Ahead of Girls Aloud bringing their reunion tour to Ireland in May, Audrey Donohue reflects on the ups and downs of their two decades in the music business.
It’s shaping up to be a big year for Girls Aloud. With over 20 years in showbiz under their belts, and after surfing the highs and lows of life in the spotlight, Girls Aloud are back and seemingly, bigger than ever.
The group, who have had 21 top ten hits in the UK, as well as selling 4.3 million singles and 4 million albums there alone – delighted Irish fans when they announced last November that they were bringing their new stage show to Ireland this May.
The tour, titled The Girls Aloud Show, aims to celebrate the band’s two decades of doling out pop bangers, as well as celebrating the life of late band member Sarah Harding.
Hype around their quartet of upcoming Irish shows - two dates in Dublin and two dates in Belfast – indicates that love for this girlband hasn’t gone anywhere and that they are as "untouchable" as they were when they burst onto the scene in late 2002.
Ahead of the tour kicking off, we look back at the big moments in the group’s careers and lives to date.
2002 – Girls Aloud burst onto the scene
One must not underestimate the grip that the Popstars reality TV show franchise had on both Ireland and the UK in the early noughties.
Popstars: The Rivals was an ITV reality competition that aimed to whittle down thousands of wannabe popstars into two pop groups of five members apiece – one all male, one all female - who would then partake in "a battle of the sexes" as they vied for the Christmas number one on the UK singles chart.
After weeks of auditions and live shows, judged by pop moguls Pete Waterman and Louis Walsh, as well as Spice Girl Geri Halliwell [now Horner], Girls Aloud were born!
Making the final cut were Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Sarah Harding, Kimberley Walsh and our very own Nadine Coyle, who auditioned for The Rivals not long after her iconic Irish Popstars passport debacle.
Interestingly, neither Nicola Roberts nor Kimberley Walsh originally made it to the final ten female contestants in the competition. Walsh got her place after Irish singer Hazel Kaneswaran (anyone remember Dove?) was forced to pull out of the show because she was ten days too old at the time of the auditions, and was also eight months pregnant.
Roberts got through after another contestant, Nicola Ward, quit the show, citing exploitation of the contestants by the producers.
Topping the charts
A month after Girls Aloud and their rival group, the all-male One True Voice, had been formed, ITV broadcast a special show just before Christmas which revealed which of the two groups (if either) had nabbed that coveted number one slot.
The show had British DJ Neil Fox at the Pepsi Chart Show studios where he ran down the top ten singles before revealing the act that had charted highest.
Alas One True Voice did not come out on top with their single Sacred Trust / After You’re Gone. Instead, Girls Aloud's spiky and pulsating pop track Sound of the Underground topped the charts.
The track stayed at number one for four weeks, as well as climbing to the number one spot here in Ireland, knocking Eminem’s Lose Yourself off the top spot – and cemented Girls Aloud as the red hot British pop group going into 2003.
For anyone interested what ever happened One True Voice, they sadly disbanded that year. Gone but not forgotten!
Debut album success
Keen to capitalize on the band being hot property, the group’s debut album Sound of the Underground was released in May 2003 and unsurprisingly, shot to the top of the UK charts.
With tracks including smash hit No Good Advice, Some Kind of Miracle and the moody Life Got Cold, it went platinum and sold nearly 370,000 copies in the UK alone.
Jump! For my Love (Actually)
There are few rom-coms that have made such an impact as 2003’s Love Actually, starring Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson and Martine McCutcheon.
The film explores ten different love stories involving a variety of people, many of whom are interlinked in some way.
Its director, Richard Curtis, rang the group’s production team Xenomania to tell them that he thought that the 1984 Pointer Sisters’ track Jump would make a good Girls Aloud single. Lo and behold, the group went on to record it for the Love Actually soundtrack.
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The joyful video intertwines footage of the band breaking into 10 Downing Street with lots of footage from the film.
However, the Girls Aloud version of the song was not (actually) used in the film itself for the scene where Hugh Grant, who plays the British prime minister in the film, lets loose around 10 Downing Street after his first day in the job.
