Cheryl Cole
- Read an interview with Cheryl Cole
Born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Cheryl Cole grew up performing as a dancer in recitals and on TV. She also appeared in a few television commercials including one with her younger brother Garry. In addition to Garry, Cheryl has another two brothers, Andrew and Joseph and a sister, Gillian.
At the age of 16 Cheryl auditioned on Tyne Tees Television Gimme 5 where she was looking for sponsors to get into the Royal Ballet School. Cheryl beat over 9,000 others to secure a place at the school.
Cheryl was working as a waitress when she decided to audition for ITVs Popstars: The Rivals and at her first audition, Cheryl sang S Club 7s Have You Ever. She got the thumbs up from all three judges to go through to the next round of auditions to be held in London. On the 30th November in 2002, Cheryl was announced as a winner alongside Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh and Girls Aloud was born.
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. Guinness World Records lists them as Most Successful Reality TV Group in the 2007 edition, and the group also hold the record for Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group in the 2008 edition, with 15 consecutive top tens from Sound of the Underground in 2002 through to Walk This Way in 2007. Girls Aloud have since extended this record to 19 consecutive Top 10s.
During the ITV2 Passions of Girls Aloud series, Cheryl auditioned as a street dancer to gain a part in the music video for will.i.ams single Heartbreaker. She won the part and was later asked to sing vocals on the track. The song was released in the UK on 5 May 2008, but had already entered the top ten on download sales and peaked at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.
Cheryls TV appearances also include co-presenting The Friday Night Project alongside Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding, Comic Relief Does The Apprentice.
Cheryl Cole is one of Britains biggest stars and will soon be releasing her first solo album, in Autumn 2009.
Over the past six years, as part of Girls Aloud. Cheryl Cole has had an incredible run of success. 20 consecutive top ten singles, multi-platinum selling albums, sold out arena tours and countless awards. Outside of the group Cheryl has wowed the nation as a judge on X-factor, had the honour of being a Vogue cover girl and collaborated with Black Eyed Peas mainman, Will i am. on his hit single Heartbreaker.
Before the release of Cheryls solo album Girls Aloud will be playing one of the most spectacular gigs of their career so far, supporting Coldplay at Wembley Stadium in September.
