Last night, Nicole Scherzinger of the recently-reunited The Pussycat Dolls went on The Project to promote comeback single ‘React’ and the group’s upcoming Australian dates as part of So Pop festival.

While the interview started off smoothly enough – discussing the reunion and the video for ‘React’ – it quickly turned into a painfully awkward process, with hosts Pete Helliar and Tommy Little zeroing in on a particular dance move in the video. After Scherzinger explains the rather intense process of shooting the clip and its various elements, Helliar goes on to joke about noticing “some of the elements.” Yeech.

Host Waleed Aly, referencing the upcoming So Pop tour (with Steps and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, among others), then goes on to ask Scherzinger, “When you guys are backstage, do you fight over who wore the best tube tops and low rise jeans?” Scherzinger responds with a blunt no. It’s an utterly bizarre question to ask a professional musician in 2020, and Scherzinger’s response seems pretty valid tbh.

From there, there’s questions about misheard lyrics in the group’s hit ‘When I Grow Up’ – Aly confessing he had believed they were “I want to have boobies” rather than “I want to have groupies” – and Little suggesting Aly was planning to ask if she’d “gotten her boobies” yet. Scherzinger replies “I don’t know, have I?”

Scherzinger handles the whole thing exceptionally, making a few jokes herself, but it’s still incredibly awkward to watch. After all, it’s not the first time the show’s host have asked irrelevant questions to a female musician – like the time they got Maggie Rogers on and asked her what Pharrell smelled like?

You can watch the interview below.