It was decided that the Pointer Sisters' original version would feature instead, due to international audiences being "unaware" of Girls Aloud. (Ouch).
Nonetheless, the Girls Aloud video goes down in pop history as a defining early noughties pop moment and has been watched 8.5 million times on YouTube to date.
Cheryl Tweedy assaults toilet attendant
A make-or-break moment for the career of Cheryl Tweedy (later Cole) came in 2003 when, at the peak of post-Popstars fame, she was charged with assaulting a nightclub toilet attendant in Surrey.
Following a court case, she was found guilty of punching the attendant, but cleared of a racism charge.
She had to pay a £3,000 (approx €3,500) fine and complete 120 hours of community service.
The incident was tabloid fodder for weeks on end, with some commentators pushing for her place in the band to be given to someone else.
At one stage it looked as though the then 20-year-old Cole's reputation could have been destroyed. A public apology followed and Cole held onto her place in the group.
Toy Show Toby
The group won the hearts of the Irish people when they appeared on 2003's Late Late Toy Show.
Wicklow native Toby Kane won the Junior Stars in their Eyes competition at the Wicklow Regatta Festival and wanted to further demonstrate his singing skills on the Toy Show, performing a cover of Girls Aloud's Jump.
However he seemed a bit perturbed when the group sneaked onstage behind him and surprised him, looking like he might burst into tears and shaking his head when presenter Pat Kenny asked if he wanted to chat to them. Poor Toby!
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The not-so-difficult second album
What Will The Neighbours Say dropped in 2004 and explored different subgenres of pop.
Including tracks like Wake Me Up, a cover of The Pretenders' I'll Stand By You, Jump, The Show and Love Machine, the album received praise from critics, with The Guardian hailing it as "a great album: funny, clever, immediate, richly inventive".
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The album peaked at number six on the UK charts and number 12 on the Irish ones.
A moment for the fashion
Girls Aloud epitomised early noughties fashion and embraced every sartorial trend - we're talking low-rise jeans, pirate-inspired fashion including skull and bones motifs, military jackets, cargo pants, statement earrings, disc belts and bustier tops.
The group loved a matching moment and often - or at least in the band's early days - all wore themed outfits or appeared on the red carpet in a statement colour.
No matter what they wore, they inspired teenage girls everywhere and were seen as the height of fashion - but looking back, it's safe to say that their outfits have dated moreso than their tunes.
2007: movie cameo
Those of us who grew up in the noughties will no doubt remember Girl Aloud's cameo appearance in the girl power comedy St Trinian's (2007).
In the clip at the end of the film, the band appeared as the St Trinian's School Band dressed up in the uniform and performed the school chant in front of the students.
Cheryl on The X Factor
Cheryl Cole joined the judging panel of The X Factor in its fifth season in 2008, alongside Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue.
Similar to Popstars back in the early 2000s, The X Factor was at its peak in 2008, with a whopping 182,000 people auditioning for the show; special guest performances coming from pop royalty Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Britney Spears; and the finale was watched by over 14 million people in the UK alone.
Cole gained fans with her sass towards Simon Cowell as well as her weekly live show outfits, and she mentored the eventual winner of the competition that year, Alexandra Burke. The Telegraph's Bryony Gordon dubbed her a "Princess Diana for the X Factor generation."
It was also this season where she met first-time auditionee and future One Direction member Liam Payne, who was 14 years old at the time, who she went on to date and have a child with eight years later.
2009: Girls Aloud win their first ever BRIT Award
After a number of unsuccessful attempts, Girls Aloud won their first ever BRIT Award in 2009, picking up the award for Best British Single for their hit song The Promise.
The group gave a dazzling showgirl-inspired performance of the song on the night.
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Upon taking to the stage for the acceptance speech, Sarah Harding declared: "It’s about time! I think I just wet myself."
Nadine Coyle's accent goes viral
Coyle's accent has gone viral several times over the years, not least after her move to the US which led to a hybrid Derry-LA fusion.
From her pronunciation of "flour" on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch in 2010, to a social media video that shows the Derry woman walking on the beach and talking about whether she prefers the beach or the city, Coyle's accent has often been a source of mirth.
