- By Rob Leigh
Video: Watch X Factor's Nicole Scherzinger sing 'I Will Always Love You' in audition for US reality TV show
A pre-Pussycat Dolls Nicole tells the cameras: "I was born to perform"
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/video-watch-x-factors-nicole-2339743
These days she’s best known as a glamorous judge on the X Factor and this weekend she will have the gruelling process of picking her final three acts from the girls.
But 13 years ago it was Nicole Scherzinger who was the one being judged as a contestant on the first series of US reality TV show Popstars - a forerunner of Pop Idol.
The Mirror has unearthed footage of Nicole when she was just 22 and auditioned for the series which held auditions across America for one of five places in girl band Eden’s Crush in late 2000.
But she was still confident enough to tell the cameras: “I was born to perform.”
Popstars proved to be the launch-pad for a hugely successful career, with Nicole going on to find global fame with burlesque troupe Pussycat Dolls in 2003, selling over 50million records and enjoying worldwide with hits including Don’t Cha and When I Grow Up.
Since then Nicole has become a household name, replacing Cheryl Cole as a judge on Simon Cowell’s US X Factor before joining the UK series in 2012, dating Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton until this summer and owning a £1.3million eight bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills.
But today we can reveal Nicole’s humble beginnings in her first ever TV appearance.
Back then Nicole, who was born in Hawaii but moved to Kentucky as a teenager, was one of thousands of unknowns who queued up patiently to audition for Popstars, the original TV talent search broadcast at a time when reality television was still in its infancy.
Nicole and her mum Rosemary Elikolani made the five hour drive from their hometown of Louisville, in America’s south, to Chicago, 400 miles away where the nearest auditions were being held.
It was there she queued patiently for hours with thousands other young hopefuls to perform her version of Whitney Houston’s 'I Will Always Love You'.
Wearing a stetson hat and black vest top and minimal make-up, Nicole looks a long way from her groomed and glamorous image on the X Factor.
But following a faultless performance, her star quality is already clear as she speaks about her love for singing and her dreams of fame.
“I just closed my eyes and sang and I was like ‘Dear God, please let something come out.’
“I was meant to perform in front of people,” she went on, “I was meant to sing act and dance. It’s been my life since I was very young. I’ve always wanted to be Whitney Houston.”
The performance, which was Nicole’s first ever TV appearance, would set her on the long road to fame.
Afterwards Nicole was picked to go through to intensive training session in Los Angeles - the equivalent of The X Factor’s bootcamp - where the girls were put through their paces and given hours to master tough song and dance routines.
After breezing through the early stages, Nicole, later seen wearing a zebra-print top and black trousers, made it to the final 15 who were split into three groups of five to performance at The Viper Room, an exclusive Hollywood nightclub owned by Pirates of the Caribbean actor Johnny Depp.
Asked was asked what being a pop star would mean to her, Nicole told viewers: “To me a pop star is just someone who has this presence around them, this aura,” she said.
“When I perform and the lights are on me and I’m in a whole other world. You know it’s like I’m unstoppable, its amazing, you’re in your own world, you see your own things.
“The best part of the workshop for me was performing at The Viper Room with the other girls. It was just awesome, it was chaotic, and fun and exciting. I was on stage and I was performing.”
It was enough to convince the judge’s who visited Nicole’s family home to tell her she was the first girl to win a place in Eden’s Crush.
Before being given the good news, footage showed Nicole relaxing at home, walking her dog and doing yoga in her garden as she’s asked to describe her worst character traits.
“I am a procastinator. I’m always running around late and stuff but I think I thrive off of that energy that adrenaline art the last minute,” she said.
After being picked as a winner Nicole was told to pack her bags and head back to Los Angeles, triggering an emotional celebration with her mum Rosemary, step-dad Gary Scherzinger.
Wiping away tears Rosemary told her daughter: “Do you remember years ago when you didn’t make that cheerleading competition?
“She cried all the way home because she was so upset.
“I told her, I said ‘Sweetie, you did not make that for a reason because there are bigger and better things out there for you.’”
That has proved to be true as Nicole is now a huge worldwide star thanks to her hard work and determination.
She was recruited as a guest judge on the X Factor after Cheryl Cole was struck down with malaria.
Her success on the show and popularity with viewers saw her back alongside Simon the following year, replacing Cole after she was humiliatingly sacked from the US X Factor in June 2011 - and then brought on to the UK series last year as a permanent judge.
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