MASKED SINGER'S NICOLE SCHERZINGER - 'I'M STILL PROVING MYSELF'

WITH A DARING NEW ROLE, THE SINGER OPENS UP ABOUT TACKLING INDUSTRY STEREOTYPES AFTER NEARLY 20 YEARS OF FAME

- JEFF NELSON

Nicole Scherzinger reached global fame with the pop girl group Pussycat Dolls in 2005, notching eight Top 40 hits (including “Don’t Cha” and “Buttons”). But her first love was musical theater. Born in Honolulu, the singer took to the stage at the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville, where she was raised. Now, after 10 seasons on The Masked Singer, she’s giving up her judging chair—for now at least—to star as Norma Desmond in the West End revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard in London. “I feel like it’s time for me to come home,” she explains.

Thirteen years after the Pussycat Dolls disbanded, Scherzinger—who recently got engaged to former Scottish rugby player Thom Evans, 38—wants to remind fans that she’s not just a pop star. “Hopefully people will get the opportunity now to see who I really am,” says Scherzinger, 45, “and what I have to give.”

You’re on your 10th season of The Masked Singer. What keeps you coming back?