She’s one of the most sophisticated women in  pop and made her name in the chart-friendly Pussycat Dolls.

However, her status as a popstar and X Factor  judge may never have happened if a young Nicole Scherzinger stayed close to her  former Gothic persona.

The 34-year-old admitted she had fully  embraced the Goth style when her mother told her about American TV talent show  Popstars.

When she was a teenager, she spent a year as  a backing singer for rock band Days Of The New, who supported the Foo Fighters  on tour.

After leaving the band, she was working as a  make-up artist for Lancome in 2001 when her mother tried to persuade her to  audition for Popstars.

Reflecting on the casting call, she told the  new issue of Notion magazine: ‘I was so  theatre at the time I was like “I am not going to be a Spice Girl”. That is just  not me.

‘I mean I’m a  Spice Girls fan now, but at  the time I only wore black and I was Goth. I would have been Goth Spice. Ethnic  Chanting Spice, that’s who I thought I was.’

However, her mother Rosemary eventually wore  Nicole down and persuaded her to send in an audition tape.

She recalls: ‘I  brought my little package that I’d put together with my pictures and I’d made my  own home music video. I was on it. I gave them my package and I sang [Whitney’s  I  Will Always Love You] for them and the rest is history. That  brought me to  Los Angeles.’

Nicole ended up being chosen for girl group  Eden’s Crush, but it disbanded a year later after failing to make a big impact  on the charts.

While in Eden’s Crush, she was given the  opportunity to be in the Black Eyed Peas, but had to turn it down because she  was still under contract. The hip-hop band eventually found Fergie.

Meanwhile, Nicole also admitted she turned  down the offer of Rihanna and Calvin Harris’s worldwide No.1 hit We Found  Love.

She explained: ‘I passed on We Found Love. I  got the demo of that song and I was busy at the time.

‘They’d sent me a few dance tracks and I  wasn’t able to get to them and I was like, “Oh, there’s so much dance and I want  to take a break from it.” That was my fault. I slept on it.’

The  full interview is in the new issue of Notion magazine, on sale now.

Nicole’s  new single Boomerang is out in the UK on March 10.

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Source: Dailymail.co.uk