Nicole Scherzinger is back at center stage.

Last week, the Masked Singer judge made her debut as Norma Desmond in the West End revival of Sunset Boulevard in London — and she’s hoping people see a new side of her.

The singer rose to global fame fronting the girl group Pussycat Dolls nearly 20 years ago, but she says she has “absolutely” been underestimated following her pop-star past.

“That’s why I’m making moves now. It’s hard when people don’t see you for who you truly are. But if you don’t show it to them, they will never know; so that’s why I’ve taken this,” Scherzinger, 45, says in the new issue of PEOPLE. “Hopefully people will get the opportunity now to see who I really am and what I have to give.”

Scherzinger returns for season 10 of The Masked Singer on Wednesday, but she reveals she’ll actually be stepping away from her judging seat — for now at least — for her theatrical foray.

“I had to actually choose between The Masked Singer season 11 and Sunset Boulevard. I chose Sunset Boulevard. This is where my talents truly lie. I’m still proving myself,” says Scherzinger.

The singer got her start in musical theater at the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville, Kentucky, where she was raised. And “there’s many roles that I’ve dreamed of playing. And I will tell you, this is not one of them,” she says with a laugh of playing Norma Desmond.

“So when [director Jamie Lloyd] came to me, I was like, ‘Are you crazy? Are you mad?’ I didn’t get it, because I only ever had Glenn Close in my mind — and Gloria Swanson in the old film. He was like, ‘Don’t watch the movie, don’t listen to anybody else, just read the lines and listen to the music.’ And when I did, I just fell in love with Norma. I didn’t realize that this is the role that I’ve been waiting to play all my life. We’re doing a completely different, new interpretation,” she adds.

Scherzinger — who recently got engaged to former Scottish rugby player Thom Evans, 38 — says her experience in the entertainment industry has prepared her for her turn in the musical.

“There are so many parallels between Sunset Boulevard and what you have to do to make it in Hollywood. Even when you’re fully loaded with so much talent, you could still be overlooked because of stereotypes and ageism. It is a tragedy,” she says. “I have so much ammunition for this — so much fuel. “