The Pussycat Dolls are female burlesque dance troupe who are currently based in Los Angeles, as well as in Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The group was founded by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995.
Since 1995 the group are known for their sexy and racy performances at 'The Viper Room' and 'Roxy' nightclubs and have earned a reputation as one of the hottest performers in Los Angeles. During the time global stars such as Gwen Stefani, Brittany Murphy, Charlize Theron and Pamela Anderson have performed alongside the dolls and eventually many record companies wanted to sign up the group as full performing artists.
Finally, in 2002, Interscope (home to stars such as Gwen Stefani, No Doubt, Pharrell) Chairman Jimmy Iovine signed them which has propelled them everywhere, from appearing on late night television shows and movie soundtracks.
The current lineup of six members include the 'lead' singer Nicole Scherzinger with fellow 'dolls' Jessica Sutta, Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Kimberly Wyatt and Melody Thornton.
Nicole has already had success in the past, she was in the all girl group Eden's Crush who scored a Top 10 single and album on the US Billboard Charts. While other members have also had their own moments of fame. Carmit was a 'La Vida Loca' girl on Ricky Martins tour, Jessica is a former captain of the Miami Heat dance troupe. Both Ashley and Kimberly where deemed two of the 'hottest young dancers in Hollywood' and final member Melody was found in an open audition.
The Pussycat Dolls released their debut album PCD in the USA on the 13th September 2005, debuting at number five on the Billboard charts. It has since got Platinum in the US and Double Platinum in the UK was well has having great success in many other global territories. Picking up a few awards along the way.
The Pussycat Dolls are proving to be a recognised female group as MTV Hits (UK) marks them as #1 in Top 10 Female Groups (July 2006) beating #2 Destiny's Child and #7 Spice Girls. Furthermore, securing #1 in VH1's (UK) 'Top 20 Sexiest' #2 in TMF's Ultimate 20 Women in Pop (August 2006) and #6 in TMF's Girls of R&B countdown.
The group won a Billboard Music Award for "Don't Cha" as Top Hot/Dance Club Play Single of the Year. The song was also nominated for Top-Selling Single of the Year and Top-Selling Dance Single of the Year.
In 2006, San Francisco-based company Doppelganger (along with Interscope Records) launched the PCD Music Lounge, an interactive website. Also in 2006, The Pussycat Dolls were also featured in a commercial for Cingular Wireless along with Ludacris and KoRn.
On December 7, 2006 the group received a Grammy nomination in the Best Pop Performance By a Duo or Group category for their hit "Stickwitu". Later that month, the group was selected to perform for the introduction for ABC's coverage of the NBA.
In 2006, the Pussycat Dolls performed live shows in North America supporting the Black Eyed Peas. As headliners they toured the UK, Europe and Malaysia.
On August 8, 2006, after a Dolls concert in Kuala Lumpur, their concert promoter, Absolute Entertainment, was charged with flouting Malaysian decency laws. The Malay Mail quoted Culture Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Mohamad Arif Abdul Rahman as saying: "I believe the way the Pussycat Dolls behaved onstage amounted to gross indecency". The charge was settled by paying a fine of RM5000 (US$1358 ).
In the winter of 2006 the group went on their first headling tour where they shared the stage with RnB solo star Rihanna across several dates across Europe, ending up in the UK where the group played to sell out Arenas.
In 2007 the Dolls toured North America as a support act for Christina Aguilera's Back To Basics Tour, they also performed that the "Live Earth" concert series at London's Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 people. 2007 also saw the first series of their new TV show "The Search For The Next Pussycat Doll". The CW series ended in some controversy as the eventual winner, Asia, never performed with the group, at the end of 2007 it seemed certain that she will never perform with the group and will launch a solo career in 2008.
From 2005-2007 Nicole has been prepared her debut solo album Her Name Is Nicole, due for release in 2008. Since July 2007 she has released two solo singles: "Whatever U Like" and "Baby Love". Both of these singles failed to make any impact on the global charts, her only major success being "Baby Love" which made #5 in Germany. Two other songs from the album, "Supervillian" and Puakenikeni" have been released to iTunes, neither have gained any sales and therefore there has been no promotion of either song to date. Nicole's album has also been subjected to numerous delays for various reasons, the official stance being to avoid clashes with other new major releases, but most people in the media believe this is due to the fact none of her singles have had the impact that Interscope have been wanting. It was reported that in December 2007, Interscope, A&M and Geffin records have had to be merged to recover a $18m debt due to the failure of the new album releases from Will.I.Am and Nicole and Eve.
On 8th March 2008 it was confirmed that founding member Carmit Bachar left the group, confirming the news by posting a blog on the group's official website. The Pussycat Dolls are said to be continuing as a five-piece.
On 10th March 2008 the Pussycat Dolls performed in Kuwait for Operation Myspace. They sang all of their singles. In the abscence of Bachar, her vocal parts were performed in various songs by Thornton, Roberts or Sutta.
The second studio album from the Pussycat Dolls is set to be released in August 2008. An interview with Ron Fair and Robin Antin has confirmed that five songs are now finished, with production coming from Timbaland, Cee-Lo Green, Sean Garrett, Darkchild, and others. A new single is expected to hit radio in May 2008.