Girls Aloud talk setlist struggles: "Can we drop this hit for a beloved album track?"

As The Girls Aloud Show tour kicks off, the group get cut-throat with their catalogue

Ahead of the opening night of The Girls Aloud Show tour on May 17, Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh are faced with a near-impossible task.

How the hell do they condense a career crammed with 21 Official Top 10 singles (Untouchable, we love you too) and classic Xenomania deep cuts into a 90-minute-or-so show?

Every Girls Aloud fan has their favourite, whether they're gunning for Graffiti My Soul, crusading for Can't Speak French or mercilessly requesting Memory Of You.

And now, the group reveal just how cut-throat they've been with their catalogue.

MORE: Everything you need to know about The Girls Aloud Show tour

Speaking ahead of the first show, Nicola says: "We have so many album tracks that we genuinely love and think could have been singles. So then the question becomes, 'Can we possibly drop this hit for a beloved album track?'

"When I listen to Biology, I think 'this is genius'. It's about six songs pieced together, but the way Brian [Higgins] and the [Xenomania] production team have made each section flow into the next is just a masterpiece, really."

Nadine, arguably one of the band's biggest champions, adds: "I will never get tired of singing Girls Aloud songs. Come on, how could you? They still sound incredible.

"We poured everything into Girls Aloud; our whole life was the band. And looking back now, I'm so glad we put that hard graft in, because everything we made together is so high quality."

MORE: See where every Girls Aloud song and album has charted in the UK

The group also explain The Girls Aloud Show is intended as a 'celebration' of their late bandmate Sarah Harding.

Cheryl reminisces: "Sarah stayed with me for about a week and she was throwing around ideas of how we could celebrate 20 years of Girls Aloud while she was still here.

"At one point, she did say to us: 'Even if I can't make it, I hope you girls do it without me.'"

Kimberley adds: "One of our main aims on this tour is to do Sarah justice and give us and our fans that moment to celebrate her. I think they need it, I think we all need it."

The Girls Aloud Show begins at Dublin's 3Arena on Friday May 17.

Images: Girls Aloud