They burst onto the scene in 2005 with smash hits like ‘Don’t Cha’, ‘Beep’, ‘Buttons’, and ‘When I Grow Up’, becoming one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Of course, I am talking about none other than the Pussycat Dolls!
Their pop style, sassy outfits, sexy and provocative dance routines and strong empowering attitude quickly won the hearts of fans worldwide. At the time, no one realised that the group would go on to sell over 15 million records worldwide in just five years.
However, the group itself was nothing new. In 1995, choreographer Robin Antin created the Pussycat Dolls as a burlesque dance group, which featured no less than fifteen dancers. The group was an instant success, earning themselves a home at the legendary Viper Room in Hollywood; a place which came to be called the Pussycat Dolls Lounge. Soon, the group was also performing in places like Las Vegas, earning their own PCD Casino in Caesar’s Palace.
Eventually, celebrities like Gwen Stefani became familiar with the burlesque group, and they soon caught the eye of Interscope Records, who offered the Pussycat Dolls a recording contract.
Through auditioning, the Pussycat Dolls were weeded down to four backup dancers: Carmit Bachar (who was part of the original Pussycat Dolls), Kimberly Wyatt, Ashley Roberts and Jessica Sutta. There were also three main singers: Melody Thornton, Kaya Jones and Nicole Scherzinger, with Scherzinger as the lead singer.
In 2005, the Pussycat Dolls released their first single: ‘Don’t Cha’ featuring Busta Rhymes, which peaked at Number 2 in the Billboard Hot 100.
Shortly after releasing ‘Don’t Cha’ however, Kaya Jones left the group, claiming to be unhappy with the emphasis placed on Nicole Scherzinger compared to the rest of the group. This allowed Carmit Bachar to step into her place as one of the three main vocalists.

Later that year, the Pussycat Dolls released their debut album: PCD. It peaked at Number 5 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and sold over 99,000 copies in its first week.
The dolls released an array of singles from the album, beginning with ‘Don’t Cha’ (2005), then ‘Stickwitu’ (2005), ‘Beep’ featuring will.i.am (2006), ‘Buttons’ featuring Snoop Dogg (2006), ‘I Don’t Need a Man’ (2006) and ‘Wait a Minute’ featuring Timbaland (2006). The Pussycat Dolls also went on tour in 2006, opening for the Black Eyed Peas.

In 2007, the dolls went on hiatus, and Nicole began focussing on building her solo career. She compiled songs for her first album, including ‘Baby Love’ and ‘Whatever You Like’. However, after releasing these records and achieving little commercial success Nicole decided to focus on the Pussycat Dolls again.
However, during the 2007 hiatus, Carmit was offered work on a television show, and with the uncertain future of the dolls, she jumped ship.

In 2008, the five dolls were back with their new single: ‘When I Grow Up’, which reached the top ten in the Billboard Hot 100. In September, they released their second studio album: Doll Domination, also releasing singles like ‘Whatcha Think About That’ featuring Missy Elliot, ‘Bottle Pop’ and ‘I Hate This Part’. In 2009, the dolls embarked on their Doll Domination tour. With the departure of Carmit, Jessica had the opportunity to sing more leads.
While the tour was a smash, there were issues behind the scenes. Nicole was the lead singer, and the other dolls have expressed how they felt like, “…Nicole was the star, and she wanted to be treated like one.”
The dolls revealed that Nicole even had her own tour bus and dressing room, while the rest of them shared. The difference in pay was also enormous between Nicole and the rest of the dolls.

In 2009, Nicole and the dolls were asked by Jimmy Iovine and Ron Fair to sing a pop version cover of the song ‘Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)’ from the film Slumdog Millionaire.
So, the project was undertaken in the midst of the Doll Domination tour, and the song was released soon after. However, conflict arose within the group when the title of the single was released: A R Rahman & the Pussycat Dolls feat. Nicole Scherzinger. Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny) from Slumdog Millionaire.
This conflict became evident during one of their shows in April 2009, when during the dolls introductions Melody said, “Big shoutout to my family. Thank you for supporting me, even if I’m not featured. You know what I’m saying?”
In May, Jessica injured her back during one of their shows in Sydney, forcing her to sit out the rest of the tour.
The remaining four dolls: Nicole, Melody, Ashley and Kimberly went on to finish the tour of South-East Asia without her.

At the end of the tour, rumours of a possible break-up continued to fly, which was quickly confirmed by each of the dolls at different times. During an interview with ABC News, Jessica explained how being away from the dolls made her realise that she wanted to step out and “…not be in Nicole’s shadow anymore”.

So that was that. Each of the dolls found their feet and all achieved reasonable success in different areas. As the years passed, rumours flew about possible PCD reunions, but none came to pass.
That is, until November 27th, when Nicole, Ashley, Kimberly, Jessica and Carmit appeared on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden to announce that the dolls were back together, and embarking on a reunion tour. Check out the video below!

Five of the six dolls are part of the reunion tour, but what about Melody?
In recent interviews, Melody herself has explained that her heart wouldn’t really be in a reunion with the dolls. In the last week, the other dolls have even spoken about Melody and said “…our door is always open to her.”

PCD kicked off their reunion announcement with an exclusive performance on X Factor UK last Saturday. Check out the video below!

 

Tickets are already on sale for the PCD UK tour which will commence in April, 2020. However, that’s not all. PCD are also set to be part of the So Pop noughties line up alongside Jesse McCartney, Sophie Ellis Baxter, Smash Mouth, Steps, Whigfield, Alice DJ, Reel 2 Real and Samantha Mumba.
A Word From Brett will be in attendance at So Pop’s Sydney show on April 25 next year, and I absolutely cannot wait.
However, I have one overriding question: Will all the dolls be allowed to sing?
While the dolls have all grown up and bygones have become bygones, this makes me curious. Don’t get me wrong, I love the dolls and what they stand for: female empowerment, fun and sass. However, I always felt it was unfair that only one out of the six Pussycat Dolls, with the occasional adlib from Melody or Carmit, was really showcased.
I guess only time will tell. But in the meantime, I will sit back and enjoy PCD once more.

Stay tuned for more!
All my love,
xoxo Brett