Following a bittersweet departure from The Pussycat Dolls, the "Smile ambassador" has been re-igniting her career in Hong Kong, writes P.Ramakrishnan.
JUMPING FOR JOY I was born and raised in Encino, California, and I'm a mix of Israeli, Dutch, Indonesian and Chinese. Both my parents danced and acted, and I was an audience to their talents. I was always upside down doing handstands as a child - a bundle of energy - so my mum sent me to gymnastics classes. I also did ballet and dance. After watching the 1984 Olympics, I fell in love with rhythmic gymnastics and started competing professionally. I competed internationally for 10 years and even made fifth place in the United States Olympic trials [in 1992]. I had a dance background and loved creating new elements, and I think the audience liked my performance more than my routine. I gave up gymnastics and started performing.
CATS OUT OF THE BAG When we first started, The Pussycat Dolls was more of an underground act, it was the cool thing in [Los Angeles] that few people knew about and we played gigs in The Viper Room and The Roxy. This sensual, burlesque act was conceptualised way back in 1995 but most people think it's relatively new. In 2003, we signed a record deal that brought the group into the limelight but the Dolls had been around long before. The original group was Nicole Scherzinger, Melody Thornton, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta, Kimberly Wyatt and me. When we were performing, celebrities came to be a part of the show. It was more risqu?in the early days, we didn't sing live, we lip-synched and we had amazing guest stars like Carmen Electra, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani join in.
THEN CAME GWEN When Gwen joined, the fame aspect grew considerably. I was choreographing for [Stefani's band] No Doubt - I've had many avatars - as an independent artist and, when I met Gwen, I said, 'If you ever want to be a part of the Dolls, let me know.' Six months go by, she came to check out the show and, at the end, she came backstage and said, 'I'm jealous. I want to be in it. I love it!' And then we based the show all around her and her music. Gwen was the quintessential Pussycat Doll, really sophisticated and classic. And she has this perfect combination of beauty and rock 'n' roll and sex appeal. She brought something new to the show. It was so great, we went on tour as an opening act for No Doubt. We had a ball.
SPLIT DECISION I left the group in 2008. The split came naturally. Girls have come and gone over the years, some bitterly, some not. Groups are a difficult thing; the relationship goes through a lot. We enjoyed the perks together, we suffered the losses together. We developed bonds but ... some personalities don't mesh in the long run. Nicole did lead the group and was often seen as 'the face' ... but each member had value. Well, I really don't want to focus on the negative but let me just say when things are good, no one leaves a multiplatinum-record-selling group. It's sort of unfortunate, we all worked hard, we had a wide fan base, Nicole was always experimenting and made the group a bigger success but ... many of us did feel that no one should be taken for granted. It affects your experience. After a while, I was happy to leave.
HONG KONG CONNECTION I was in Hong Kong in December for a charity show and I met Ann Tsang [of Antithesis records] and [rapper] Detroit Diamond. I had met Ann before but this time she said, 'We have to work on something together'. Before I knew it, we were all at a studio working together. The synergy was amazing. I love working here in Hong Kong, it's fast, it's efficient.
I've been to the city many times. It's like New York on speed. It's got some amazing qualities - fashion, food, the whole lifestyle. It is so multicultural. I remember coming here years ago, when I was with the group, and thinking, 'I'm definitely coming back soon'. I feel this strange connection to Asia - my mother was born in Indonesia, my grandmother is part Chinese - and I have Chinese tattoos on my back.
IDOL GOSSIP As much as I love LA, I like leaving it on occasion, too. Living in the heartland of gossip and tabloid culture, my personal life is speculated on but I don't really care to talk much about it. At the moment, my personal life is me and my mother. The tabloids often get it very wrong. Like they did in the early days of American Idol, when I went to support [the reality show's most famous runner up] Adam Lambert [see The Review].
When I left the group, my intention wasn't to go solo. I wanted to go out and create and produce - and that's how The Zodiac Show came into being. It's an underground live-performance show that I co-founded as an outlet for both established and new singers, dancers, rappers, poets and performing artists to come together on stage to display their true passion and talent. It's a multiple-genre thing that I can't fully describe. Rap, aerial fire shows, opera, drag queens, everything on stage, all united on one platform. Dita von Teese, Macy Gray, Grammy winners and producers all collaborating. It's my passion project. Adam Lambert was in The Zodiac Show for years - long before Idol - so, of course, we've been friends for a long time. During the show, I went to support him and you can see me in the audience on the Idol re-runs.
CRACKING SMILES Beyond the music, the show, the documentary [about The Zodiac Show], my involvement with Operation Smile, as a 'Smile ambassador', is very important to me. I was born with a cleft lip and palate and I experienced rejection at every corner. But I understand why; this business is about image. I had a scar on my lip after my surgery and people would look and ask, 'What's that?' But it became part of my character. One in 600 children in the US are born with this condition. In America, we have surgery, which takes just 45 minutes, but in Third World countries, there is nowhere to go. I teamed up with the charity to benefit children born with the condition by offering arts education and inspiration for them to live their dreams.
No comments:
Post a Comment