Fergie and Black Eyed Peas Reunite at 2026 AMAs, Proving Some Comebacks Are Worth the Wait

Sometimes the best moments in pop culture aren’t the ones anyone planned. On Monday, May 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Fergie walked back onto a stage with her Black Eyed Peas bandmates for the first time in years—and it was the kind of reunion that actually mattered.

The occasion? Accepting the inaugural Best Throwback Song Award at the 2026 American Music Awards for“Rock That Body,”the group’s 2010 hit. Fergie, 51, joined will.i.am, APL.DE.AP, and Taboo to celebrate a track that’s somehow still making an impact a decade and a half later. The win beat out some genuinely iconic competition—4 Non Blondes’“What’s Up?”and Goo Goo Dolls’“Iris”—which tells you something about the staying power of that song and the era it represented.

What makes this moment resonate goes beyond a trophy. Fergie stepped away from Black Eyed Peas in 2018 to focus on her solo work, and will.i.am made it clear at the time that nobody was replacing her—she’d simply moved on. The group kept making music, celebrating 20 years in the industry, but that original chemistry felt like it belonged to history. Then, in December 2025, the classic lineup finally broke bread together to mark all four members hitting their 50th birthdays. Fergie posted photos calling it“a special night with my brothers, filled with so much love.”That wasn’t nostalgia pandering. That was real.

The stats don’t lie either. Throughout their career, Fergie and Black Eyed Peas shifted over 80 million albums globally and topped the Billboard Hot 100 three times—with“Boom Boom Pow”and“I Gotta Feeling”in 2009, then“Imma Be”in 2010. They didn’t just make songs; they defined a sonic moment. A moment when pop music felt urgent and innovative and absolutely everywhere.

So here’s what makes the 2026 AMAs moment stick: it’s a reminder that some band breakups don’t erase what was built. Fergie didn’t come back because she had to or because streaming numbers were down. She came back because the music still matters and the brotherhood still does too. In an industry obsessed with the next thing, there’s something genuinely moving about artists choosing to honor where they came from.