Girls Aloud Pictures - Girls Aloud Biography

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Girls Aloud group members wallpaper


Cheryl Tweedy picture - Girls Aloud group member wallpaper


Nicola Roberts picture - Girls Aloud group member wallpaper


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Sarah Harding picture - Girls Aloud group member wallpaper

Girls Aloud Biography

Group Members:
Cheryl Tweedy
Nicola Roberts
Nadine Coyle
Kimberley Walsh
Sarah Harding

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Girls Aloud are a Smash Hits Poll Winners, TMF award-winning and BRIT Award-nominated British girl group created on ITV1 talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The group, consisting of Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy), Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, has gone on to become one of the most successful pop groups of the decade with a record breaking fifteen consecutive Top 10 singles (including three number ones), four platinum albums (including a number one) and record sales in excess of 4.2 million in the UK alone. They have also scored successes around Europe with Number One singles in Greece and Ireland, as well as making an impact in countries further afield, such as Mexico and Australia.

Their British production team Xenomania are well-known for embracing various influences, from Electronica, House, Power Pop and Rock among others. Indeed, the music of Girls Aloud ranges from the distinctly 1980's sound of "The Show" to "Love Machine" and much of the Chemistry album, which looks back to the 1960's. Girls Aloud's songs frequently eschew traditional verse-chorus strong structure - a technique which can be heard most clearly in "Biology" or "Sexy! No No No..." - and often exploit polyphonic (or even contrapuntal) textures, giving their music a complex, multi-layered sound.

Girls Aloud hold the record for the shortest time between forming and reaching number one in the UK Charts (with their platinum-selling debut single "Sound of the Underground", and have since become one of the few reality television groups to have had continued success with Guinness World Records listing them as the Most Successful Reality TV Group in the 2007 edition. Their record of fifteen consecutive top ten singles is also unmatched by any other girl group beating the Spice Girls' previous record of ten, but not their string of number one's.

For a contemporary pop group manufactured on reality television they have received unprecedented praise from broadsheet newspapers and the rock music press, with publications including the Observer Music Monthly, and the NME giving their music rave reviews, with The Observer calling "Biology" the "single of the decade".

Formation

Girls Aloud were formed on November 30, 2002 in front of millions of viewers on the ITV1 programme Popstars: The Rivals. The concept of the programme was to produce a boyband and a girlband who would be 'rivals' and compete for the Christmas number one single in 2002. Following the initial success of Hear'Say (winners of the original Popstars show), several thousand applicants attended auditions across the UK in hope of being selected for the show. Ten men and ten women were chosen as finalists by judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Geri Halliwell with Big Brother presenter Davina McCall taking the contestants through the auditions and the shows each week. However, two finalists were disqualified before the live shows began: Hazel Kaneswaren was found to be too old to participate whilst Nicola Ward refused to sign the contract, claiming the pay the band would go on to receive was too poor. Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts were chosen as their replacements, who had made it into the final fifteen, but were not originally chosen for the final ten.

During October and November, the finalists took to the stage participating in week-by-week live performances every Saturday night (alternating between the girls and boys each week). One contestant was eliminated each week (due to polling the least amount of phone votes) until the final line-ups of the boy band and girl band emerged. The five girls who polled enough votes to make it into the band were (in order) Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh, and Sarah Harding, with Javine Hylton missing out on a place in the band, despite previous expectations that she would be placed in the line-up. They called themselves Girls Aloud and were managed by Louis Walsh until 2005 when Hilary Shaw replaced him. The runners up, a boy band called One True Voice were managed by Pete Waterman.

The two bands competed for the number one position in the Christmas Week UK singles chart. Girls Aloud won the battle with their single "Sound of the Underground" (produced by Brian Higgins and Xenomania) which stayed at number one for four weeks. Disney Channel viewers later voted this as best single of 2002–2003 at the Disney Channel Kids Awards. Originally tipped to be more successful than the girls, One True Voice released just two singles before disbanding in Summer 2003.

Subsequent career

2002–2004: Sound of the Underground

After the huge success of "Sound of the Underground" the newly formed group took several months to record their debut album.

