It has been 20 years since they both appeared as fresh-faced hopefuls on ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals. But Nadine Coyle has remained firm friends with Emma Soraya Beard who just missed out on a place in Girls Aloud to Cheryl Tweedy.
And the two pals were in glamorous form as they headed for a meal out in Manchester before Nadine's headline performance at Manchester Pride on Saturday. They were pictured heading to the swanky Masons restaurant inside the historic former Freemasons Hall on Bridge Street.
Nadine rocked double denims with jacket and ripped jeans teamed with white boots as she headed to the city centre restaurant. Meanwhile Emma was in stunning form showing off her washboard abs in black skinny jeans and a cropped top.
Read more : ITV Corrie on parade! Coronation Street stars show their Manchester Pride
Emma famously missed out on a place in Girls Aloud, losing in a public vote against Cheryl in the live finals of the hit ITV talent show. The format of Popstars: The Rivals saw the public vote for their favourites each week to whittle down ten talented female and male singers to form a new girlband and boyband.
Emma and three other finalists who didn't make it into Girls Aloud went on to form a rival girlgroup Clea. But after failing to take the pop world by storm, they ultimately went their separate ways.
Speaking about her time in the show in a previous interview, Emma admitted being part of the finals was "intense and emotional" after she was left in the vote off against Cheryl. She said: "In the end it was down to me and her, and the public chose Cheryl to go in and not me."
Meanwhile Nadine, alongside Cheryl, Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding would go on to become one of the biggest British girl groups of all time after forming on the show.
Emma formed Clea with fellow Popstars contestants who failed to win their way into Girls Aloud - Chloe Morgan, Aimee Kearsley, and Lynsey Brown. "Clea" was an acronym formed from the first letters of their names.
They released a couple of charting hits in 2003, before Chloe decided to leave in 2004 to pursue a solo career. The band continued on as a trio and released two albums, but their last performances were in 2007.
Emma, who lives in Greater Manchester, has gone on to a successful career in the media and hosts her own podcast series Monday Mumday after becoming mum to twin boys with her husband, actor Danny Kelly.
She joined Nadine for a meal in Manchester alongside Nadine's dance crew ahead of her headlining performance at Manchester Pride. There, Nadine made a nod to the fact it has been 20 years since she first found fame with Girls Aloud.
Back in 2002 on the ITV show, though, it was actually the boy band, One True Voice, who ultimately won the public vote in the final with their song Sacred Trust. But in a reversal of fortunes in the charts, Girls Aloud's Sound of the Underground actually beat it to the top spot.
Just a year later, One True Voice had already split without even releasing a debut album. Girls Aloud, meanwhile, would go on to score hit after hit in the charts - winning Brit Awards and an army of friends between 2002 - 2009 when they first went on hiatus.
They would return for a huge comeback tour in 2012-2013 to celebrate their tenth anniversary in showbiz. But tragedy would rock the band in 2020 when bandmate Sarah Harding revealed her breast cancer diagnosis, she died aged just 36 in September 2021.
The remaining Girls Aloud bandmates reunited for a special 5k run in Sarah's memory in July, where Nadine confessed she had been "in denial" about Sarah's illness. Speaking ahead of Race For Life For Sarah, she said: “This time last year we were actually hanging out.
“We all met up last year. She was there and we were talking and she didn’t even seem that sick.
“I was in denial the entire time and was the friend that was ‘Oh, it’s gonna be all right’, you know, I was completely in denial right up until the day she passed.”
The girls said at that time it was still simply too soon to consider reuniting without Sarah as "they don't feel like a band without her."
Nadine performed a selection of Girls Aloud hits at Manchester Pride's big Saturday night at the Gay Village Party. Strutting onto stage in a gold and black dress, she started the show with Sound of the Underground and paid tribute to fans from the gay community for "being so welcoming" over the past 20 years.
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