Can Nicole Scherzinger remember the lyrics to Buttons, Don’t Cha, and other Pussycat Dolls hits? Watch the Tony Award winner put herself to the test—singing her own songs out loud—while spilling how she became the Dolls’ lead singer and scored a role in Moana.
00:00No, there is nothing that can stop, only one for me.
00:06I should have warmed up before I did this interview.
00:09I didn't know I'd be singing.
00:17Oh, gosh.
00:18Read the lyric and tell you the song.
00:20You have to play fair.
00:22See, I don't care, but I know she ain't going to want to share.
00:28I know this.
00:29That's my OG joint, y'all.
00:31Don't ya?
00:52How did I become the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls?
00:56Rob and Anton used to say, there's a Pussycat Doll in everyone.
00:59There was an actual audition.
01:02They saw a gazillion girls.
01:05I came in at the 11th hour.
01:06I was the very last person for them to see.
01:10And it was just because I heard it through the grapevine, and I showed up at the record plant, and they didn't even want to see me.
01:16They had no time for me because they were in their call back stages.
01:19I walked into this ginormous recording studio, and they were like, you can stop right there.
01:25What do you want to sing?
01:26And I just sang a cappella, an original song.
01:29And then they were like, can you dance?
01:30And out of nowhere, I just whipped out a CD from my armpit.
01:34I was like, hit it!
01:36I felt like I had a top hat on, and I had Velcro, and I unleashed, and I was wearing like a corset and everything and ready to go because I have a theatrical background.
01:43I played Velma Kelly in college, so I just like had my fishnets on, and I had my corset on.
01:50And so it's a lot of years of hard work that got me, but it was just the Pussycat Dolls unleashed the doll inside of me.
01:59Oh, this is easy.
02:04Take the chance to recognize that this could be yours.
02:08I think I wrote this lyric.
02:10This is loosen up my buttons, baby.
02:12Take the chance to recognize that this could be yours.
02:17It's the wrong one.
02:31It's the wrong one.
02:32I could tell.
02:34Oh my gosh.
02:35The first reaction that I had hearing this beat was like, this is it.
02:40It was unlike anything I had ever heard.
02:42Polo de Don, brilliant producer.
02:45It just was so rich.
02:47It was so dark and so beefy, and it had balls.
02:51As soon as I heard the beat, I started chanting.
02:54So if you hear buttons in the beginning or sometimes on TikTok, you'll hear a chant, and that's me.
03:01But better than that.
03:09I had also done chanting in Jai Ho, and I just loved to chant because I was in a rock band before called Days of the New.
03:17And I used to chant because I would be inspired by a beautiful singer, an artist by the name of Lisa Gerard.
03:23And a lot of people know her voice from the Gladiator soundtrack.
03:27I chanted all over that beat, and then they sampled it, and that's how the button starts out.
03:33I've come home at last.
03:35Absolutely.
03:36This is as if we never said goodbye from Sunset Boulevard.
03:47That's my song.
03:48That's my baby.
03:49It's still a moment that I tear up thinking about.
03:53People don't realize this is what I've been working towards and fighting for my entire life, my career.
03:59I mean, I started doing theater, professional theater, at the age of 14 years old.
04:03I specifically love this line because it says, I've come home at last, because I've always just felt, you know, the theater and the stage was my very first love.
04:12There's a TikTok out there when I'm dressed up from my When I Grow Up music video, and we're on Hollywood Boulevard.
04:19And I look across the street and I said, you know, I always thought I'd end up on that side of the street and it pans to the Pantages and Wicked's playing.
04:26And I said, but you know, one day I'm going to make it back home.
04:30And I have.
04:31And so I have come home at last.
04:33It's still surreal to me that the legendary, iconic Glenn Close introduced me before my performance at the Tonys this year.
04:42And then Oprah presented me with my award.
04:45Okay.
04:46You are the reason that I breathe.
04:48Of course.
04:49I wrote these lyrics.
04:50This is Jai Ho.
04:56I mean, first of all, I'm so grateful for the girls because they made me a better dancer because they were all professional.
05:11They were brilliant and movement was so effortless to them.
05:14So I was like, I can't be looking stupid next to them.
05:16So I worked extra hard.
05:17The dolls were the best with dance choreography.
05:20Like the girls were the best.
05:21I was so inspired by them.
05:23I feel like people, you know, try to keep up with us.
05:26No, I'm just joking.
05:27This day and age, this like younger generation, everybody could dance.
05:31Everybody's so brilliant and amazing.
05:33And they got their own thing going on.
05:35So I love seeing that.
05:37But I was really proud that we were such a solid, strong dance group.
05:41It was like not really, really too cutesy.
05:44It was quite really strong and like sometimes warrior like dancing.
05:48Okay.
05:49Sometimes who we wish we were, what we wish we could do is just not meant to be.
