Born: July 29, 1978
Pop singer and dancer Nicole Scherzinger was born Nicole Elikolani Prescovia Scherzinger on June 29, 1978, in Honolulu, HI, but was raised mostly in Louisville, KY, moving there at age six with her mom after her parents separated. Scherzinger (who is of Hawaiian, Russian, and Filipino descent) went to a performing arts high school and, following graduation, enrolled at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. Majoring in theater arts and minoring in dance, she eventually put college on hold to pursue music, initially serving as a backing vocalist for the late-'90s rock group Days of the New. In 2001, Scherzinger entered as a contestant on the first season of the WB television show Popstars, where she won the role of lead singer in the resulting all-girl pop group Eden's Crush. The group's first single, "Get Over Yourself," did well on radio and broke into the Billboard Hot 100s Top Ten, but when their label folded soon after, Eden's Crush shortly followed suit. Scherzinger pushed forward and contributed a track ("Breakfast in Bed") to the soundtrack for the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore flick 50 First Dates under the name Nicole Kea.
