Melody Thornton has opened up about her time in The Pussycat Dolls – revealing that she was ‘never given that chance’ in the girl group.
The singer left the band back in 2010 to focus on her solo career. She had first auditioned for the girl group when she was just 19, joining fellow Dolls Nicole Scherzinger, Ashley Roberts, Carmit Bachar, Jessica Sutta and Kimberley Wyatt.
And although the girl group were nominated for a Grammy and saw singles such as ‘Don’t Cha’ top the charts, Melody has now revealed that her time in the band completely broke down her self-confidence...
Speaking to The Sun, the star said ‘I was just a back-up dancer. It was very painful for me. It was a big opportunity to show what I could do and I was never given that chance really.’
‘In order to carry on singing, people need to know that you can sing in the first place and that wasn’t really the case for me in that group, so it was actually very painful.’
It’s not the first time Melody had opened up about the dynamics of the girl group – previously revealing that she secretly underwent therapy whilst performing as one of the Dolls.
Explaining that she ‘never felt insecure until joining the group,’ Melody said ‘I was in therapy when I was in the Dolls and maybe two years after that.’
‘I lost so much confidence and felt really worthless. Becauase it was pointed out, over and over again, that I was the weakest link in the group. And when you’re told [that] over and over again, it’s amazing how it affects you mentally.’
It's long been thought that there were tensions between Melody and Nicole Scherzinger (with a certain viral video still doing the rounds), but Melody was quick to shut down rumours that she blamed the front woman for what went down.
She explained, ‘People would assume that I was so mad at Nicole because she sang and I didn’t. Well, no. That was her dream and it was coming true for her. I just wanted it for myself too.’
The Dolls later reunited in 2019, but Melody unsurprisingly made the choice not to join them.
And whilst her girl band days ended in heartbreak, the star is doing better than ever - now finally showing the world her vocals as she stars in the musical The Bodyguard.