Nicole Scherzinger was texting Liam Payne on the day he died.
The 46-year-old singer - who was one of the judges on 'The X Factor' who helped put One Direction together in 2010 - has been praised by theatre guru Andrew Lloyd Webber for retaining her composure and still making it on stage for the press night of 'SUNSET BLVD' on New York's Broadway just hours after she heard her friend had fatally fallen from his hotel balcony last week.
Andrew told Billboard magazine: "One thing about Nicole is that once she’s committed to something, she is the most incredible company member and leader of any performer I know.
"And do you know what? I suppose something that hasn’t been said, and I suppose I could say, is that of course she mentored Liam, from One Direction.
"On the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day, and [that evening] the reviewers came in [to 'SUNSET'], she’d just heard that he died.
"And the fact that she even did the show at all is extraordinary. I mean she is an amazing, amazing woman.
"She is without any question one of the finest performers I’ve ever worked with."
The 76-year-old theatre boss praised the former Pussycat Dolls singer as "absolutely extraordinary" and a unique talent who he'd love to work with more in the future.
He said: "I’ve known that she’s one of a kind. I don’t think there’s any singer I know who can interpret and act through music in the way that she can. I mean, I’ve known some very, very great ones, but she’s absolutely extraordinary."
Asked if he thinks she'll do more theatre when her current run comes to an end, he added: "I don’t know, you’d have to ask her that. But all I could say is, I would love to work with her again. It’s always got to be the right role, the right thing. And I think she’s completely made this role her own."
