GIRLS ALOUD

No-one could have predicted when Girls Aloud (Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh) were formed in 2002 on ITV's Popstars: The Rivals that a band had been born that would twist, question and subvert everything that British pop music could do, look and sound like.

Hitting immediately out of the gate with the innovative roar of Sound of the Underground, Girls Aloud's partnership with production house Xenomania allowed them to release an increasingly insane and anarchic five studio albums, including the glitchy Sexy! No No No, the elegant bombast of Call The Shots and Biology, one of the few singles to chuck a stereotypical pop song structure out of the window and come up with something new.

Originally entering hiatus in 2009, after four UK Number 1s and a consecutive 20 Top 10 singles (a record at that point), Girls Aloud reunited briefly for a tenth year anniversary in 2013 with new music and a tour, before parting ways for good. It was the sad death of member Sarah Harding in 2021 that would bring them back together, however, and in 2024, they embark on a UK-wide arena tour to celebrate 20 years of their innovative, boundary-pushing music.