- It's almost a little disrespectful.
If it was any other song, I'd be like, "You go, Fergie!"
- ♪ (Fergie belting) ♪ - Oh, [bleep]! That's good!
- Poor Fergie. I feel so bad.
♪ (industrial intro) ♪
- Oh, this is the national anthem thing.
- Oh gosh. - (sultrily) ♪ Oh, say... ♪
- Fergie! - Is this Fergie's performance?
Okay, I heard about this, but I didn't see it.
- (sultrily) ♪ By the dawn's early light ♪
- Sexy national anthem.
- Who is she trying to seduce?
- It's like she thinks there's a piano behind her
at a jazz club.
- Stephen Curry's like, "What the [bleep] is happening?"
- (sultrily) ♪ And the rocket's... ♪ - It's one thing to do this
on your own song. This is the national anthem.
You keep it classic.
- (sultrily) ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪
- Oh my. She's getting into it.
- (sultrily) ♪ ...flag was still there ♪
♪ Ohhh ♪ - Oh, that was bad.
Oh, it gets worse!
- There's really good parts, and there's really bad parts.
- ♪ (Fergie belting) ♪ - Like, what the [bleep] is that?
- These guys are just like, "Okay, can we just play?"
I wanna see Draymond's face.
Like, (chuckles) his face is the best.
Yup! (laughs)
Dray. And then the smirk.
- Draymond, his face, oh! Priceless.
- (sultrily) ♪ ...land of the... ♪
- Oh, no. Jimmy Kimmel. (chuckles)
- ♪ (Fergie belts note) ♪
- Look at that snap!
She's like, "Yes, I nailed that note!"
- (sultrily) ♪ And the home... ♪ - Oh my god.
Those guys are just trying to hold it together.
I feel you, guys.
- It's almost a little disrespectful.
If it was any other song, I'd be like, "You go, Fergie!
Get your sexy on!" But not this song.
- ♪ (Fergie belts note) ♪
Let's play some basketball! - (chuckles) Finally.
Please. Please, let's play some basketball.
- That was my first time seeing that and I am a little surprised.
Fergie, you are a beautiful, talented woman,
but you went the wrong direction on that.
- (FBE) So we have some more videos to show you in a second,
but that was Fergie performing the national anthem
at this year's NBA All-Star Game.
- I did not see the game, did not see it live,
but I definitely saw this all over social media the next day.
- (FBE) So there was some backlash around her performance.
And it became so significant that Fergie released
a public statement apologizing for it.
- She apologized?! Oh, that's so sad.
- (FBE) And we actually have that statement for you
to read now. - Yes! I have not seen this.
- "I've always been honored and proud to perform
the national anthem." - "Last night, I wanted
to try something special for the NBA."
Very special, all right.
- "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."
What tone was she trying to strike?!
- She took a risk, she tried something different.
Give her props for that. I don't think she should apologize.
- She's entitled to her interpretation.
If she's been asked to perform it, she's entitled to do it
the way she sees fit. - A lot of people are like,
"Oh, Fergie, you shouldn't have to apologize for anybody."
But at the same time, I feel like most of the world
probably agrees with this apology.
And as an artist, yeah, she should've apologized.
- (FBE) Well, her performance ended up going viral,
sparking memes and remixes and we have a few of those
to show you now. - Awesome.
- "The players' reactions to Fergie are hilarious."
They were hilarious.
- (Fergie) ♪ Glaareeeee ♪ - Klay actually showing
a little emotion. Interesting.
- (chuckles) His face was my favorite.
- Yeah. (laughs) His is the best.
- Oh! (chuckles) Steph Curry!
- Chance and Snoop.
- (chuckles) Everyone's like, "No! No!"
(gasps) Oh my god. Chris Rock is the best.
- Chris Rock is like, "What the [bleep]?"
- He's just trying to hold it in, together.
That's me. I'm trying not to laugh.
- (Fergie) ♪ Ohhhh ohhh ohh sayyyy ♪ - (chuckles) Jimmy Kimmel was like,
"I'm not gonna show how I feel about this right now."
- "You're doing amazing, swee"-- Oh my god!
(laughs) Oh, I love that. That's genius.
- ♪ (Fergie sings) ♪ - (dog wails)
- (chuckles) That's so spot on! Oh my god.
- Oh! (laughs) No.
- Y'all did her dirty.
- "I might be able to retire after this one."
- (Dory) You know what you should try? Humpback.
- (Marlin) No, don't try humpback. - ♪ (Fergie belting) ♪
- Oh [bleep]! That's good.
- (laughs) Fergie speaks whale.
- It actually looks like Dory is singing it.
- They're fair game. It's funny.
Fergie [bleep] up and she knows it.
I'm sure now Fergie's watching this, and like, yeah,
these are funny. - "Fergie sings, Cardi listens."
Oh, I've seen this one, where she's just jammin'. (chuckles)
- I love Cardi. She's hilarious.
