Fergie

Fergie was born Stacy Ann Ferguson in Hacienda Heights, California on March 27, 1975, and was a child star from the jump — a cast member on Kids Incorporated from 1984 to 1989 (the show's longest-running member) and the voice of Sally Brown in Peanuts specials through the mid-80s. In the late '90s she fronted the girl group Wild Orchid, which released albums in 1997 and 1998 before she stepped away, worn down by battles over the group's image and her own struggles with drugs — struggles she has since spoken about openly.

She joined the Black Eyed Peas in 2002 and became the voice that helped turn the group into a commercial force. But her solo debut, The Dutchess, released in September 2006, was the moment she became a name entirely her own. The album hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and generated three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles — "London Bridge" (three weeks at the top), "Glamorous," and "Big Girls Don't Cry" — plus the top-five hits "Fergalicious" and "Clumsy." For about two years, the radio was never more than one song away from Fergie.

She kept a parallel screen career running — Poseidon (2006), Grindhouse (2007), Nine (2009) — and beginning December 31, 2006 she hosted the Hollywood segments of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. All told she has sold more than 30 million records in the US alone, and her accolades include eight Grammy Awards, most earned with the Peas. The Dutchess era remains the core memory: the stretch when one former kid-show regular owned the top of the pop chart three separate times.