I love how people who don't know the whole story keeps saying "it was in her contract she knew what was up" or "she shouldn't have signed" when that isn't the case. When PCD the recording group was formed their was to be four lead singers Nicole, Carmit, Melody & Kaya Jones (who left shortly before Don't Cha came out) with the other girls doing backing and additional vocals. That's why on their earlier records (Sway, We Went As Far As We Felt Like Going, Supernatural, Tainted Love & Flirt) & performances All 4 of them sang lead vocals with the other dolls doing backgrounds. For whatever reasons AFTER The group was already formed The label changed their minds and decided Nicole was going to sing lead. Which is why Kaya decided to quit. Nicole ended up not only being the featured lead singer but she did alot of the backgrounds too which cut the other dolls roles almost completely out. That wasn't in their contract and Melody has said time and time again they were told AFTER the fact they weren't going to be singing. She said she had to learn to dance because she originally only SIGNED to be a singer. Ashley was one of the featured singers in the burlesque PCD (Around the time Santa Baby was recorded) and she along with Jessica and Carmit were picked to join this line up because they could sing. Kim's probably the only doll that only ever danced before the recoding group started. It's unfortunate for them how things ended up because by the time the 2nd album rolled around the other dolls including Melody had very little to do with it or the group period. Most of the songs are Nicole's leftover scraps from her shelved album anyway. I believe they put up with the label changing the formula because it was their shot at stardom honestly how many of us would turn it down? even if we hated it? I don't even really blame Nicole for them making her lead that's the label's fault and what was she gonna do say no? That was her opportunity too. I do blame her however for becoming a total self centered diva that was hard to work with. That had to have made an already tense situation worse.