BIOGRAPHY all the information about Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are a BRIT-nominated British girl group created by 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 become one of the most successful British pop groups of the decade, with a record-breaking 17 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 (as of October 2007).They are Smash Hits poll winners, have won a TMF Award and have been nominated for two BRIT Awards. Their British production team Xenomania are well-known for embracing various influences, from electronica, house, power pop and dance, among others. Indeed, the music of Girls Aloud ranges from the distinctly 1980s sound of "No Good Advice" and "Jump" through the 1960s sound of "Love Machine" to the more futuristic sound of " The Show" and "Sexy! No No No..." Girls Aloud hold the record for the shortest time between formation and reaching number one in the UK Charts (with their platinum-selling début single "Sound of the Underground"), and have since become one of the few reality television groups to achieve continued success. Guinness World Records lists them as "Most Successful Reality TV Group" in the 2007 edition, and they also hold the record for "Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group" in the 2008 edition, with 17 consecutive top tens from "Sound of the Underground" in 2002 through to "Call the Shots" in 2007. 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. The Observer has referred to "Biology" as the single of the decade, and Sasha Frere-Jones described them in 2007 as 'England's greatest band'.
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, hosted by Big Brother presenter Davina McCall, was to produce a boyband and a girlband who would be 'rivals' and compete for the 2002 Christmas number one single. 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. Ten men and ten women were chosen as finalists by judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Geri Halliwell. However, two of these 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 group would receive was too poor.Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts, who had made it into the final fifteen but not the final ten, were chosen as their replacements. During October and November, the finalists took to the stage participating in weekly Saturday night live performances (alternating week-by-week between the girls and boys). 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 (in order) 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 were named Girls Aloud and were originally managed by 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 groups 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 the summer of 2003.