Monday, June 3, 2013

W.W.C.I.I.T.M.I Post 2: Nicole Scherzinger

This is a series dedicated to women who despite success in the U.S. Music Industry, have est. a very complicated image for themselves.


Round 2 of this series goes to Hawaiian born, Kentucky raised (And someone who's sold 50 albums in her solo career *Hawaiian statehood reference*) queen of ambitiousness in the U.S. turned U.K. Music Industry, Nicole Scherzinger.

Scherzinger to me, wasn't much more than she who sang lead in the Pussycat Dolls. That was before VH1's Behind The Music revealed how much of a non-team playing famewhore she's always been. She was born in Hawaii and had to relocate to Kentucky when she was young. Her home life became a personal hell; Despite being beautiful, bitches with blonde highlights in KY made her develop eating disorders and hate herself for years.

Cut to her first major music related outbreak the mainstream knew of; Popstars, which in the U.S. kind of tanked after Nicole's season. [This came after Behind The Music had revealed that even before that, she had been in a group called Days of the New. They split after Nicole est. her role of not being a team player...err wanting to go solo.] She emerged out of the gate as someone to be reckoned with after singing the Whitney Houston song famous through "The Bodyguard" (You should all know what song that is by now). She eventually wins a spot in the group that formed that season known as "Eden's Crush" who went on to One Hit Wonder/Blunder status with the song "Get Over Yourself". It was during that mention in Behind The Music that her doesn't play well with others status arose. When looking at photos of the group, Nicole hated all of the photos where she thought she didn't look good. Keep in mind, Nicole's dream was to make a solo album of her own. That will be a theme throughout this post.

After the group had folded, Nicole went on to be the last person to audition for The Pussycat Dolls as things were about to wrap up. PRIMER: The group started as a burlesque troupe founded in the late 90s by Robin Antin. Around the time Nicole had auditioned, Antin and Interscope Records joined forces to have a version of the troupe as a girl group. BTM relayed that Scherzinger showed up in "dowdy" clothes for the audition [Pinstripe pants from Forever 21 was something she "splurged" on]. Keep in mind, she suffered with image issues. So when Nicole was told to change her wardrobe into something more scintillating, she should've clued in that this was to spell disaster. However, Antin and her cohort had found a star in Nicole. Oh; did I forget to mention that this cohort of hers was Ron Fair?
Ron Fair is someone who hadn't played nice with others early on. In P!nk's BTM, (while Fair was representing Christina Aguilera) he supposedly showed up with her in tow for the "Lady Marmalade" remake  and didn't even give a sweet nothing type of greeting to those on set. His and Nicole's refusal to play nice with others laid the ground work needed.

Cut to the breakout of The Pussycat Dolls; I would be remiss with dignity intact not to reference that fakakta song's chorus; "Don't Cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?". Things seem to be tolerable for at least the first song released. Then, a bit of a bombshell is dropped. For the group's debut effort, PCD, supposedly Nicole did "95%" of the vocals and Melody "ad libbed here and there". She then alleges that the others had only listened to the album when she and Ron were finished with the album.

Unanswered questions;

1. Why wasn't Melody reached for comment? Ashley was the only PCD member that agreed to be on the show. Something about only bringing her and not the one that supposedly ad libbed here and there is much too fishy.

2. Why the hell didn't the rest leave if what Nicole alleged was fact?

Well that's kind of answered with the fact that they would go on to release their last album, Doll Domination. Though not before Nicole would try to hawk a solo effort on her own.

Her Name Is Nicole was intended to be her dream at the expense of others come true. Her solo album extraordinaire. Though "Whatever U Like" ft. T.I. was a moderate success, follow up single "Baby Love" (Stickwitu 0.5) while popular in Europe, didn't do a damn thing on U.S. charts. Cut to her promo singles, "Supervillain" and "Puakenikeni" doing the same as "Baby Love" and the record was shelved. BTM showcased "deflated and defeated" Nicole as she "understood" that the audience wanted the group.

Doll Domination would spawn the hit single/Bally's fitness jingle "When I Grow Up" but by then, everyone in PCD hated each other. Especially when BTM relayed that she and Ron Fair were already scheming to have the song "Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)" for the Slumdog Millionaires soundtrack...without the group. In honest business talk, they called PCD a brand. The layout for the song pretty much read like this...


A.R. Rahman &
The Pussycat Dolls
feat. Nicole Scherzinger

Jai Ho!
(You Are My Destiny)

O_O Shit-storm alert! Shit-storm alert O_O

After Doll Domination, PCD was no more. Cut to Nicole's admitting of a very serious medical disorder; bulimia. She eventually sought treatment for it and came to peace with herself.
Then Killer Love was released completing the goal of a Nicole Scherzinger debut album. QUICK GAME for U.S. readers; name someone you know in the States that actually bought Killer Love. I'll wait *shaaaaaaade*. Even BTM didn't pretend like it made real impact in the States relaying every positive it garnered in the U.K.

Cut to her career highlights now; after winning Dancing With The Stars, when not being read the house down for her stint on The X Factor U.S. or giving orgasm laced commercials for Herbal Essences, she's making a musical splash in the U.K. Recent footage of her at an event celebrating Andrew Lloyd Webber, showcased her bitchslapping "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" from his musical, Evita. She's now confirmed as a returning judge for the U.K.'s X Factor.

Although the Webber tribute proved that she had talent all along, let Nicole's status as one of the W.W.C.I.I.T.M.I prove the golden rule of girl groups...

Pretend to play nice with others if you want others to press play on your solo efforts.

Next up; an apple O'Day can keep the Diddy away.

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