Melody Thornton’s feud with Nicole Scherzinger – side eyes and reunion snubs

The Pussycat Dolls were one of the biggest girl groups of the 2000s, producing hit after hit.

The six-piece band behind such hits as Buttons, Dont Cha and When I Grow Up dominated the charts with a string of Top 40 hits. The group was made up of Ashley Roberts, Carmit Bachar, Jessica Sutta, Kimberley Wyatt, Melody Thornton and Nicole Scherzinger.

Initially starting out as a burlesque dance troupe, the girl group became some of the most recognisable faces in music during the period. However, many criticised the fact that Nicole Scherzinger was the sole lead vocalist, including from within the band itself – mostly from Melody Thornton.

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So, as the Pussycat Dolls continue to pursue solo careers, Daily Star looks at the supposed ongoing feud between Nicole and Melody.

Stepping on toes

Throughout their time together as a band, it was well established that Nicole was the face of the group, taking on lead vocals and having the freedom to adlib where she wanted to. Whilst Scherzinger was able to do vocal gymnastics on their songs, the remaining girls were meant to keep to the normal melody.

But Thornton grew to be frustrated with this arrangement, as she wanted to show off her vocal range and impress the band’s fans. During a performance of their hit track ‘Buttons’, Melody broke from the script and proceeded to let out an amazing run of notes to close off the song.

However, Nicole was less than pleased with Melody’s move as she could be visibly seen to be giving her bandmate the side-eye and trying to steal the limelight back for herself. Towards the end of the song, Nicole was also seen to try and stand in front of Melody in order to steal focus.

This would happen again at the 2006 American Music Awards, where Melody would be completely off-stage whilst the troupe set the stage on fire with their dance moves. As the song reached its end, however, Melody bolted on stage to do some impressive runs, which prompted Nicole to shout at the audience in an attempt to drown her out.

The performances were all panned by critics, who pointed towards the tension on stage between the girls. They also added the competition for vocals between the pair led to the delivery sounding messy.

Reunion snubs

After the Pussycat Dolls decided to part ways in 2010, each member pursued their own careers, with many including Melody and Nicole themselves going on to great success. So, when the opportunity arose eleven years later for a reunion of the group, many jumped at the chance to work with the girls again – except one.

At the time of the band’s demise, Thornton hit out at her bandmates for not supporting her during her time of need. The wounds still had not healed in time for the reunion, when she explained to Lorraine Kelly that she had found her time in the group “challenging”.

As a result, Melody did not rejoin the group for their short-lived reunion. Whilst they had planned for a sell-out world tour around this time, the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to their plans and in 2022, it was announced the group had once again disbanded.

Bold claims

Since the reunion fiasco, both Melody and Nicole have barely spoken to each other. And it seems Thornton still feels betrayed by her fellow bandmates as she lashed out against the band again in 2023 saying she felt undervalued.

Speaking to The Sun, Melody admitted that she had to fight to be even recognised as a singer. “I was just a back-up dancer – it was very painful for me,” she confessed.

“It was a big opportunity to show what I could do and I was never given that chance really,” she explained. “In order to carry on singing, people need to know that you can sing in the first place and that wasn’t really the case for me in the group, so it was ­actually very painful.”

Now, both Nicole and Melody are building on their own individual successes. Nicole continues to have a singing and modelling career, whilst Melody was discovered to be participating on ITV ‘s The Masked Singer earlier this year.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk