Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are a British-Irish pop girl group that was created through the ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The line up consisted of members Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. In 2012, the group was named Britain's biggest selling girl group of the 21st century so far, with over 4.3 million singles sales and 4.0 million albums sold in the UK. The group achieved a string of twenty top-ten singles on the UK singles chart, including four number ones. They also achieved seven BPI certified albums, two of which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. They have been nominated for five Brit Awards and won one of them, Best Single in 2009 for "The Promise".
The group's main musical style is pop, and they have also experimented with other sounds including electropop, dance-pop and dance-rock throughout their career. The group's collaborations with Brian Higgins and the production team Xenomania earned the group critical acclaim, because of an "innovative" approach to mainstream pop music. The group became one of the few British reality television acts to achieve continued success, amassing a fortune of £30 million by May 2010. Guinness World Records listed them as the "Most Successful Reality TV Group" in the 2007 and 2011 edition. They also hold the record for "Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group" in the 2008 edition.
The group disbanded in March 2013 following the conclusion of the Ten: The Hits Tour. Harding died of breast cancer on 5 September 2021 at the age of 39. The remaining members reunited for a 2024 concert tour, The Girls Aloud Show, becoming the biggest UK arena tour of 2024.
History
2002: ''Popstars: The Rivals''
Girls Aloud was formed on 30 November 2002 on ITV's Popstars: The Rivals. The concept of the programme, hosted by Big Brother presenter Davina McCall, was to produce a boy band and a girl group who would be "rivals" and compete for the 2002 Christmas number one single. Following the initial success of Hear'Say, several thousand applicants attended auditions across the United Kingdom in hope of being selected. Ten girls and ten boys were chosen as finalists by judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell. However, two of these were disqualified before the live shows began: Hazel Kaneswaran was found to be too old to participate, while Nicola Ward refused to sign the contract, claiming the pay the group would receive was too low. Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts were chosen as their replacements.During October and November, the finalists took to the stage participating in weekly Saturday night live performances. Each week the contestant polling the fewest phone votes was eliminated until the final line-ups of the groups emerged. The five girls who made it into the group were Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh, and Sarah Harding; Javine Hylton missed out on a place in the group, despite previous expectations that she would be placed in the line-up. The group was named Girls Aloud and were managed by Louis Walsh, until 2005 when Hilary Shaw replaced him.
The new group competed with the boys' winning group, One True Voice to have 2002's Christmas number-one single. Girls Aloud won the battle with their single "Sound of the Underground", produced by Brian Higgins and Xenomania. The song spent four consecutive weeks at number one and was certified platinum in March 2003. The song received critical acclaim; Alexis Petridis of The Guardian stated that "it proved a first: it was a reality pop record that didn't make you want to do physical harm to everyone involved in its manufacture".
2002–2005: ''Sound of the Underground'' and ''What Will the Neighbours Say?''
After the success of their first single "Sound of the Underground", Girls Aloud spent five months recording the follow-up single and their debut album. Sound of the Underground was completed in April 2003 and released the following month. The album entered the charts at number two and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry. The second single, "No Good Advice", was also released in May 2003 to similar success. Girls Aloud's third single, "Life Got Cold", charted at number three in August 2003. In November 2003, Girls Aloud released a cover version of the Pointer Sisters' 1980s dance hit "Jump". The single, which charted at number two, accompanied a new edition of Sound of the Underground.After a brief hiatus, Girls Aloud released "The Show" in June 2004, the first single from What Will the Neighbours Say?, the group's second album. The single entered the charts at number two. The next single, "Love Machine", also peaked at number two in September 2004. Girls Aloud then recorded a cover of The Pretenders' "I'll Stand by You" which was released as the official Children in Need charity single. The song was not well received by critics. The cover became Girls Aloud's second number-one single, holding the position for two weeks.
The album What Will the Neighbours Say? was entirely written and produced by Xenomania. Upon its release on 29 November 2004, the album charted just outside of the top five and was quickly certified platinum. The final single from the album, "Wake Me Up", was released in February 2005. It charted at number four, making it their first to miss the top three. In early 2005, the group was nominated for a BRIT Award for Best Pop Act. Following the album's success, Girls Aloud announced their first tour, the What Will the Neighbours Say...? Tour, which took place in May 2005. The group also released their first DVD, Girls on Film.
2005–2007: ''Chemistry'' and ''The Sound of Girls Aloud''
Following their first tour, Girls Aloud began work on their third studio album, Chemistry. The album peaked on the UK Albums Charts at number 11 and received platinum certification. The first single from the album, "Long Hot Summer" was released in August 2005. The single ended Girls Aloud's run of top five singles when it charted at number seven. The follow-up single from the album, "Biology" was released in November 2005. The song was critically acclaimed; Peter Cashmore of The Guardian labeled it "the best pop single of the last decade". The release was followed by a cover of Dee C. Lee's "See the Day", released in the Christmas week of 2005. Following this, they presented a one-off TV Special, Christmas Mania, on ITV, where they sang songs taken from their Christmas album. Girls Aloud won the Heart Award for the single at the O2 Silver Clef Lunch. The group travelled to Australia and New Zealand in February 2006 to release "Biology" and Chemistry. Despite, a one-week promotional tour, "Biology" peaked at number 26 on the ARIA Singles Chart, failing to break the group in the Australian market. "Whole Lotta History", the fourth and final single to be taken from Chemistry, was released in March 2006 and charted at number six.In 2005, Girls Aloud filmed a one-off documentary entitled Girls Aloud: Home Truths for ITV2. The success of the show later made way for Girls Aloud: Off the Record, a six-part fly on the wall documentary series for E4. Girls Aloud then appeared in an episode of Ghosthunting with... towards the end of 2006, in which Yvette Fielding guided them through haunted locations. In May 2006, Girls Aloud embarked on their first arena tour, named Chemistry: The Tour. In the same month, Girls Aloud were moved to Fascination Records, a sub-label of Polydor Records.
In October 2006, Girls Aloud released their first greatest hits collection, The Sound of Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits. It debuted at number one on the UK album chart and went on to sell over one million copies. The album was accompanied by the single "Something Kinda Ooooh". Girls Aloud became the first British act to reach the top five purely on download sales; the single peaked at number three following its physical release. The next single was a cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" which peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart. In March 2007, Girls Aloud collaborated with fellow British girl group Sugababes for the cover of the song "Walk This Way" by Aerosmith. Billed as "Sugababes vs. Girls Aloud", the song served as the official single for Comic Relief which became the group's third number one. In May 2007, Girls Aloud embarked on their third tour, The Greatest Hits Tour.
2007–2009: ''Tangled Up'' and ''Out of Control''
Girls Aloud released their fourth studio album, Tangled Up, in November 2007. The first single from the album, "Sexy! No No No..." peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart. The second single, "Call the Shots" entered the top three. The third and final single from the album, "Can't Speak French", continued Girls Aloud's top ten streak. The release of the single coincided with Girls Aloud's second television series, The Passions of Girls Aloud. The show revolved around each member, with the exception of Coyle, achieving aspirations outside of the group. The group received their second Brit Award nomination in 2008, nominated for the Best British Group award. In May 2008, Girls Aloud embarked on the Tangled Up Tour which consisted of 34 concerts around the United Kingdom.Girls Aloud then recorded two tracks for the soundtrack to the 2007 film, St Trinian's. They made a cameo appearance in the film, as the school band. The soundtrack was released on 10 December 2007, and the music video for "Theme to St. Trinian's" premiered in December 2007.
In November 2008, Girls Aloud released their fifth studio album, Out of Control. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and became their most successful studio album to date, being certified double platinum. The album's lead single, "The Promise", became the group's fourth number one on the UK Singles Chart. The single also returned the group to the top two on the Irish Singles Chart. "The Promise" was awarded Best British Single at the 2009 Brit Awards; the group also performed the song during the ceremony. For the promotion of the album, Girls Aloud appeared in a variety show entitled The Girls Aloud Party which aired on 13 December 2008 on ITV.
The second single from Out of Control, "The Loving Kind" was produced by Xenomania. Peaking at number ten, it became the group's twentieth consecutive top ten single. The final single from the album, "Untouchable" was released in April 2009. It peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming the first single of the group to miss the top ten. The group embarked on the Out of Control Tour, from April to June 2009. A singles boxset collection was released to coincide with the tour.
In February 2009, Girls Aloud signed a new record deal with Fascination that would see the group release another three studio albums. In July 2009, the group announced that they were taking a year-long hiatus to pursue solo projects, and would reunite for a new studio album in 2010 which did not materialise. In September 2009, the group briefly interrupted the hiatus to do two shows supporting Coldplay along with Jay-Z at Wembley Stadium.