Fergie Is Sorry For Trying “Something Special” With Her National Anthem Performance

After making headlines and receiving a lot of harsh criticism during Sunday's NBA All-Star Game for the way she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner", Fergie has apologized for her national anthem performance. "I've always been honored and proud to perform the national anthem and last night I wanted to try something special for the NBA," the singer told TMZ in a statement. "I'm a risk taker artistically, but clearly this rendition didn't strike the intended tone. I love this country and honestly tried my best."

It seems like the former Black Eyed Peas singer is sincerely sorry for the way she sang the song that opens most every American sporting event. However, the 42-year-old didn't exactly owe anyone an apology, despite many asking for one on Twitter. It seems that Fergie is apologizing, not because people thought it was a bad performance in general, but because it was a performance of the national anthem. This is a song that is considered meaningful and patriotic to many. If she sang a different song in the same style, she probably wouldn't have faced as much backlash.

It's understandable why Fergie would want to try to make the song her own and turn the well-known anthem into "something special" for a noteworthy event like the NBA All-Star Game. But, sometimes it's best to stick with tradition, especially when it comes to a song that is extremely hard to sing.

Someone who attended the game told People, "It actually didn’t sound so bad at first. Everyone was just trying to figure out what was going on. Like, was she about to break out into a different song? Then she started doing all those ranges and it just went downhill."

For those who haven't heard Fergie's rendition, well, you can watch it below. It's like a jazzy version that didn't quite hit the mark.

Yeah, it's definitely nothing like Pink singing the national anthem at the 2018 Super Bowl, but, hey, at least Fergie tried?

As soon as she started singing, those who tuned into the NBA All-Star game coverage quickly took to Twitter expressing their thoughts, concerns, and overall reactions. Basically, no one could understand what was happening.

Then, there were people who dragged her — hard. Even Leslie Jones responded negatively all the way from PyeongChang, South Korea, where she is attending the 2018 Winter Olympics. She tweeted, "Meanwhile back in the states... I leave for a couple of days and y’all lose your muthaf*cking mind!! Why did this happen? Not everyone supposed to do this y’all! You might as well should have ask me to sing. Wtf?!" Yeah... that's only one out of many tweets slamming Fergie.

On the other hand, there were some supporting Fergie. For example, Mariah Carey gave her advice on how to deal with the haters. "Dahling, nobody needs to listen to that," she told TMZ about people criticizing Fergie's singing. During the halftime report, Charles Barkley wanted to discuss Fergie's performance, but Shaquille O'Neal quickly stepped in and defended her. "Oh, stop. Don’t do that. Don’t do that to my Fergie." O'Neal added, "Fergie, I love you. It was different, it was sexy, leave her alone."

There are even those saying Fergie's apology is unnecessary. As one person tweeted, "Aye, @Fergie please take back your apology. Your rendition of the National Anthem was futuristic and super creative. You owe no one an apology when you clearly put everything you had into creating something different." Another individual posted, "Fergie didn't get any words wrong, & gave people something to talk/bitch about & chuckle at. People should be thanking her. Apology rejected. None needed at all. 'Let's play some basketball!' #MariahCarey".

However you feel about Fergie's version of the national anthem, let's all try to move forward. Granted, this probably isn't the last time she'll discuss it, because her performance is memorable, but now that she's recognized her rendition wasn't a success, it's best to let it her live her life and not continuously throw shade her way.