Girls Aloud release their album Ten next week, celebrating a decade of the band being together, so to honour the release, we’ve had a look back at the history of Girls Aloud and see how they went from five individuals on a talent show to one of the UK’s biggest groups.
It all began with Popstars: The Rivals, a show that intended to create two groups in the most mercenary way possible, get the public to vote for their five favourite soloists from each gender and then smash them into a girl group and a boy band to take on the charts and the world.
While Sarah, Nadine and Cheryl had all breezed through to the last ten, it wasn’t such a rosy picture for Kimberly and Nicola, who hadn’t made it past the final cut and we only allowed onto the live shows after Hazel Kaneswaren was found to be too old and Nicole Ward refused to go any further due to her unhappiness at the contract she would have to sign.
With the show coming to a close, the five girls we all know today remained and we were left with the two groups in the shape of Girls Aloud and the boy band One True Voice, whose fates couldn’t be more different if they tried.
While One True Voice was being peddled as another to fit into the Westlife mould, Girls Aloud were being marketed as young, fresh and with something original to say. One worked and the other spectacularly failed. No points for guessing which was which.
While One True Voice didn’t last past twelve months, Girls Aloud were only just getting gin their stride come then, with all four of their singles going into the top three, their debut album going platinum and their tour completely selling out.
From there, the only way was up, with the group trading blows with the Sugababes for the affections of the UK audience and largely coming out on top, with the girls becoming the favoured choice for charity event Children In Need and winning a legion of fans along the way.
They weren’t hated by the critics either, who shared their fan’s appreciation of the bands quirky lyrics, oodles of attitude and a real genuine edge to their music that always made them always stand out from the pop crowd.
The trend continued for the rest of the decade, with the band selling out tours and lighting up the sales charts whenever they released a new hit.
It wasn’t set to last forever though, with the girl’s last two singles in 2009 failing to achieve the same sort of chart performance that they had become so accustomed too, with Untouchable becoming their first single to not become a top-ten hit.
It was the last single released by them as a five piece though before they put the band on a year’s hiatus to pursue solo projects before teaming back up in 2010. The reunion didn’t happen, with Cheryl in particular finding massive success on her own.
With the girls reuniting after a three year hiatus, it would have been easy to think that they’d have lost a step or two, but no, with Something New, they’ve slotted right back into their old home and made a record that positively screams Girls Aloud.
Can it continue their absolutely enviable run of form that the band’s enjoyed for the better part of a decade? We’ll have to wait until Sunday to find out, but it seems fairly certain that Something New destined for the pointy end of the charts.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith