Don’t Cha by Pussycat Dolls ft Busta Rhymes. “Nothing. I’m a massive fan of all the cool kids out there, I’m not going to judge them. Before we were done, we had hits coming out.”. Turn me down to my face, at least, and they didn’t.” In that light, I say, the Broadway nights seem like she is getting her own back. It’s been for ever since I’ve put out music, and that’s difficult for me, especially when I always set such high expectations for myself. It made me pissed off.”, It is not as if she has not been tested. “I was very conservative. Reviews condemned or celebrated the “fantasy of a girl group that’s only in it for sex” (to quote from one that was very much in favour). Little Mix are so successful because those girls worked their little tushies off.”. Nuh-uh. “In the past I’ve said you can never work too much.”. In 1999, Scherzinger was hired by Days of the New band leader Travis Meeks to contribute vocals on their self-titled second studio album and later dropped out of college to tour through the US in support of the album. Little Mix’s Jesy Nelson struggled under the spotlight, particularly with online abuse; does she think that contestants are supported enough? The way that people looked at and treated them, and then how they looked at and treated me by his side; I just thought it was sexist. Scherzinger chalks that up to being a perfectionist: “My mother said when I was a little girl, if I coloured slightly outside of the lines, I would rip the page and throw it across the room.”, Would she like to be a star on Adele’s level – or Lady Gaga, who toured as Pussycat Dolls’ support? “Oh, absolutely. I pretty much sang an original song a cappella, standing next to the door. Doll parts … Nicole Scherzinger as Grizabella in Cats. Scherzinger would have loved to have been in the Cats film, she says, but the casting director refused to see her audition. Meeks claims that after touring, the two grew apart creatively and that despite being an "amazing entertainer", she "just didn't seem to understand music very well … she's just not much of a musician, nor [does she] understand music." I just don’t go on the friggin’ internet!”, The most sexism she has ever encountered has been while in the company of high-profile ex-boyfriends, she says; Lewis Hamilton is implied, although she does not identify him by name. Scherzinger’s struggle with an eating disorder and body dysmorphia predated the Dolls, but the image-consciousness of the group – combined with the pressures of fame and her work schedule – exacerbated it. “And it comes with it, unfortunately – we all deal with it.” So Scherzinger has struggled with online abuse herself? The Pussycat Dolls’ hyper-sexualised image also captured the collective imagination. “Yeah. She saw doctors, but it was only towards the end of the Dolls, when Scherzinger was in her early 30s, that she started to put her issues behind her. She smiles, the Pussycat that got the cream. I just wanted to make my mother proud.”. “Guess I got balls.”. I want to be on my 15th world tour.”, The fact that she isn’t, Scherzinger says, is partly a reflection of her social anxiety and her reluctance to be “more of a fame whore, as people call it”. Tickets available from livenation.co.uk, Wildly entertaining! Guess what happens when you die?” She meets my eyes with fierce focus. The Pussycat Dolls were unleashed into the world in 2005, presented on their debut album PCD as a playfully predatory gang, with Scherzinger the ringleader. Scherzinger had only just returned to London from presenting at the MTV Europe music awards in Spain the previous night. I think we all hold responsibility, in everything in life. “My team has to wrestle me to to the ground to get me on a red carpet … I’d much rather just be at home, eating jambon.”, But she is working on new music, and diligently sets deadlines to ensure that her personal goals don’t fall by the wayside. The artist is dating , her … Several albums were scrapped at her request, totalling about 500 songs that no one has ever heard. “We had quite a machine behind it, so things happened very focused and very fast,” says Scherzinger. Legs curled up beneath her on the sofa, snakeskin stilettos kicked to the side, she is visibly more relaxed than a few days ago, and excited about going to see Lizzo perform later on. I had really strong religious beliefs. “I’m a pretty tough cookie. “It really puts things in perspective. Her mother is in a stable condition now, but her cousin’s killer has still not been identified, says Scherzinger, growing tearful. Anything that’s worth having is going to take work.” Her tone softens. On 29-6-1978 Nicole Scherzinger (nickname: Cola) was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. “I pretty much executive-produced those records. I just rolled up my sleeves, got in the studio and turned out these records. “I think there’s something to be said for leaving a little bit for the imagination. I’m mostly sad because I’ll never have my cousin back. She made her 8 million dollar fortune with The Pussycat Dolls. Stars love to claim that they are just like us, but Scherzinger’s quotidian glamour – her authoritative presence on The X Factor; her ubiquity on red carpets and in the tabloids, for years as Lewis Hamilton’s girlfriend – had made it seem more of a reach for her than others. Now I’m very headstrong about my views and what I have to say.”, Yet Scherzinger’s own career as a solo artist never quite took off, peaking with Don’t Hold Your Breath in 2011 (which knocked Someone Like You by Adele from UK No 1). Then she had said she was “very relatable”, and I’d hoped my scepticism hadn’t registered on my face. “I feel like it was the catalyst, like we were at the forefront of all that. “Absolutely,” she says. I still think that song is a classic and it holds just as true today, the power behind it.” Scherzinger shrugs: “And it’s just fun, not taking yourself too seriously.”. Scherzinger – then fresh out of Eden’s Crush, a short-lived girl group assembled through the US version of Popstars – had been recruited to the Pussycat Dolls from a cold audition.