She probably would be into it! She'd be like,
"I feel you, girl."
- (sultrily) ♪ Through the night ♪ - Oh god. Listening to it again
is actually pretty bad. (chuckles)
- The bop just makes no sense.
I mean, it's Cardi, but it's so dumb.
- As if Cardi would actually bounce her head to that.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
- Poor Fergie. I feel so bad.
- ♪ The pear-shaped toad ♪ - ♪ (Fergie belts) ♪
- Oh no. (laughs)
- The ugly stepsister? Oh, that's so mean.
- Man, real throwback.
- ♪ Ohh ohhh sayyyy ♪ - Oh my gosh. This is great.
- These are all hilarious. They're just in good fun.
I don't think she should be offended by them. (chuckles)
♪ (Fergie's singing remixed into "All Star" by Smash Mouth) ♪
- Nice! - That's so lame.
That's so lame.
- (sings along)♪ Wah wah wah wah wah wah ♪
- Hey, that's good. - I kind of like it now.
- Smash Mouth makes everything great. Come on.
- I love that kind of stuff.
I think that actually takes some effort.
- I feel kind of bad just because Fergie
is a talented artist. I hope she's just kind of
taking it with a grain of salt.
- (FBE) Okay, so it seems these days that whenever
something goes wrong or is slightly off
at a major event like this that the internet will waste no time
in turning it into a meme. - Very true.
- (FBE) What do you think about the fact that this
is generally our culture today's first response?
- I mean, it's no surprise. I always wanna know
who's the first person to do these, because I wanna congratulate them
for making my day.
- It's just all in good fun. If anything, it's a way
of softening the blow as much as it doesn't feel like that.
And then a week or whatever later,
another artist will do something embarrassing.
- American fans should create memes, and it's a great outlet.
If Fergie had butchered the Chinese national anthem,
her career would be over.
- It's a sign of the times, but it also sucks.
They talk about anti-bullying and body shaming,
but yet you have no problem creating a meme
or jumping on the bandwagon, retweeting, liking,
you know, just bashing someone.
It's tough when it's at someone's expense.
That's the hard part.
And so, that's the part that I don't like,
because you cannot live something down.
- (FBE) And going back to her apology,
many were quick to come to Fergie's defense
following her performance and subsequent apology,
saying that she had nothing to apologize for and feel guilty
about how the internet has taken her performance.
- Yeah, I don't think that she actually needed to apologize.
- (FBE) It seems like when someone messes up now,
the internet destroys them. Do you think going after Fergie
the way people did is okay, or is this an issue?
- I don't think people should be destroying her.
Just be like, "That was a bad move, Fergie."
- Was it a little harsh for some? Yeah, probably.
But it wasn't cruel. It wasn't like, "You sang terribly,"
"You're a no-talent." It was more just like,
"You missed the mark, and we're all gonna have
a good laugh at it." - There probably is a point
where it comes too far, but at the same time,
you know, that's this week's news,
and then next week, there'll be something different.
- It's sad if she's actually taking it to heart.
It's a fine line between just making jokes
and cyberbullying, and it's really hard
to decide when it goes too far.
But I think this is just kind of lighthearted.
- Fergie is hardly the first celebrity
to have a performance of the national anthem go viral.
From Steven Tyler to Christina Aguilera
to Roseanne Barr. - Roseanne Barr was the worst.
- (FBE) So finally, as you saw in her statement,
Fergie mentioned that she wanted to take some artistic liberty,
but that this wasn't the right way. Do you think people
should be able to take risks when performing the national anthem,
or should it always be done in the classic way?
- For the national anthem, I think it should always
be done in the classical way.
The thing is it's to represent the country.
It shouldn't be you trying to show off your voice.
- I get wanting to be artistic and having your liberty
to create the kind of songs you want,
but... bruh, you're gonna get meme'd.
Do all the crazy artistic stuff for your own music.
- If you do, you know, make modifications to it,
then you have to understand that it is a risk.
So if you do it differently, I think you just need to be ready
that it could be critiqued maybe not in a positive way.
- We've been singing that song for hundreds of years,
and every artist doesn't wanna sound like the same artist before them.
That being said, when you do make an interpretation,
it should be respectful and not overtly sexy.
- People take artistic liberties with everything else,
why can't they put a little spin on the Star Spangled Banner?
They're not changing the words,
they're not changing the content behind it.
Like, yeah, you can mix it up. Do a little remix.
- Thanks for watching this episode of Adults React.
- If you wanna see more, subscribe and hit the bell.
- If you wanna see your comment featured,
leave 'em below. - Shoutout to viewers Avery Marquis
and Casey Carr from last week. - Hi, guys. JC here,
producer at FBE. Thanks so much for watching this episode
of Adults React. If you want a behind-the-scenes look
at how we put all of these episodes together,
make sure to check us out on our social media.
The links are down below. Bye, guys.