Girls Aloud are to reunite for an arena tour in 2024 in memory of their late bandmate, Sarah Harding.
Nadine Coyle, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh shared a video on social media to announce the news on Wednesday. The post read: “Announcing the Girls Aloud Show arena tour next May/June 2024. A celebration of Sarah, our music & our incredible fans. We can’t wait to sing & dance with you again.”
Harding, who had 21 UK Top 10 singles as a member of the band, died aged 39 from breast cancer in 2021.
Cheryl told the BBC: “It hasn’t felt right, until now, to do anything without her. But now we feel strong enough, emotionally.”
Walsh added: “For us, it will feel very much like she’s there. She came alive on stage. That was the happiest she ever was. With grief, there’s definitely a shift where it’s like, ‘OK, you’re ready to celebrate that person.’”
The band also denied reports that they have recorded a new album and filmed a music video.
They formed in 2002 on ITV reality show Popstars: The Rivals, and their debut single, Sound of the Underground, became the first of four UK chart No 1s.
The Popstars format created a boyband, One True Voice, and a girlband who were pitted against each other for that year’s Christmas No 1. Girls Aloud became the UK’s biggest-selling girl group of the century, and four of their five studio albums also made the Top 10.
High-profile fans included Bono, Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, and the former prime minister David Cameron.
Their No 1 hit, The Promise, won the 2009 Brit award for best single. Harding told the audience at the ceremony: “It’s about time!”
Girls Aloud went on a hiatus later that year to concentrate on solo projects and released a greatest hits album, called Ten, in 2012. After the end of their reunion tour in Liverpool, they announced in 2013 that they had split up.
