The Pussycat Dolls: ‘We’re taking things bit by bit’

“How do I put that into words?” puzzles Ashley Roberts on her experience of working with fellow Pussycat Dolls Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberly Wyatt, Carmit Bachar and Jessica Sutta after a decade apart.

“It’s exciting,” she says, after a moment’s thought. “I think, with ten years passing, it’s like time hasn’t passed. We’ve still got that connection that we’ve always had and that sisterhood yet we’re women now with more life experience.

“So I feel much more present within the whole adventure and grateful for it all, just celebrating the fact that we’re women getting to come together and do this again.”

Life has inevitably changed for each of the group’s members since they split up ten years ago following a world tour for their second album, Doll Domination. Reports had first in surfaced 2009 of tensions between the group’s sixth member, Melody Thornton, and Scherzinger, long seen as The Pussycat Dolls’ front woman, and in February 2010 Thornton, Roberts, Wyatt and Sutta all announced they had quit.

Arizona-born Roberts became a TV regular in Britain, appearing on shows such as I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, The Jump, Dancing on Ice, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Strictly Come Dancing, where she reached the 2018 final, accumulating the highest average score of any contestant. She also dallied with a solo musical career and broadcast on Heart FM.

Wyatt also settled in the UK, having three children with British model Max Rogers and judging TV dance shows as well as winning Celebrity Masterchef, while Scherzinger has released two solo albums, judged The X Factor, won Dancing With The Stars in the US and appeared in West End musicals.

Meanwhile Bachar married and had a daughter and appeared in several films, and Sutta also married, made a solo album and judged America’s Next Top Model.

When asked if there had been much catching up to do between the five of them, Roberts, 38, says: “Yes and no. We still kept in contact. Kimberly and I both live here in the UK, I’m very close to her and her kids and her husband, then the other girls I’d check in with every now and again, so we know what is going on.

“But yes, to get back in the same space together is fun,” she chuckles. “It’s just like a family getting back together and having a little reunion.”

The Pussycat Dolls’ reunion had been rumoured for some time before X Factor judge Louis Walsh broke the news that they would be performing in the finale of the celebrity version of the series last November. Roberts says it was a question of schedules aligning.

“We’re all individual women now with our own lives. We’ve been talking about it back and forth for a few years but it just all clicked. I guess divine timing or the planets or stars were aligned, whatever you want to say. It was like a moment when OK, we’re all on board, let’s go for it.”

Wyatt has suggested that the group had unfinished business. It’s a sentiment that Roberts shares. “For a few years after we ended everybody was excited to go on their own adventure,” she says. “As time passed you see the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys, some of these groups that we really looked up to, they were reuniting and it planted a little bit of a seed. Would we do this again? Do we want to do this again? Once we figured out that everybody was up for it, it did feel like unfinished business. We’re excited to come back together and again get to do it but be an adult.”

Reflecting on her own reasons for leaving The Pussycat Dolls in 2010, Roberts says: “We did two albums, we toured the world. For me individually I was just ready to go out in the world and see what it was like without the Dolls. What kind of stuff do I want to do? What am I into? I took a bunch of classes, I went travelling, I did some acting, I just wanted to try other things in life a little bit.”

She has grown fond of living and working in Britain, she says. “The UK has been so good to me, beyond my dreams, really. I just didn’t expect that I would get to do so many amazing things over here and be so welcomed by the UK. I just feel grateful for it. I know my mom misses me, she wishes I was a little bit closer, but I just have such a great community and group of friends and work over here, so it’s home for me.”

Recent single React is the first new musical product from the reunion. A greatest hits package is set to follow, to accompany a tour of UK arenas. Roberts says the group are taking “one step at a time”.

“We were back and forwards about releasing new music but React we thought was such a fun, current track. I think the focus now is on the tour, but you never know [about more songs to follow]. We’re taking things bit by bit.”

The Unfinished Business Tour will pull out all the stops. Roberts says: “The fans have been waiting a long time and we’re excited about this, so more than anything, we want everybody to walk away from the show feeling like they really got their money’s worth and they really had a great time. We’re going to bring our A game. We’re excited to be up there singing and dancing and putting on a show.”

There has also been much talk of everybody in The Pussycat Dolls getting their chance to shine on this tour. At this juncture in their lives, Roberts says the five members feel supportive of each other. “We’re a family, there’s a sisterhood there and a foundation, and I do feel supported by my sisters. We’re excited to get out there and perform live, that’s where we really come to life with the singing and the dancing.”

Complaints to TV watchdogs over The Pussycats Dolls’ dance routines on The X Factor, Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and The One Show routines – a reminder of the group’s origins in burlesque – showed they had not lost their ability to cause a stir. Yet Roberts says they are not minded to do things differently to 15 years ago.

“We’re using some of the iconic choreography that the fans really remember from such hits like Don’t Cha, Buttons, When I Grow Up. We’re taking what we’ve used in the past and elevating it up and maybe bringing a bit more modern movement and stuff in. But you know, it’s pop music, it’s art and it’s fun and we’re just here to celebrate it all.”

Choreographer Robin Antin, who founded The Pussycat Dolls initially as a burlesque dance troupe in 1995, has talked about now being a good moment for them to return in an age of female empowerment. Roberts hopes they will inspire others. “Individually we have such a story and so much to bring to the table, so when we get together collectively it feels powerful,” she says. “At this time women are really out there kicking butt. With body confidence, Lizzo who we’re all big fans of, she’s just out there owning her space and who she is an artist and who she is as a human, and it is female empowerment but it is also empowerment in general, celebrating your body, your sassiness, your fierceness, whatever that is that you identify with. We just want to inspire you to bring that out of yourself.”

If the recent round of TV and radio appearances and press junkets has brought back memories of past activity, Roberts seems more keen to focus on the present. “We’re excited to be back here,” she says. “The past is the past, it’s our history and our foundation. Now we’re just here in this present moment to enjoy it, really.

“I think that’s just been an ongoing mantra of ours. We want to really enjoy this as much as possible because the time is now and we’re trying to just soak it up.”

While Thornton might have declined to be involved in The Pussycat Dolls’ reunion tour, the group has not closed the door her returning at some point in the future. Roberts says simply: “It’s Melody’s personal choice. Like we’ve said, the door is open and we’ve all got to decide this on our own as individuals whether we want to do this or not.”

The Pussycat Dolls’ tour, due to take place in April, has been postponed. They are scheduled to play at First Direct Arena, Leeds on October 28. pcdmusic.com