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Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valiente Scherzinger (also known as Nicole Kea) (born June 29, 1978) is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, and occasional actress best known for her work as the lead vocalist for the Pussycat Dolls. Pop singer and dancer Nicole Scherzinger was born Nicole Elikolani Prescovia Scherzinger on June 29, 1978, in Honolulu, HI, but was raised mostly in Louisville, KY, moving there at age six with her mom after her parents separated. Scherzinger (who is of Hawaiian, Russian, and Filipino descent) went to a performing arts high school and, following graduation, enrolled at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. Majoring in theater arts and minoring in dance, she eventually put college on hold to pursue music, initially serving as a backing vocalist for the late-'90s rock group Days of the New. In 2001, Scherzinger entered as a contestant on the first season of the WB television show Popstars, where she won the role of lead singer in the resulting all-girl pop group Eden's Crush. The group's first single, "Get Over Yourself," did well on radio and broke into the Billboard Hot 100s Top Ten, but when their label folded soon after, Eden's Crush shortly followed suit. Scherzinger pushed forward and contributed a track ("Breakfast in Bed") to the soundtrack for the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore flick 50 First Dates under the name Nicole Kea. Around the same time, the popular L.A. burlesque act the Pussycat Dolls were being recast into more of a commercial pop/R&B group, and Scherzinger joined on as their lead singer in 2003. In fact, Scherzinger wound up singing basically all of the vocals on the group's 2005 debut, PCD, along with being the only Doll to have a few songwriting credits on the album. As the Pussycat Dolls' record went on to sell millions of copies, Scherzinger collaborated on various songs outside of the group with artists like P. Diddy, Rihanna, Avant, Will Smith, and Belinda. As the Pussycat Dolls continued to support their debut on the road, Scherzinger readied the release of her first solo album, Her Name Is Nicole..., scheduled for release in late summer 2007. The album is slated to feature various guest spots, including ones from Akon, Timbaland, and will.i.am. Scherzinger also plans on returning to her first love of acting at some point; her rיsumי already includes bit parts on the television shows My Wife and Kids and Las Vegas, as well as in movies Love Don't Cost a Thing and Chasing Papi. Scherzinger was born in Honolulu Hawaii to a Filipino father and a Hawaiian/Russian mother. Her mother Rosemary was 18 at the time of Nicole's birth and lived in an inner city neighborhood and separated from her father when Nicole was a baby.They then moved to Louisville, Kentucky with her half sister Ke'ala and German American stepfather Gary Scherzinger. Scherzinger began her life as a performer in Louisville, attending the Youth Performing Arts School at duPont Manual High School and performing with Actors Theatre of Louisville. Scherzinger majored in theater arts at Wright State University but put her studies on hold in 1999 to sing backing vocals for the rock band Days of the New. Scherzinger appeared on the second album by Days of the New, released in 1999. She also recorded two songs with Barry Drake's F.O.B, which were released in 2001. In 2001, Scherzinger competed in the premiere season of The WB's television show Popstars, on which she earned a spot in the all-girl pop group Eden's Crush. She became one of the main vocalists for the group. The group's 2001 single "Get Over Yourself" peaked at number one in sales and hit the top ten on Billboard Hot 100. "Love This Way" was the second single chosen from the Popstars album; however, their record company, London-Sire Records, folded and the group eventually disbanded. Songwriter Kara DioGuardi contributed one track to the album, and later went on to co-write with Scherzinger for PCD and Her Name is Nicole. In November 2007, Scherzinger talked of her time in Eden's Crush: “ ...it was hell... I was in a band with five other girls and every day was torture for me. We were on TV all the time and the atmosphere was awful. I was the one nobody liked and there was nothing I could do to stop that. Maybe it was because I was the pretty one. The other girls thought I was bitchy and ambitious. They would all say things about me, both to my face and behind my back... Every day I was in that band I cried my eyes out. The band was meant to be fun and frivolous but the reality was that it was miserable... I was too sensitive back then, but I got toughened up. I couldn't have gone into the Dolls without my experience in Crush." After the disbanding of Eden's Crush, Scherzinger made a few promotional solo appearances under the stage name of Nicole Kea, including covering "Breakfast in Bed" for the soundtrack to 50 First Dates in 2003. Scherzinger worked with Yoshiki of Japanese rock band X Japan on in his Violet UK project. She sang the English version of "I'll Be Your Love" live with the Tokyo