
Even before the critical acclaim of “Sunset Boulevard,” Nicole Scherzinger says she knew she had something “greater” to give.
While talking with Willie Geist on the July 27 edition of Sunday Sitdown, she recalled her time in the music industry before her star turn as Norma Desmond in the Jamie Lloyd musical revival.
Her performance as the fictional aging Hollywood starlet won Scherzinger her first Tony Award this year. In her acceptance speech, she said she’s always second guessed herself.
“Growing up, I always felt like I didn’t belong. But you all have made me feel like I belong, and I have come home, at last,” she said in tears to a roaring crowd.
While talking about that moment to Willie, Scherzinger explained that she’s felt overlooked her “whole life.”
“I want to say something really fast I’ve never said before,” she told Willie. “Like you said, people have been s—-ing on me my whole life and just kind of dismissing me and discarding me or overlooking me. And it didn’t matter, because I knew what I had to give was so much greater and even beyond me.”
“If you just follow your heart’s whisper and your passions, then it doesn’t matter,” she continued. “You’re gonna be able to live in your purpose and be your happiest and your most fulfilled and live a really meaningful life. … As long as you believe it, and it comes from the right place, and it comes from a place of truth and heart and soul and honesty, then you’re gonna blow ‘em all away.”

Scherzinger says she knew she had a deep appreciation for music ever since she heard Whitney Houston sing for the first time.
“When I was 6, I discovered Whitney Houston, and that changed my life,” she said. “I was very shy. I was the first girl to always want to hide behind my mom’s legs, but music did something else to me. It just brought something else out in me, and I felt that was a way I knew how to communicate best with people.”
Around her college years, Scherzinger toured with the rock band Days Of the New. Then, in 2001, her mother encouraged her to audition for the reality TV show, “Popstars.”
After blowing away the judges with her voice, Scherzinger won a place in the short-lived girl group Eden’s Crush before she became the lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls.
“It was a whirlwind,” she said of her time being in the famous girl group. “I think Eminem was at his height at that time. They were like, ‘You’re schedule’s even crazier than Eminem’s schedule.'”
But the demands of the group were intense, she says.
“Now we have, like, mental health and awareness. We never had any of that then, so they kind of just worked us to death,” she explained. “So it was just natural that we fizzled out and everybody went their separate ways.”
Since then, Scherzinger has come full circle judging singing competition shows like “The X Factor.” She also voiced Sina in “Moana” and performed at the coronation concert for King Charles III and Queen Camilla in May 2023.

She first took the stage as Norma Desmond on London’s West End in September 2023. The production then transferred to Broadway, officially opening in October 2024 before closing July 20, 2025.
Now, Scherzinger is looking back on her career and enjoying the little things, like a New York pizza slice.
“I feel like, ‘Wow, little Nicole has come so far.’ Like, little lanky, awkward and insecure Nicole who felt like she didn’t have a voice is standing up there with her hands like this in a triumphant pose,” Scherzinger told Willie. “And being brave and bold and courageous. And hopefully, I can inspire other people to do that, too.”