This kitty's got claws … and a whole lot of beef with her feline frenemies.
Nicole Scherzinger is synonymous with The Pussycat Dolls, but there's more to the multifaceted
performer than meets the eye.
Like so many musicians, Nicole Scherzinger noticed her natural gifts very early in life.
She was able to cultivate her talents by attending a performing arts school, the duPont Manual
High School/Youth Performing Arts School.
According to the Fund for the Arts website, Scherzinger won a major scholarship, which
she used to go on to study musical theater at Wright State University.
This explains how she has so easily stepped into musical acting roles, such as playing
Grizabella in "Cats" on the West End or Grace Farrell in the 2021 NBC production of "Annie,"
which was filmed live.
"I am chief of staff to Oliver Warbucks."
"Oliver Warbucks?
THE Oliver…?"
As a youngster, Scherzinger was also active in local talent shows and she became locally
famous at 18 when she competed in the Coca-Cola Talent Competition hosted by the Kentucky
State Fair, per Louisville.com.
She sang a song from "Miss Saigon" and came out with a first runner-up title.
As she shared in Marie Claire, she loved performing so much as a teenager that she even once worked
as a mascot at a theme park called Kentucky Kingdom.
She told the magazine, jokingly:
"It was disgusting — so hot! — and the smell.
You couldn't get enough Febreeze."
It would be only a few short years before she shot to fame after her first appearance
on reality television, at age 23.
Back before "American Idol," "The Voice," and most other contemporary singing competition
shows, there was "Popstars," a franchise that originally began in New Zealand.
"Popstars" hit America in 2001, and it lasted for only two seasons, but it was the catalyst
for Nicole Scherzinger's future singing career.
Scherzinger was a contestant during the first season, and she made it all the way to the
end as a member of the show-formed band Eden's Crush.
The girl group had only one hit single — "Get Over Yourself" — before calling it quits,
which then freed Scherzinger up to join the much more successful Pussycat Dolls.
Interestingly, rather than recoil from her reality TV past, Scherzinger has embraced
it by becoming a reality show judge herself.
In 2011, she told Marie Claire:
"My music is the driving engine, and The X Factor is where I can give back to the contestants
— pay it forward, since I got my start on reality shows.
I'm ready to take it all on."
In addition to both the UK and US versions of "The X Factor," Scherzinger has also served
as a judge or panelist on "The Sing-Off," "Australia's Got Talent," and "The Masked Singer."
As a contestant, she has also rejoined her reality roots on occasion, mostly notable
on "I Can Do That" and "Dancing With the Stars," both of which she won.
"The glory that is the Argentine Tango as embodied in the two of you."
A lot of fans consider the Pussycat Dolls to be the Nicole Scherzinger show, given that
she was always front and center, and always the one doing the vast majority of the actual singing.
Well, it turns out that Scherzinger also thinks about the group as being an extension of herself,
and she has referred to their music as "her" music in interviews.
For instance, she told The Guardian:
"I pretty much executive-produced those records.
That music felt like my music."
Per the Mirror, an older VH1 clip that went viral in 2020, Scherzinger stated she recorded
almost all of the vocals on "PCD," the first and more successful of the group's two albums.
Scherzinger has also said that she at times put the group before her solo aspirations;
she once told The Hollywood Reporter that she allowed the song "When I Grow Up" to go
to the Dolls rather than land on a solo album as planned.
Despite the rest of the members more or less being reduced to glorified background dancers,
Scherzinger agreed to do a Pussycat Dolls reunion tour in 2020, and then later backed out.
She proceeded to get into a legal battle with PCD founder Robin Antin, and the two accused
one another of tanking the reunion.
The Pussycat Dolls were known for their sexualized outfits and suggestive dancing — which makes
sense in that it was originally founded as a burlesque group — and their hypersexualized
reputation was at times at odds with Nicole Scherzinger's strong sense of faith.
As she told Wylde, she grew up Roman Catholic in a very conservative family that went to
church regularly.
When she first arrived at her audition for the PCD, Scherzinger was thrown by the outfits.
She elaborated on this to The Guardian, saying:
"I was very conservative.
I had really strong religious beliefs.
I just wanted to make my mother proud.
[...] In the beginning, it was a massive hump for me to get over."
In that same chat with The Guardian, Scherzinger shared she goes to church at least two times
per week, and she still very strongly identifies as conservative in values.
She emphasized that she has never made out with anyone in a music video, and that she
frequently wore slightly — very slightly — more clothing than some of the other Pussycat Dolls.
Like so many other pop stars — including everyone from Rihanna to Ariana Grande to
Billie Eilish — Nicole Scherzinger has her own fragrance.
