Hot Take Alert: What If Fergie’s National Anthem Performance Was Actually… Good?

Well, everyone knows Fergie butchered the American anthem at the NBA All-Star Game. What this hot-take presupposes is… maybe she didn’t?

Fergie’s "Star-Spangled Banner" heard round the world has inspired many conflicted feelings: Confusion, despair, laughter… and that’s just from Draymond Green.

However, everyone—including Fergie—seemed to be in agreement about at least one thing: It bad.

A vocal coach even took to his YouTube channel to explain why exactly it was such a disaster, using fancy, academic phrases to make his case, rather than just doing what the rest of us have been doing, and screaming “my ears!?” while doubled over in hysterics.

But hold onto your era-appropriate fedora, because Jesse David Fox of Vulture is here to deliver the spiciest take of them all, writing, "Her rendition rules," concluding, “"it was Fergalicious."

"You probably assumed she just missed a bunch of notes," he pens.

"In fact, she mostly hits the notes she wanted to sing. And the ones she misses … who cares?"

Though the piece is slightly tongue-in-cheek, Fox does come to Fergie’s defence by arguing we, as a culture, don’t appreciate experimentation nearly enough.

"[W]hen offered anything that dares to be different, social media actively worked to uphold orthodoxy," he argues.

"Fergie’s performance was not a failure of conception or execution, but expectation."

You can read his full argument here. And then, rewatch Fergie’s now-actually-secretly-excellent performance below.

Photo: TNT