A Look Back At The Pussycat Dolls’ Career So Far

The early 2000s were dominated by low-rise jeans, hot pink flip phones and one of the most iconic girl groups of the decade – The Pussycat Dolls. Hits like Don’t Cha and Buttons helped soundtrack our childhood and teenage years, with their songs topping the charts and blasting from every radio and music TV channel.

PCD stand alongside the Spice Girls and TLC in defining the pop scene of the decade, with a mix of pop and R&B tunes. And now over 20 years since their career began, the Pussycat Dolls are making their return with a reunion tour, kicking off this June. Along the 53-stop tour around the UK, US and Europe, the girl band are making a stop at the 3Arena in Dublin on October 5.

Joining the reunion tour is lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberly Watts and Ashely Roberts, with the other three members of the six-piece band seemingly leaving behind their band past forever.

 

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To celebrate the news, the band released their new single, Club Song, co-written by Scherzinger, marking their comeback to music since 2019. With this news igniting our inner our Y2K past, let’s take a look down memory lane at the sensational career of the Dolls.

The iconic girl band was first started by Robin Antin back in 1995 and was originally a burlesque dance troupe. The crew featured in clubs in LA, with Robin leading. However, after some internal discussions, they began a search for vocalists to add to the group’s dynamics. Soon they held auditions and recruited the rest of the Pussycast Dolls as we know them. The pop group signed a record deal in 2003, with Interscope Getten A&M Records.

Shortly after their signing, the band featured on a song titled We Went As Far As We Felt Like Going, made for the 2004 Shark Tale film. Along with that, the band also produced Sway for romcom, Shall We Dance? This song boosted success for the girl band and soon saw them releasing their major hit single Don’t Cha. Peaking at number 1 in 15 countries the song, which was an R&B collab with Busta Rhymes, put the Pussycat Dolls firmly on the girl band map.

@talia_ambrielle This dance break was everything!! 💁🏽‍♀️💃🏽❤️‍🔥✨#thepussycatdolls #buttons #fylpシviralシ #music ♬ original sound – Talia Ambrielle

After this rapid success, the six-piece band dropped their debut album five months later in September 2005, titled PCD. This album became one of the most successful albums of the decade with nine million copies sold and four songs reaching top 20 across 2005 and 2006. These tunes include, Don’t Cha, Buttons, Stickwitu and Beep – the songs that saw us through our questionable fashion choices.

The Buttons music video that’s engraved in all our minds even picked up the Best Dance Video award at the MTV awards, with a remix of the song by Snoop Dog hitting our iPods in 2006. That same year the Pussycat Dolls also won Best International Newcomer at the Brit Awards.

In 2007, PCD got a stab at their own TV show. The Pussycat Dolls Presents: The Search saw the band on a journey to find a seventh member. The winner of the competition was 19-year-old Asia Nitollana, but a short few months after the season finale the news broke that Asia had left the band to pursue her own solo career. The show would go on for a second season, only this time; the group would help to form a new four-piece girl band.

Around this time the band started touring with headlines shows of their own, while also featuring as supporting acts, all the way into 2007. After this tour, they went on a short hiatus as Nicole Scherzinger tried to launch a solo career. After a slow start, with less than favourable reviews on her songs, the band came back. However, they were down a member, as Carmit Bacher decided to leave.

 

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Now down to five members, the Pussycat Dolls wanted to continue their success streak, as they released a second album in 2008. Lead single When I Grow Up reached top 10 around the world, and not long after, the Doll Domination album was released. While the album didn’t perform to the same standards as the previous debut, songs like What Ya Think About That, and I Hate This Part still topped charts.

In early 2009, the Doll Domination tour took off performing all around the world. While in Europe, Nicole was asked to rewrite a pop version of the song Jai Ho. Nicole did just that, with Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny). However, the song only had Nicole as a featured artist, which caused some upset within the band. While the song was of course a huge success, the band took a second hiatus, with Kimberly, Ashley and Jessica all deciding it was time to move on.

After the breakdown of the band, Nicole made claims about being lead vocalist in the band during an interview with Behind The Music. Nicole claimed that she wrote, produced and sang on two albums by herself, acting as both lead and backing vocalist. Ron Fair, producer for the band, agreed with Nicole saying it was her on 95% of the albums.

After this interview past members spoke out saying that they weren’t allowed to take part in interviews or in the studio, saying that PCD was always a ‘Nicole project.’

After silence from the band for a couple of years, they made a historic return in 2019, with a reunion tour. To mark this occasion they dropped a single in February 2020, with the first of their comeback performances on the X-Factor. Shortly after their announcement, Covid hit and pushed back the tour dates. As concerns around the pandemic began to grow, the reunion tour came to a halt.

@hitsradiouk @The Pussycat Dolls are BACK 🙌💜 They join us on Hits Radio Breakfast, listen on @Rayo ✨ #pussycatdolls #kimberlywyatt #nicolesherzinger #ashleyroberts ♬ original sound – Hits Radio UK

With Covid undoubtably playing a huge factor in this, the constant push back saw a legal feud between band founder Robin and Nicole Scherzinger, after Antin alleged that the singer refused to participate in the tour unless she was granted majority control and a large share of their joint business venture. Scherzinger, on the other hand, claimed Antin misused $600,000 in funding from Live Nation. The feud was settled back in 2025 in private agreement.

Now after all that, three members are bringing back the Pussycat Dolls with tickets for their tour on sale from Friday, March 20. Along with the tour, the band also announced a 20^th  anniversary release of their debut album, PCD, and Doll Domination.