Nicole Scherzinger: Judging is difficult

Nicole Scherzinger thinks her role as an X Factor judge is "time-consuming."

The 33-year-old singer is a judge on the American singing contest.

Mentoring upcoming musicians has been a rigorous experience for Nicole at times.

The star has had to put her music career on hold in order to meet her judging obligations.

"The reason [my new album] hasn't come out yet is because of The X Factor," Nicole told RadarOnline in response to a question about whether or not she'll be returning to the programme next year. "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."

Nicole wants to work primarily on her solo efforts in 2012.

"Next year for me, it's about my music," Nicole declared. "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."

Nicole made a controversial decision to eliminate 13-year-old contestant Rachel Crow from the show earlier this month. The cut resulted in Nicole receiving death threats from angry fans.

The singer does not want to face a similar situation in the future.

"The elimination process for me has been very difficult," Nicole said. "I definitely took the cake this year [for crying] – I think I got 25 strong points on that!"

Nicole is eager to pursue her own musical endeavours.

"I'm used to being on stage and performing and singing for people and people cheering for me," she explained. "I am an artist first, not a judge first!"

Nicole's debut solo album Killer Love was released earlier this year.

The X Factor's season has just ended and singer Melanie Amaro was announced the winner.

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