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"  Nicole Scherzinger needs a nap. In person, stripped of the latex corsets, towering heels, and bounty of lip gloss she wore as a Pussycat Doll, Scherzinger is as naturally pretty as, well, a real-life doll: petite, flawless complexion, and dark cascading locks. Padding barefoot down the hallway of her hotel room, Scherzinger yawns, smiles sleepily, and blinks her cheek-dusting lashes. She&amp;#039;s a little exhausted these days. And she might well be. Scherzinger is about to embark on her biggest year yet. She&amp;#039;ll be a judge on Simon Cowell&amp;#039;s absurdly hyped singing competition The X Factor (complete with a $5 million grand prize) and debut her solo album, Killer Love.  Not that this moment hasn&amp;#039;t been hard-won. Back before sleep was so tough to come by, it was her parents&amp;#039; work ethic \u2014 her dad was a welder, her mom an office worker \u2014 and a worn-out Whitney Houston cassette tape that inspired what Cowell calls her ruthless ambition. &amp;quot;I definitely have the eye of the tiger,&amp;quot; says Scherzinger, 33. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve fought my way to where I am and will continue to do so. I&amp;#039;m a hard worker \u2014 I get it from my family. We only know work. Nothing was handed to us. When I believe in something, I go after it. It&amp;#039;s very hard to tell me &amp;#039;no.&amp;#039;&amp;quot;  It&amp;#039;s not a word she hears often. Born in Hawaii (check out those hula moves in her &amp;quot;Right There&amp;quot; video with 50 Cent) and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Scherzinger went to a performing arts school, competed in state-fair talent shows, and climbed into a lion mascot suit at Kentucky Kingdom, a theme park. &amp;quot;It was disgusting \u2014 so hot! \u2014 and the smell,&amp;quot; she laughs. &amp;quot;You couldn&amp;#039;t get enough Febreeze.&amp;quot;  Scherzinger is a reality-show veteran: She won Popstars at age 23 \u2014 which landed her a spot in the girl group Eden&amp;#039;s Crush \u2014 and, most recently, carted home the 2010 trophy on Dancing With the Stars.  But it was last spring that the sticky-sweet Scherzinger pulled off a career-making coup: replacing British judge Cheryl Cole on the American edition of The X Factor. Whatever tensions there may have been on set (Cole was mysteriously dumped \u2014 no one&amp;#039;s talking) seem to have departed with Cole, as Scherzinger reveals that fellow judges Cowell, Paula Abdul, and L.A. Reid all share a dressing room backstage. &amp;quot;Simon calls it the judges&amp;#039; lounge \u2014 everything&amp;#039;s open \u2014 so we all goof around, eat, and get ready in the same place.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s a dream come true for Scherzinger, who used to sleep in an Abdul nightshirt. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m the luckiest person to get a front-row ticket to the Simon and Paula show,&amp;quot; she says of the bizarre pairing. &amp;quot;This whole thing has felt like a roller-coaster ride.&amp;quot;  And while The X Factor gig will raise her name recognition, it&amp;#039;s talking about Killer Love that really wakes her up. &amp;quot;With the Pussycat Dolls, I had four other girls to fall back on \u2014 we were a gang, a team, and that gives you extra confidence. Now I&amp;#039;m bringing it all on my own,&amp;quot; she says. Even if that took some practice: &amp;quot;I cried when I saw my first Pussycat Doll costume. It was my first photo shoot, and I wasn&amp;#039;t used to wearing clothes like that,&amp;quot; Scherzinger says of her skimpy outfits. Remind her of the catsuit she was sewn into for a performance last year on British X Factor, though, and the former theater nerd laughs at how far she&amp;#039;s come. &amp;quot;Crazy, isn&amp;#039;t it? My friends from high school were like, &amp;#039;Oh, my gosh, our sweet little Nicole!&amp;#039;&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s growing up, though, right? I&amp;#039;m a woman, and it&amp;#039;s part of owning what you are.&amp;quot; She hugs a couch pillow before another yawn escapes. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been working toward this my whole life. This album is my dream. Everything is timing. My music is the driving engine, and The X Factor is where I can give back to the contestants \u2014 pay it forward, since I got my start on reality shows. I&amp;#039;m ready to take it all on.&amp;quot; She better get that power nap in now. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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