05:56Is this my monologue from Moana?
06:00Yo, you trying to trick me.
06:02I remember.
06:04Girl, I fought tooth and nail.
06:14That's how I got cast.
06:17I had heard about Moana from my family in Hawaii because I'm Hawaiian, Ukrainian, Filipina.
06:23And they were like, you have to be a part of this.
06:25So I just kept telling my agents, please, can they consider me?
06:28Can they consider me?
06:29And they kept killing off Moana's mom.
06:32Because if you think about it, in a lot of the Disney princess other animations, you don't see the mom anywhere.
06:39And I just begged them to be a part of it.
06:41I was like, please, this is so important.
06:43So they brought her back and I auditioned.
06:45I was actually doing the remake of Dirty Dancing.
06:49I think Sarah Hyland was helping me with my audition.
06:52And I was like, you guys, I'm going to be a little bit late to work to shooting today because I have got to meet with Disney.
06:58And I got it.
06:59So, so proud to be a part of it and so proud to represent for my people.
07:04Okay.
07:05I don't want to go another day.
07:06So I'm telling you exactly what is on my mind.
07:10See the way we ride in our private lives.
07:15Ain't nobody getting in between.
07:17I'm really grateful because I don't think a lot of people know this.
07:21But they sent that song to Interscope for Mary J. Blige.
07:37She passed on it and I said, can I sing it please?
07:41I remember I listened to it.
07:43I drove up really late from the studio one night.
07:46I was in my driveway.
07:47God, it was probably two in the morning.
07:49And I just listened to it on repeat in my car in the dark.
07:53And I just felt like, oh, this song just speaks to my spirit, my soul.
07:59Don't wash your mouth out.
08:01I like it dirty.
08:02This is from my song right there.
08:06I should have warmed up before I did this interview.
08:24I didn't know I'd be singing.
08:25It was a crazy time for the dolls.
08:28And we had been on several world tours.
08:32And we didn't have anything like mental awareness back then.
08:38So they just kind of like, they worked us to the bones.
08:41So I think at that time, all of us doing so much work,
08:45we were like, okay, it's time to maybe take a break.
08:48And I don't take breaks.
08:50I was always in the studio.
08:51I was a studio rat.
08:52I lived in the studio for like at least 10, 15 years straight.
08:56Like it was my whole life.
08:58Everybody was out clubbing, not me.
09:00I was in the studio.
09:02I mean, look, I was at the club a few times.
09:04I had to get inspiration.
09:06Okay.
09:07You know, I got my own life and I bought everything that's in it.
09:12Oh, I know this lyric.
09:14Oh gosh.
09:15I know this.
09:17Oh, is it my song?
09:19It's not how many times, how many lives.
09:21Oh my gosh.
09:23It's, I don't need a freaking man.
09:29I actually wrote the melody for the chorus.
09:31I don't need a man to make it happen.
09:33I get off beat and free.
09:35I don't need a man to make me feel good.
09:37Get off do my thing.
09:38I don't need a ring around my finger to make me feel complete.
09:42So let me break it down.
09:44I can't get off of you.
09:45I ain't around.
09:47I don't need a man to make it happen.
09:50Yes.
09:51I can't believe that.
09:52I love that song.
09:54I love that song.
09:55I remember like it was yesterday.
09:56We were in the studio.
09:58I was with Ron Thayer.
09:59I was with my dear friend, Cara Diogordi.
10:01Brilliant songwriter.
10:03We were vibing out to Destiny's Child Independent Woman.
10:07And we were like, the dolls need their own song like that.
10:11And I just immediately heard like this trumpets and I was like.
10:19And Ron was like, that's the chorus.
10:21And then we just started to write like, you know,
10:24these lyrics, these lyrics.
10:27Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.
10:32That's easy.
10:33When I grow up.
10:34Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.
10:38I'm on my way.
10:40I mean, it's a process.
10:41Everything in life, it's evolution.
10:43Winning the Tony this year has been more than a dream come true.
10:48An answered prayer.
10:50I want to create my own musical and write my own musical and show.
10:55And I want to do more tours and world tours.
10:58A movie musical as well.
11:00There's so many things that I want to do.
11:01Get my music out there and, you know, continue to try to leave my imprint
11:06and make a difference in this world.
11:20The time is here, the time is here.
11:22And then you read my voice.
11:23The time is here in the world.
11:24I got your voice at a role in the world.
11:27So the day of the world, I want to do this.
11:29And that's the time.
11:30It's also the time.
11:31You've got your voice talking about me.
11:32And then I want to do more on the world.
11:33You've got your voice.
11:34And I want to grow up.
11:35I want to do this.
11:36The time is to try to be, really, really.
11:37I want to try to be a voice in my voice in my voice or my voice.
Be the first to comment