How Nicole Scherzinger defied critics to become the Pussycat who got the cream: Her stage career looked doomed after a vicious spat with Lord Lloyd-Webber… but now she wins rave reviews in his new Sunset Boulevard show

How life changes. Seven years ago, Nicole Scherzinger was on the receiving end of a bitter tongue-lashing from Andrew Lloyd Webber. In an uncharacteristically vicious interview, the impresario called the former Pussycat Dolls singer ‘crazy’ after she pulled out of the Broadway production of Cats at the last minute to take a seven-figure salary to return as a judge on ITV’s X Factor.

He said her decision made him look like ‘an absolute twot’ in front of the American producers, after he had lobbied them to cast Scherzinger as Grizabella the Glamour Cat, a role she’d successfully played in the West End. He raged: ‘I’m furious because I really believe she’s the most fantastically talented girl and I went out on a limb… but never mind, there’ll be another girl on Broadway and Nicole will not get her Tony Award’ – the most prestigious accolade in American theatre.

But now the hatchet has been well and truly buried as Scherzinger is the universally feted star of Lord Lloyd-Webber’s revamped Sunset Boulevard musical in London. Critics have raved: ‘Nicole dazzles’, ‘Scherzinger absolutely bloody smashes,’ and, simply, ‘Perfection!’

On the opening night, Lloyd Webber stood hand-in-hand with his 45-year-old leading lady, who was wearing in a stunning black designer gown, and looking every inch like the cat who had got the cream.

Seven years ago, Nicole Scherzinger was on the receiving end of a bitter tongue-lashing from Andrew Lloyd Webber. Now she is the universally feted star of his revamped Sunset Boulevard musical in London

Scherzinger was for many years best known for hanging off the arm of Formula One star Lewis Hamilton

Make no mistake, Scherzinger, who for so many years was known best for hanging off the arm of Formula One star Lewis Hamilton, has taken the West End by storm for her portrayal of Hollywood diva Norma Desmond, a faded silent movie star who becomes a recluse in the age of talkies.

So how did she go from being a burlesque dancer and one-sixth of the tacky American girl group behind the crude hit Don’t Cha to become the toast of London’s Theatreland?

She was born in Hawaii as Nicole Prascovia Elikolani Valiente Scherzinger to father, Alfonso Valiente, who is of Filipino descent, and mother Rosemary, who is of Hawaiian, Ukrainian and Russian ancestry.

With her multi-racial background, the star, who became known as Scherzy by the British tabloids, said people assumed she was of Pakistani descent. She confided to those who worked with her that her skin colour hasn’t always made it easy for her in showbusiness. However, they say, it made her ‘unbelievably determined.’

Raised in Kentucky, she began acting at the age of 14 and studied musical theatre but dropped out of college and toured with jobbing American rock band Days Of The New before finding some success with Eden’s Crush, a girl group created on an American reality television series.

She then joined Pussycat Dolls, a burlesque troupe who broke through to the mainstream with Don’t Cha in 2005. But the band fell apart after just two albums. Scherzinger then became a solo performer who caught the eye of X Factor mogul Simon Cowell. Through her involvement in the singing show, her career blossomed in the UK, where she is substantially more famous than she is in her homeland.

One pal of Scherzinger’s attributes her success to her being a ‘massive grafter.’ He tells me: ‘Nicole was the only one of the Pussycat Dolls who had a chance at becoming a solo act. She looked the part and could sing but she also put the work in and would leave the small ego she had at the door.

‘She was like Cheryl Tweedy of Girls Aloud, the stand-out one. She was looking at signing a solo deal and was inundated with offers as the pop world needed a new matriarch and she was feisty and talented.’

Contestant Thom Evans, the former Scottish international rugby player and model, caught Scherzinger’s eye in 2019 while she was judging a celebrity version of the X Factor

But despite her feminist desire to become a household name on her own terms, her fame only really started to soar when she started dating Lewis Hamilton.

She met the F1 driver, seven years her junior, at an after-party at the MTV Music Awards in Munich in 2007, where she had performed.

They were seen giggling and chatting until the early hours before going back to the same hotel. The pair were happy to confirm to journalists just a few days later that they were dating and became tabloid regulars.

Helpfully, their meeting coincided with Scherzinger’s bid to become a solo star. ‘The whole landscape changed when Nicole and Lewis got together,’ said the friend. ‘All of a sudden the whole world was writing about her, she was the girlfriend of a world famous sports star.’

The column inches quadrupled as the pair lived their romance in the spotlight. She regularly joined him on the grand prix circuit and he would pop up at her performances, admittedly not as frequently.

But the age difference became difficult, especially as Scherzinger was keen to settle down while he wasn’t, and their romance soon turned into the most on/off relationship in showbusiness. In 2011 they split, before getting back together a few months later.

Scherzinger had moved to the UK to take part in the X Factor and had become very close to Hamilton’s family. She was a regular visitor at their modest Hertfordshire property, even when her boyfriend was away racing. Lewis’s father Anthony even cooked Thanksgiving dinner for her to ease her homesickness.

Career-wise, there was no stopping her. She was being watched by ten million British viewers every Saturday and Sunday night on The X Factor and was being paid upwards of £1 million a series.

It was Scherzy who came up with the idea to put solo auditionees Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan into a boyband who later became known as One Direction.

Following her split from Hamilton in 2015, she dated Bulgarian tennis player Grigor Dimitrov until 2019. Later that year, while judging a celebrity version of X Factor, contestant Thom Evans, the former Scottish international rugby player and model, caught her eye.

The pair repeatedly denied their romance but eventually were seen out on a date and later went public – and now they are engaged.

Scherzinger was a member of Pussycat Dolls (pictured), a burlesque troupe who broke through to the mainstream with Don’t Cha in 2005. But the band fell apart after just two albums

Around the time they met, Scherzinger was beginning to tire of the celebrity carousel and looking to move into a part of showbusiness that was less ‘full-on’. She stepped back from the high-profile work and got back to basics.

Friends say that she yearned for a return to musical theatre – perhaps keen to prove herself again as Lord Lloyd-Webber’s acid dressing-down still stung, five years on.

In 2021 she played the role of Grace Farrell on US channel NBC’s musical special Annie Live! And last year she staged three low-key gigs at the 100-seat Sun Rose venue in Hollywood to showcase her talent with songs from the musicals.

She said: ‘It was important people get to see me in this intimate setting, to truly hear me, and experience my love and connection of music through singing, to create a space for me where I can live out my full potential as an artist, without having to be defined by any style or genre of music.’

And it was just a matter of months after that she and Lloyd Webber spoke about her taking the role of Norma Desmond in the West End. Today, he and Scherzy are said to be ‘very, very close’ once again.

And, who knows, maybe the show will transfer to Broadway – and her with it – where she could be in line for that Tony Award after all.

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