The singer has taken it all in her stride though, laughing and joking about the beach video shortly after it went viral during a performance at Manchester Pride, saying to the crowd, "Hey, don't we get a wild rough time having a Derry accent? So what if I like the beach and the city?!"
The singer's 2019 stint on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! left some British viewers struggling to understand her and taking to social media to say they needed subtitles.
The hiatus-turned-split
Bad news came for fans of the group in 2009 when they decided to take a one-year hiatus to pursue solo projects.
The hiatus went on to last three years. During that time, Cheryl released a slew of hit solo singles, including Fight For This Love, 3 Words, Parachute and Call My Name.
Nadine Coyle also pursued a solo music career as well – with lesser success – and focused on her restaurant in LA, Nadine’s Irish Mist.
Kimberley Walsh took part in Strictly Come Dancing in 2012, while Nicola Roberts launched a cosmetics range for people with pale skin.
Sarah focused on her acting career, appearing in BBC TV film Freefall opposite Dominic Cooper and St Trinian’s 2, despite a struggle at the time with alcohol dependence and a stint in rehab.
The End?
The group’s brief reunion in 2012 – which included a tour and a tenth anniversary album Ten - was shortlived, with the band announcing in 2013 that they were calling it a day.
A statement read, "Dear Alouders, we just want to say from the bottom of our hearts Thank you!! This tour has been an amazing experience and the perfect chance to say thank you for being on this journey with us through a decade. It has far exceeded any of our dreams and we hope we are forever your inspiration and reminder that dreams really do glitter!!
"Your love and support will stay with us forever but we have now come to the end of our incredible time together. Love you lots." The end of an era. Or was it?
Sarah Harding’s death
In 2020, Sarah Harding announced that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer that had spread to other parts of her body.
Eight months later, she broke the news publicly that the cancer was terminal and that she did not expect to "see another Christmas". That same month, she released her autobiography, Hear Me Out, explaining that she had decided to go public about her illness to potentially help others who might be worried about seeing a doctor, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Harding died just seven months later on 5 September 2021 at the age of 39.
Her death was announced on Instagram, with her mother Marie writing: "It is with deep heartbreak that today I'm sharing the news that my beautiful daughter Sarah has sadly passed away."
She finished the statement by saying, "It meant the world to Sarah and it gave her great strength and comfort to know she was loved. I know she won't want to be remembered for her fight against this terrible disease - she was a bright shining star and I hope that's how she can be remembered instead."
Tributes poured in from far and wide for the singer, including a touching recollection from record producer and Popstars: The Rivals judge Pete Waterman, who told Sky News that he would "always remember her smile and the friendship and that bouncing on the bed" when he revealed she would be part of Girls Aloud.
Bandmate Cheryl wrote on Instagram, "Although we knew this day would arrive I am somehow still feeling at a loss for words that our stunning, unique, crazy, quirky, kind and soft hearted girl has departed."
Nicola Roberts said, "I can't accept that this day has come. My heart is aching and all day everything we went through together has raced round my mind… a part of me or us isn't here anymore and it's unthinkable and painful and utterly cruel."
Kimberley Walsh wrote, "Your fire burned so bright and you loved, lived and laughed so hard. Sending love and strength to everyone who is grieving today. My heart is broken."
The next chapter...
A red-letter day for longtime Girls Aloud fans came on 22 November 2023, when they confirmed they were reuniting with a 2024 arena tour across the UK and Ireland.
Announcing our #TheGirlsAloudShow arena tour next May/June 2024. A celebration of Sarah, our music & our incredible fans. On sale Fri 1 Dec, Presale Weds 29 Nov. Signup: https://t.co/OHwTxCq7Iy. We can't wait to sing & dance with you again -Cheryl, Kimberley, Nadine & Nicola 📣 pic.twitter.com/4ceHwEw50m
— Girls Aloud (@GirlsAloud) November 22, 2023
Calling it a "Celebration of Sarah", the group will perform their biggest hits in May and June - and fans are hyped.
The Girls Aloud Show comes to Dublin's 3Arena on 17 and 18 May and Belfast’s SSE Arena on 20 and 21 May.