They followed their début single with the number two hit "No Good Advice" in May 2003. The song received critical acclaim and the video, whilst known to have been the girls' least favourite video due to problems in production, was deemed one of the sexiest videos of the year.

The debut album, Sound of the Underground, was released on 26 May 2003. It went straight in at number two, behind Justin Timberlake's album Justified. One of the tracks, "Girls Allowed", was written for the girls by ex-Westlife star Bryan McFadden while "Some Kind of Miracle" was co-written by former B*Witched star Edele Lynch.

2004–2005: What Will the Neighbours Say?

After a brief break, the girls returned to promote brand new single "The Show", in June 2004, the first release from their second album. It had an unusual structure for a pop song, consisting of a number of interchanged sections rather than the more typical verse-chorus form. This single showed off a new look for the girls and was backed with a promotional campaign prior to its première featuring five empty chairs with each of the girls' names on. This built up excitement over the new look and later featured on the single cover with the girls in their seats. When released, it entered the singles chart at number two.

2005–2006: Chemistry

After a short break following their first tour, the girls began work on their third album. The first single to be released from "Chemistry" was "Long Hot Summer" in August 2005 and charted at number seven, ending their consecutive top five run but continuing their unbroken run of top ten singles. The single that launched their third album was "Biology". It entered the UK charts at number four in November 2005 and equalled the Spice Girls record of ten consecutive top ten singles in the UK.

Their third studio album Chemistry was released on December 5, 2005. It features "Models", a song first heard being recorded on their ITV2 documentary Girls Aloud: Home Truths and also used as the theme music to their E4 documentary Girls Aloud: Off the Record. It also boasts writing credits from JC Chasez of 'N Sync fame, who penned the track Watch Me Go. The album peaked on the charts at number eleven, their lowest ever, despite overwhelming critical acclaim; it eventually went platinum and has currently sold over 350,000 copies in total.

2006–2007: The Sound of Girls Aloud

n September 2006, the official Girls Aloud web site confirmed the release of The Sound of Girls Aloud — a compilation that contains Girls Aloud's singles and some new and unreleased material. The album was released on October 30, 2006 and on November 5, 2006 débuted at number one on the UK album chart. After a mere eight weeks it became the group's biggest selling album to date. The album was also released on a limited edition double CD format containing live tracks and previously unavailable tracks such as "Singapore" and "Hanging On The Telephone, a cover of the Blondie single; this has now become a highly priced collectors item. As of August 2007 the album has gone 2x Platinum and has sold almost three quarters of a million copies.

2007–Present: Fourth studio album

On July 13, 2007 Girls Aloud's official website announced that the new single is to be called "Sexy! No, No, No..." and is to be released on September 3. The track was played exclusively on The Chris Moyles Show on the 19th of July at 8:10am. It has been described by Popjustice as Girls Aloud's "noisiest single yet". It was performed for the first time at T4 On The Beach in Weston-Super-Mare on Sunday 22nd July.

According to play.com, Girls Aloud's fourth studio album is to be released on November 19. Sarah has said "Its been such a busy summer recording new material, we can't wait to play it to everyone. We can't reveal anything just yet except that it's a really great new edgy sound and we hope you love it as much as we do". Sarah also said "We're still in the process of making the first few singles, and now we're just writing and recording," with Nadine adding that they had not decided on a title yet.

When Kimberley was asked what the name of the latest album would be, she replied: "We haven't actually decided. We will choose a name after we have released the second single and can clearly see which direction the album is going in."

Popjustice

The Popjustice £20 Music Prize is awarded every year by a panel of judges (or sometimes a public vote) to the best British pop single of the previous twelve months. The competition has been running since 2003. Girls Aloud have been nominated every year, and have won it three times. The girls are currently nominated for the 2007 Popjustice Music Prize for their hit single "Something Kinda Ooooh".

* 2003 "No Good Advice" - won
* 2004 "The Show" - short-listed
* 2005 "Wake Me Up" - won
* 2006 "Biology" - won
* 2007 "Something Kinda Ooooh" - nominated