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Nicole Scherzinger is the greatest star of all.
The former Pussycat Dolls singer took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical at the 2025 Tony Awards on Sunday, June 8, beating record-breaking six-time winner Audra McDonald.
Scherzinger, 46, stars as the faded silent film star Norma Desmond in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of “Sunset Boulevard.”
“I always felt like I didn’t belong,” she said as she accepted the award. “But you all have made me feel like I belong and I have come home at last.”
Scherzinger previously won the 2024 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role in the musical.
In May, shortly after the “Masked Singer” judge was nominated for her first Tony Award, Scherzinger discussed her flourishing Broadway career.
“I’m overjoyed with gratitude. My heart is completely full,” she told TODAY at the time. “Don’t ever, ever, ever give up because you never know when your time is coming. I feel so grateful right now.”
“One of my best friends from high school was the first person to call me, and he said, ‘Babe. I can’t believe it. This is what we dreamed of,'” Scherzinger added. “I can’t wait to speak to my mom.”
Although the award-winning singer became a superstar as a member of The Pussycat Dolls from 2003 to 2010, she always dreamed of starring on Broadway.
In December, just months before she would win her first-ever Tony Award, Scherzinger shared a video on Instagram of herself standing in New York’s Theater District in 2008.
“Growing up, I thought I’d be doing that. I’d be on that side of the street, not this side of the street,” she said in the 16-year-old clip. “But one day I’ll make it back home.”
After her nomination, Scherzinger reflected on the full circle moment – and how it paralleled her “Sunset Boulevard” character’s own dreams of returning to the stage.
“As Norma Desmond would say, ‘I’ll be back where I was born to be. With one look, I’ll be me,'” Scherzinger said. “She also says, ‘I’ll come home at last.'”
“I guess a lot of people didn’t know that side of me because they’re so used to seeing the pop star side of me or me in the Pussycat Dolls,” she added. “But this is home for me. I couldn’t have asked for a better dream role.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Scherzinger thanked “Sunset Boulevard” and her role as Norma for allowing her to “share her whole heart with the world.”
“It’s interesting because playing Norma Desmond, it’s like, where does Norma Desmond end and Nicole begin? And vice versa?” the “Don’t Hold Your Breath” singer said.
“I always dreamed of wanting to share all of my gifts and all of my talents and my whole heart with the world,” she added. “Now I’ve gotten to because of this.”
“I’m so proud of everyone in this production,” Scherzinger concluded, “because we’re all in it together.”
“Sunset Boulevard,” which received a total of seven nominations, led the Tony nominees among musical revivals this year.
The Post’s theater critic, Johnny Oleksinski, celebrated Scherzinger’s performance in his four-star review of the production when it first opened back in October.
“But the show belongs to the titanic Scherzinger, who makes an especially proud and feral Norma,” Oleksinski wrote. “Her confidence and burning desire to succeed makes her fall much greater than that of a dusty hermit.”
The other Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical nominees included McDonald (“Gypsy”), Jennifer Simard (“Death Becomes Her”), Megan Hilty (“Death Becomes Her”), and Jasmine Amy Rogers (“BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical”).
English (US)