Symphonic Orchestra. The track also appeared on the 2003 Various Artists album Exposition of Global Harmony. In May 2003, Scherzinger joined the Pussycat Dolls burlesque troupe, who were being re-cast as recording artists. She had first seen them performing on The Late Show with David Letterman in November 2002, where Carmen Electra sang "Big Spender" from the Bob Fosse musical Sweet Charity. In 2006, Scherzinger said "It caught my eye because I’d played Velma Kelly in Fosse's Chicago in college." The Pussycat Dolls now have world-wide status as a popular singing group, with "Don't Cha", "Buttons" and "Stickwitu" as top five hits in the U.S.. The album PCD went double-platinum in 2006. Scherzinger sang nearly all lead vocals on the album, with Carmit Bachar and Melody Thornton also contributing. Scherzinger is the only group member with songwriting credits on PCD; she co-wrote "I Don't Need a Man" with Kara DioGuardi and producer Rich Harrison, and co-wrote "Buttons" with producer Sean Garrett. Another collaboration with DioGuardi, "Flirt", became a B-side to "Stickwitu" and a bonus track on PCD. In 2006, Scherzinger toured with the Pussycat Dolls for their album promotion. It was revealed in 2006 that the Dolls are salaried employees of Interscope Records, giving the label a high level of control over the group's finances and business decisions. She was ranked at number twenty-two on Maxim's Hot 100 in 2006. Scherzinger appeared on the March 2008 cover of Men's Fitness magazine. Following the popularity of "Don't Cha" and the continuing rise of the Pussycat Dolls, Scherzinger recorded a series of duets or "guest appearances", predominantly with male vocalists. In 2005, she appeared on recordings by Shaggy, Vittorio Grigolo, and Will Smith. The following year she sang on Avant's single "Lie About Us" and P. Diddy's hit "Come to Me" (which she also co-wrote). She has recently also been on a track by will.i.am along with many other musicians called "Yes We Can". Other appearances are listed in her discography. Scherzinger worked on her debut album from 2006-2008 with record producers including will.i.am, Timbaland, Kara DioGuardi, and Bryan-Michael Cox. Scherzinger announced in a March 17, 2007 interview in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that the album would be called Her Name is Nicole; It was originally slated for a 2007 release but is currently without an official release date. The first single, "Whatever U Like", featuring rapper T.I., was released in July 2007. The song was a commercial and critical bomb however, and it was soon announced that "Baby Love" (released September 2007) would replace "Whatever U Like" as the "lead single" from the album. Media reports commented on the fact that both Interscope's and Scherzinger's official websites started in September 2007 to refer to "Baby Love" as her first single. After both these singles flopped in North America ("Baby Love" charted well in Europe however), a poll was placed on Scherzinger's website, asking fans to vote for the third single. Choices include: "Supervillian", "Happily Never After", "Who's Gonna Love You" and "Power's Out". However on November 28, the poll was updated and the songs "Power's Out" and "Supervillian" were removed and replaced with "Puakenikeni" and "Physical". It was announced via the website on December 10 that "Puakenikeni" was to be the next official single to be taken from the album, however it has yet to be fully released internationally. "Supervillian" and "Puakenikeni" were both released as iTunes downloads only. As with Scherzinger's earlier solo singles, they failed to make any impact on the U.S. charts. To date, both Interscope and Scherzinger have not made any announcement on the official release date, however a recent interview with Robin Antin confirmed that the second Pussycat Dolls album will be released first, followed by a revised solo album from Scherzinger. Scherzinger appeared in the TV comedy My Wife and Kids. She briefly appeared in the movie Chasing Papi as Miss Puerto Rico, whose appearance as a candidate was impersonated by the character of Roselyn Sanchez, with whom Scherzinger shared a physical resemblance. She also had a small role in the 2003 film Love Don't Cost a Thing. Scherzinger has recently done a commercial for The CW Television Network promoting their 2007-2008 Fall Primetime schedule – Get Into The CW. In October 2007, Scherzinger appeared on two episodes of UK TV show X Factor Season 4 in which she helped Sharon Osbourne pick her finalists in her home in Los Angeles. Scherzinger also turned up as a member of the audience in the finale of X Factor Season Four. None of the other Pussycat Dolls were present. In April 2008, Scherzinger recorded a cover version of "Rio" by Duran Duran for an advertising campaign for Unilever's Caress brand of body wash. It has been announced that this will be her next single, and a commercial video has already been released . "Rio" will be released to radio in early May 2008, and the full length music video will be premiering on MTV and other music channels on the following months. |
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