Pop star hints she might not return for the second season of the show

Dec 28, 2011 10:23 GMT  ·  By

The second season of X Factor USA might bring more changes than Steve Jones' replacement with another host. Chances are Nicole Scherzinger too will be out of the picture, in order to focus more on her solo music career.

While producers are still mum on which of the faces featured on the first season will return for another year, Nicole might have revealed that she won't in a recent interview.

Speaking with Radar Online about the past year and her solo career in the US, the pop star hinted that it was her stint on X Factor that repeatedly pushed back the US release of her album “Killer Love.”

She also hinted that, in 2012, her music could come first.

“Next year for me, it’s about my music,” Scherzinger tells Radar, when asked whether she's game for season 2 of the popular television show.

“This has been quite a learning experience, quite a journey for me. I didn’t expect to have been so emotional through the whole elimination process. I wanted to just mentor and empower artists,” she adds.

Indeed, there was a lot of drama on the first season of the show, ported by Simon Cowell from the UK to the US, as we also noted on several past occasions.

Nicole herself landed in the eye of the storm when she refused to take a stand when 13-year-old contestant Rachel Crow was eliminated.

All drama aside, the former Pussycat Doll also has her music career to think of.

“Killer Love” was pushed back time and time again precisely because of her busy schedule as mentor and judge on the show, Nicole explains.

“The reason it hasn’t come out yet is because of The X Factor. It’s been so time consuming. I work with these contestants six days a week. So I delayed the album, but I was able to perform one of my new singles last week,” she says.

The single she's speaking of is “Pretty,” which earned her a standing ovation.