United States. The single was released on March 19, 2007 in the UK and was the second single taken from the album. The single was not as successful in Latin America (excluding Mexico, where it proved to be a hit) as "London Bridge" and "Fergalicious". "Glamorous" is the fourth single from the album in Brazil, where "Big Girls Don't Cry" was released as the third single. Fergie sang this song along with "Big Girls Don't Cry" at the Concert for Diana. As of March 2008, the single has sold 2,300,000 copies.
"Big Girls Don't Cry", also known as "Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)", is a song written by Fergie and Toby Gad for Fergie's debut solo album The Dutchess (2006). The song was released as the album's fourth single in 2007 (see 2007 in music) and topped the charts in several countries, most notably in Australia (for nine consecutive weeks - also becoming the number-one single in the ARIA's Year End Charts for 2007), and in the United States. It was the most played song of 2007 in Brazil (the success of the song there is due to Big Brother Brasil, which chose the song as the theme of the most popular couple of the show) and the most downloaded track in the U.S., with astonishing sales of more than 2,750,000 copies sold. In July 2007, Fergie performed the song at the Concert for Diana and Live Earth. By the end of August 2007, the song became Fergie's third number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was nominated in the 'Best Female Pop Vocal Performance' category at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, which was held February 10, 2008.
"Clumsy" was written by Fergie and will.i.am, sampling Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It", Deee-Lite's "Who Was That", and a small part of MC Lyte's "Poor Georgie". The song was released as the album's fifth single. The song peaked at number five in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the fifth consecutive top-five single from The Dutchess. Fergie has also had five consecutive top 5 hits from a debut album on the ARIA Charts in Australia making her the first artist to do so since Delta Goodrem in 2003 with Innocent Eyes who had five consecutive number ones. Initially "Clumsy" was Fergie's least successful single, but later it was replaced by "Finally".
"Here I Come" is a song produced and featured Will.i.am. The track was released in Australia in January 2008. It reached 22 on Australia Singles Chart and 122 on Hot 100. It was used on the commercials that advertised the debut of the new channel CW and in a Motorola Rockr commercial for Brazil and Portugal featuring Fergie.
"Finally" is the sixth single from The Dutchess. It is the album's least successful single. It featured John Legend on piano.
"All That I Got (The Make Up Song)," especially its refrain, is the second of two theme songs used for Tyra Banks's talk show, even though it was never truly released as a single.
From The Glam Dutchess Deluxe Edition
"Party People" is the first official single from Nelly's fifth studio album "Brass Knuckles". The song is also a single from the Deluxe Edition of The Dutchess. It reached 40 in the USA and 14 in the UK.
"Labels or Love" is the second single from the Deluxe Edition of The Dutchess, and eight overall. The song did not chart on Hot 100, but in UK it reached 56. This is the last single from the album and no music video was filmed.
