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Pussycat Dolls say Nicole Scherzinger announced tour cancellation without their knowledge

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 11 January 2022

The Pussycat Dolls’ reunion tour is off. News that was not only a surprise to fans who had bought tickets, but also most of the Pussycat Dolls too.

Lead vocalist Nicole Scherzinger announced on Friday that the shows would no longer being going ahead, citing surging COVID-19 cases. The shows had already been pushed back from their original 2020 dates by the pandemic and fans were awaiting newly rescheduled dates.

Scherzinger did not take responsibility for the cancellation, but said in a statement posted in an Instagram story: “With the ever evolving circumstances surrounding the pandemic, I understand the decision that the tour dates had to be cancelled”.

“I have invested a huge amount of time, creative energy and my own finances into bringing this project back to life”, she went on. “And while I’m naturally incredibly saddened by this decision, I am also very proud of what we were able to achieve in the short amount of time we had together before COVID”.

Whoever made the ultimate decision not to go ahead with the shows – if it wasn’t Scherzinger herself, which does seem to be in question – they seemingly assumed Scherzinger would let the other members of the group know. Which, arguably, she did. She just did it at the same time as letting the rest of the world know.

Two members of the group, Jessica Sutta and Carmit Bachar, released a joint statement after Scherzinger’s, saying: “We want to say how incredibly disappointed we are to learn of an announcement made on Instagram that the Pussycat Dolls reunion tour is cancelled. As of now, there has been no official notification of that. Either way, it seems as though it’s the end of a chapter to an incredible, life-altering experience filled with some awesome memories that we will forever be grateful for”.

Who did decide to pull the tour though? The group’s founder and longtime manager Robin Antin perhaps? Well, she also seems unwilling to take the blame, posting her own Instagram statement, saying: “Myself and all the girls have been waiting on the rescheduled reunion tour dates for a long time, all of us working so hard to make it happen. All of us have made personal and financial sacrifices, but that’s what it takes to be a team player in a ‘BAND’”.

“Let’s not forget there are five other members of this group who I care for deeply, who deserve to be heard”, she went on. “There are truths to this situation, I just hope one day they see the light”.

So, that sounds like the back story here is quite interesting. It’s no secret, of course, that there have been tensions behind the scenes amid efforts to get the group back on stage. Last year, Antin sued Scherzinger, accusing her of refusing to take part in the previously agreed reunion tour unless she was given 75% of the profits and “complete creative control”.

Antin also claimed that tour postponements were less to do with the pandemic and more the result of Scherzinger’s “extortion”, with things dragging on so long that Live Nation had demanded back the $600,000 advance it had paid on ticket sales.

Scherzinger – who was already set to receive 49% of tour profits – hit back, saying that Antin’s claims were “ludicrous and false”.