Girls Aloud will reunite for a huge UK and Ireland tour in 2024, it has been announced, as the surviving members reveal plans to celebrate their late bandmate, Sarah Harding.
The pop girl group first formed after its members appeared as individual contestants on the ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, splitting in 2013 following a greatest hits tour.
Along with Harding, who died of breast cancer in 2021, the band comprised Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh.
Cheryl said in a statement that a reunion tour was on their minds until Harding’s death.
“We all started talking about the possibility of doing something to celebrate Girls Aloud’s 20-year anniversary a few years ago. The anniversary seemed like an obvious thing that we would celebrate. But when Sarah fell ill all priorities changed,” the “Love Machine” singer explained.
“She passed away a year before the anniversary and it just didn’t feel right, it felt too soon. But now, I think there is an energy that does makes it feel right. It’s the right time to celebrate Sarah, it’s the right time to celebrate the band and the right time to celebrate the fact we can still do this 21 years later. That’s a big honour in lots of ways.”
Kimberly Walsh added that the band has noticed an “outpouring” of love from their fans following Harding’s death, adding that the love they have felt has somehow “ignited” the band again.
“Over the last year, we’ve felt this outpouring of love – obviously towards Sarah, but actually towards all of us as a group. And I guess it’s ignited something in all of us again,” Walsh said. “It feels like something has changed and it does feel like the right time to celebrate Sarah and the 20-year anniversary that we didn’t celebrate at the time.”
Nicola Roberts added that the reunion tour will be a “massive celebration of everything we’ve done up to this point”.
“We want people to leave being like, ‘Wow, I’ve just had one of the best nights of my life,’” she said.
Their first single, “Sound of the Underground”, spent four consecutive weeks at No 1 upon its release and was followed by a further 19 top 10 singles. They won the Brit Award for Best Single in 2009, for their No 1 hit “The Promise”.
Girls Aloud will reunite after forming more than 20 years ago— (Supplied)
The surviving members of Girls Aloud had been teasing fans with social media posts in the week building up to their announcement.
On 21 November, Coyle shared a clip of a drive-in cinema screen with the number “two” flickering on the screen. This preceded similar posts by her former bandmates Roberts and Walsh, who shared the numbers “four” and “three”, respectively.
This led fans to believe the group were launching a countdown, which was confirmed after the now-mononymously known Cheryl shared a “one” post the day before the group shared their reunion news.
Girls Aloud will also pay tribute to Harding as part of the tour next year.
The Stockport-raised singer, who auditioned for Popstars with a cover of Bananarama’s “Last Thing On My Mind”, was widely regarded as the “edgier” member of the group, with an irrepressible personality that endeared her to everyone from Alex Turner to Vernon Kay.She was widely praised for her stoic attitude towards a terminal cancer diagnosis, and for raising awareness by encouraging women to check for symptoms of breast cancer.
After disclosing her diagnosis to the public, with months to live, she told her fans that she was “trying to live and enjoy every second” of her life. Revealing her diagnosis was “scary”, she wrote in her memoir, Hear Me Out, but also “the right thing to do”.
Shortly before the reunion announcement, Cheryl, Coyle, Walsh and Roberts paid tribute to Harding on what would have been her 42nd birthday.
“Sending love to all Sarah’s fans, friends and family on her birthday today x,” they wrote in a joint statement from the Girls Aloud Instagram account, alongside a photo of Harding.
The Girls Aloud Show 2024 tour dates are:
- Sat 18 May - 3Arena Dublin
- Mon 20 May - SSE Arena Belfast
- Thurs 23 and Fri 24 May - Manchester AO Arena
- Mon 27 May - Cardiff Utilita Arena
- Fri 31 May & Sat 1 June - Newcastle Utilita Arena
- Tues 4 June - Aberdeen P&J Live
- Sat 8 June - Glasgow OVO Hydro
- Weds 12 June - Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
- Sat 15 June - Leeds First Direct Arena
- Tues 18 June - Birmingham Resorts World Arena
- Sat 22 and Sun 23 June - London The O2
- Sat 29 June - Liverpool M&S Bank Arena
A pre-sale will begin on Wednesday 29 November at 09:00 GMT, with the general on sale Friday 1 December at the same time, all via girlsaloud.com.
