Founded in 1993 by choreographer Robin Antin (b. 6 July 1961), the Pussycat Dolls started life in Hollywood, California as an all-female burlesque dance troupe. Antin and her group of dancers (led by Carmen Electra) established a residency at the Viper Room in Los Angeles, performing an innuendo-laden but old-fashioned striptease burlesque routine that steered clear of nudity or explicit sexual references. The success of the show led to a constant stream of requests for the troupe to perform on television and in advertising campaigns and movies. Over the years a number of celebrity performers appeared with the troupe, including Christina Aguilera, Nikka Costa, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Christina Applegate, Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and Brittany Murphy.
In 2003, Antin decided to reinvent the Pussycat Dolls as a musical project and held a number of open auditions to find new singers and dancers. The line-up coalesced around former Eden's Crush singer Nicole Scherzinger (b. 29 June 1978, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA), Carmit Bachar (b. 4 September 1974, Los Angeles, California, USA), Kimberly Wyatt (b. Warrensburg, Missouri, USA), Jessica Sutta (b. Miami, Florida, USA), Melody Thornton (b. Phoenix, Arizona, USA), and Ashley Roberts (b. 14 September 1981, Phoenix, Arizona, USA). The new-look troupe brought its stage show to the Pussycat Dolls Lounge at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. They also signed a recording contract with A&M Records and worked on their debut album with a number of leading urban and dance producers, including Will.I.Am, Timbaland, Ron Fair and Rich Harrison. They enjoyed immediate success in their homeland when the Cee-Lo penned "Don't Cha" (featuring Busta Rhymes) became the club hit of summer 2005, and then powered to the number 2 position on the Hot 100 pop chart. The song also topped the UK singles chart. The sextet's debut album followed in September as they enjoyed their 10 minutes of fame, which included the major US hits "Stickwitu" (also a UK number 1), "Beep" (featuring Will.I.Am) and "Buttons" (featuring Snoop Dogg).
