Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding beat thousands of hopefuls and won the hearts of the nation with their talent to secure a place in the girl band, Girls Aloud, on a talent show called Popstars: The Rivals. The show aimed to make two bands - a male vocal harmony group, called One True Voice, and a sassy girl group called Girls Aloud. The two bands would then battle it out in the charts for the prestigious Christmas Number One. As soon as it was revealed which girls had made it into the group, the battle for the all important Christmas Number One began...



The girls began filming the video for their debut single "Sound Of The Underground" straight away. The video saw the five girls in a warehouse wearing colour co-ordinated pink and black outfits doing a sexy dance routine and sultry looks to the camera. It was a thousand times better than the boys' effort - "Sacred Trust".








It was revealed on the final show of Popstars: The Rivals that "Sound Of The Underground" had beaten the boys and grabbed the Christmas No.1 spot. The girls were extatic and getting the No.1 made them the holders of various records including the first girlband ever to debut at No.1. "Sound of the Undeground" stayed at the top for 4 weeks.







It all seemed too good to be true. After the girls' recent success, band member Cheryl Tweedy was brought back down to earth with a thud after she was involved in a brawl with a toilet attendant in a nightclub. The toilet attendant claimed that Cheryl attacked her and made racist remarks. Cheryl denied all charges and claimed that she hit Sophie Amogbokpa in self defence.







The band then began promotion for their second single titled "No Good Advice". The girls were desperate to prove that they were more than one hit wonders and "No Good Advice" was given wonderful reviews and made sure that everyone knew Girls Aloud were here to stay. The girls kicked up a storm with their sizzling peformance at London's G-A-Y where they dressed up as naughty school girls. The promotion certainly didn't harm record sales; "No Good Advice" entered the charts at an impressive No. 2, beaten to the top spot by R Kelly's "Ignition".




After two hit singles it was time for the girls to release their debut album, also titled "Sound Of The Underground". It received praise from the toughest of critics. The girls also did their first major signings which were massive hits with the fans. Like "No Good Advice", the album charted at No.2 narrowly beaten to the top spot by Justin Timberlake's "Justified".