Nicole Scherzinger Opens Up About Working With Liam Payne on ‘Building the Band’: ‘This Was His Happy Place’

“I love doing things that break all the rules,” says Nicole Scherzinger with a smile during a sit-down interview with Billboard at Netflix’s New York City office. “It doesn’t get any more real than having a band put themselves together without any record execs or labels telling them what they have to do, what they have to look like. That doesn’t work anymore. That’s the old formula.”

Scherzinger is talking about Building the Band, a new singing competition that premieres on Netflix Wednesday (July 9) and finds her serving as a mentor and judge. An engrossing, potent cocktail of Love Is Blind and The X Factor, Building the Band tracks young singers from across the globe as they form their own groups without ever having met in real life: Contestants can hear each other’s auditions and talk on the phone, but the first time they see each other is during their debut performance as a band. “It was solely based off of music compatibility and chemistry and connection. Sight unseen,” says Scherzinger, who calls the show a “social experiment” that worked out “better than we could have imagined.”

With Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean playing host, Kelly Rowland and Liam Payne (filming completed prior to his tragic death last October) joined Scherzinger as guest judges, providing direction and feedback to six bands vying for the win. Scherzinger, who one month ago won the best actress in a musical Tony Award for her stunning work in Broadway’s Sunset Blvd., is particularly qualified for a show like this. She’s judged several singing competitions (The Sing-Off, The X Factor, The Masked Singer) and done the band thing, too – three times, in fact, as she points out to me: she led the Pussycat Dolls to massive success (four top 10s on the Billboard Hot 100); sang in the TV show-formed band Eden’s Crush, who won Popstars USA in 2001 and notched one Hot 100 top 10 hit; and spent time in the rock band Days of the New (that one I was admittedly not aware of until she quizzed me).

Beyond her own solo and group successes, Scherzinger also changed pop music history: She was the driving force behind putting Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson together as a group on The X Factor UK in 2010.

In short: She knows a thing or two about raw talent and what will connect with a wider audience. Beyond resumes and vocal abilities, there’s an ineffable quality she looks for in groups. “[You need] that natural chemistry. It just has to work organically because that’s the only thing that’s gonna move you, that’s the only thing that’s gonna make you care – give you the electric volts, I call them,” she says. “There’s too much stuff out there today – it’s gotta be something amazing that knocks you out the park.”

Fifteen years ago, Scherzinger felt those electric volts when One Direction formed. Despite the gut-wrenching loss of Payne, there’s a palpable love and gratitude in her voice as she reflects on watching Payne pay it forward on Building the Band. “I thought it was so beautiful to see the journey, to see Liam come full circle. Especially my relationship with him, having helped form the band One Direction and then see him have such wildly, phenomenal global success with One Direction and with his solo career … [to see him] mentor these bands, it was really beautiful,” Scherzinger shares.

“I saw the joy it brought to Liam. I felt that this was his happy place. Like myself, AJ and Kelly, we’ve lived this. We’ve learned it. To be able to bestow any inspiration and knowledge and wisdom and experience on any of these contestants and these bands, it brought us all joy. Particularly Liam. I felt this really inspired him and this was his happy place. This was his happy place because Liam was such a beautiful heart, and he loved to give back. He loved to help.”

In his role on Building the Band, Payne is comfortable, friendly and naturally funny. “He’s with us in spirit,” Scherzinger says. “I know how proud he was of this show and I know the joy that he got from doing this show. I feel like we are honoring him with this show, and that is such a beautiful thing. I’m so excited for people to see him in his highest light, giving back.”

Building the Band is also a bit of a full circle moment for Scherzinger, who spent time in a reality show-based band before graduating to massive success with the Pussycat Dolls, one of the most commercially successful girl groups of all time. Looking back on 20 years since the band’s debut album, PCD, Scherzinger offers some advice she might give to a younger version of herself: “Be your authentic self and lead with your heart – and be sure you carry your balls with you.”

Advising budding artists on Building the Band also made Scherzinger think about how the industry has changed for women and girl groups. “When I was thinking of the Pussycat Dolls — and I’m so proud of the Pussycat Dolls — I’m thinking about, ‘What would the Pussycat Dolls look like today?’ The Pussycat Dolls would look like Lizzo; like Demi Lovato; like Billie Eilish. It’s unconventional. It’s not what you would think. For me, that’s so important. Ten years ago, 20 years ago, being sexy was about being sexy for someone else. Now being sexy is about feeling sexy in your own skin, feeling strong about owning, embracing and loving and accepting yourself. It’s called evolution. It’s called times are a’changin’. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about accepting yourself and not trying to conform and be put in a box.”

That inclusivity and artist-first focus fueled Scherzinger’s approach to mentoring singers on this show. “I want to see the best in people. How can I bring out the best in you, as a human and as an artist? Find the strengths and focus on the strengths. How can we encourage, how can we empower? And that’s what we should do for anyone,” she concludes. “Not only in Building the Band, but in life.”