It’s all a far cry from the group that made her famous – and from her humble origins. Scherzinger was born in Honolulu in Hawaii in 1978 to a Filipino father, who left when she was two, and a Hawaiian-Ukrainian mother, an office clerk. She was then adopted by her new stepfather, the German-American welder Gary Scherzinger (changing her surname from Valiente), and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, aged six.
Money was tight, so Scherzinger waited tables, took some local modelling gigs, and even worked as a lion mascot at an amusement park – the last of those, oddly, proved to be a proud moment. “It’s so funny looking back to when I thought, ‘If I could just make it at the Kentucky Kingdom, I’ve made it big,’ she once said. “And I got there.” Still, it wasn’t exactly glamorous. “It was disgusting – so hot! – and the smell. You couldn’t get enough Febreeze.”
It looked like a glittering career in musical theatre would soon follow. That was Scherzinger’s major at Wright State University, and she won starring roles in regional productions of Guys and Dolls, Chicago and Show Boat.
Instead, in 2001, Scherzinger dropped out of college in her final year to go on tour with rock band Days of the New. Her mother then spotted a commercial for a new reality TV show, Popstars USA. Scherzinger was initially reluctant to audition. “And then I thought, what the heck, if I get that gig, I’ll get to LA, and I didn’t have the means to get to LA any other way.”
She was duly cast and became part of girl group Eden’s Crush. They had moderate success, but soon disbanded when their label went bankrupt. Will.i.am invited her to join the Black Eyed Peas, but instead Scherzinger opted for burlesque troupe-turned-pop stars the Pussycat Dolls. It was a strange choice considering her grandfather was a priest and Scherzinger maintained her strict Catholicism, attending church at least twice a week.
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