In fact, she has a whole line of fragrance products, which began in 2017 with the launch
of her scent Chosen.
At the time of the release, she told Hello!:
"When I do things, I really do it with care and love and I want it to fully represent
me all the way.
I wanted my first fragrance to come out and really embody me and my spirit."
To ensure it represented her, Scherzinger was involved in the entire process, which
included creating a bottle shape that paid homage to her home state of Hawaii.
In addition to Chosen, Scherzinger now has two other perfumes, called Night and Day.
She also sells her own brand of body mist, which comes in scents such as "hypnotic bloom"
and "caramel latte."
Prior to the fragrance game, Scherzinger experimented with a fashion line when she created a 30-piece
collection in 2014 for the brand Missguided, per Digital Spy.
She has also done quite a few endorsements over the years, partnering with existing brands
in the fashion and beauty realm, such as Herbal Essences.
Nicole Scherzinger is most famous for her music and her appearances on reality television
judging panels, but she has dabbled in other ventures, including acting.
Though she is not a big-time thespian, she has some notable credits like a small role
in "Men in Black 3" and guest stints on shows like "Wizards of Waverly Place" and
"How I Met Your Mother."
"Great job using long division to catch that space burglar, eh?"
Her most significant acting roles have been in TV remakes of well-known musicals.
In 2017, Scherzinger appeared as Penny Rivera in the TV remake of "Dirty Dancing," and in
2021, she played Grace Farrell in "Annie Live!"
Suffice it to say, Scherzinger has yet to become a movie star, but that has not been
for a lack of trying.
In 2016, she discussed one of the roles that got away: C.J. Parker in the "Baywatch" film
starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Zac Efron.
She told Glamour UK
"I started this year working out every day, motivated to get my butt in shape because
I was determined I was gonna be the new Baywatch girl.I was hell-bent, I'm an ocean angel,
I love it."
Unfortunately for Scherzinger, fate had other plans, and the role ultimately went to Kelly Rohrbach.
This caused the pop star to lament:
"I was devastated.
What is my year, what is my life, if I'm not in Baywatch?!"
Beyond "Baywatch," Nicole Scherzinger has had other close calls with screen stardom.
For instance, she may have at one point been considered for a role in the film adaptation
of "Cats," but could not even get an audition after falling out with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Scherzinger appeared in "Cats" in London's West End, where she played Grizabella and
was nominated for an Olivier Award, per The Guardian.
But after she pulled out of reprising her role on Broadway at the last minute, Webber
was livid.
As reported by The Guardian, he told Economist Radio:
"I'm furious because I really believe she's the most fantastically talented girl and I
went out on a limb to get her for the London Palladium here, and it makes me look like
an absolute t— with them all."
He added, quote, "But never mind, there'll be another girl on Broadway and Nicole will
not get her Tony award."
When the movie version was in casting, Scherzinger said casting agents would not even let her audition.
She told The Guardian:
"That really upset me, I won't lie about that.
I was devastated."
Scherzinger and Webber have since made up, and it is unclear if he was the sole reason
behind her exclusion from the film or if it was a choice made by other creatives.
We are not going to say that it was a blessing in disguise, but "Cats" has a mere 19 percent
rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was widely panned, so it probably would not have launched Scherzinger
into blockbusters anyway.
Oh, happenstance…
"I love it."
Nicole Scherzinger is currently in a relationship with Thom Evans, a hunky former professional
rugby player seven years her junior.
Per Cosmopolitan UK, the pair have been officially dating since January 2020, but met a few months
prior when Evans appeared on "The X-Factor: Celebrity," which Scherzinger judged.
This is far from Scherzinger's first high-profile romance and, though she tends to keep her
personal life relatively quiet, there has been a fascination with who she has dated
over the years.
Scherzinger's most notable romance has been with race car driver Lewis Hamilton, whom
she dated from 2007 to 2015, per The Independent.
This overlaps with the heyday of the Pussycat Dolls — their second album came out in 2008
— as well as the start of Scherzinger's solo career and television ventures.
Before Hamilton, Scherzinger dated rocker Nick Hexum.
When they were still together, Scherzinger was offered a spot in the Black Eyed Peas
but, as Will.i.am shared on BBC Radio 1Xtra years later, Hexum apparently put the kibosh on it.
Scherzinger has also been in relationships with "Laguna Beach" cast member Talan Torriero,
tennis player Grigor Dimitrov, and footballer Patjim Kasami.
There are also rumors that Scherzinger possibly had a fling with Harry Styles, but those have
not been substantiated.