MANILA, Philippines—The half-Filipino lead vocalist for the American pop group Pussycat Dolls says she wants to sing the Philippine national anthem when boxing champion Manny Pacquiao fights again.
US-born Nicole Scherzinger, who is performing with three other members of the band in Manila on Thursday, told ABS-CBN television she has always been a fan of the Filipino boxer.
Junior welterweight champion Pacquiao hand-picks the singer of the national anthem at his bouts. After his latest match with Ricky Hatton in Las Vegas in May, Filipino singer Martin Nievera was criticized in the media for altering the 1898 revolutionary anthem, which by law must be played at a marching tempo.
Pacquiao has not announced whom he will fight next, or who will sing the anthem.
Right at the NAIA when she arrived with the three other Pussycat Dolls at noon last Monday, Nicole Scherzinger said she was overwhelmed by that “coming home” feeling.
“I felt the warmth as soon as I got off the plane,” recalled Nicole during a one-on-one with Funfare yesterday at the Executive Lounge of Sofitel Hotel (formerly Westin Philippine Plaza) where the Dolls are billeted until Friday when they fly back to the States after their concert at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Concert Grounds tomorrow night.
“Everybody was calling my name and I was so touched,” added Nicole who is half-Filipino (her father is surnamed Valiente, from Batanes), part-Russian and part-Hawaiian. “I felt that I belong here.”
She felt even more so when she saw her face on the huge billboards advertising Clear, the shampoo she’s endorsing.
“Then I saw the commercial on TV and I realized why everybody knew my name,” she sounded amused. “In the commercial, I said, ‘My name is Nicole.’ No wonder, at the airport they were calling, ‘Nicole, Nicole!’ I was teary-eyed.”
