Girls Aloud (Nadine Coyle, Cheryl Cole, Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding) were formed in November 2002 on  the ITV programme Popstars: The Rivals.

After weeks of intensive promotion, Girls Aloud’s first single Sound of the Underground reached the number one position in the charts and stayed there for four weeks.

After a hectic start to their new musical career, Girls Aloud took several months to record their album and did not release their second track until May 2003.

They followed their debut single with the number two hit No Good Advice.

Girls Aloud’s debut album, Sound Of The Underground, was released shortly after and entered the album charts in position #2.
Also released in 2003 were the singles Life Got Cold and Jump (a cover of a Pointer Sisters song which was featured on the soundtrack to the 2003 film Love Actually).

The new version of “Sound Of The Underground” was released and included You Freak Me Out (which appeared on the soundtrack of Freaky Friday) and also their cover of Girls on Film, originally available as a B-Side on the “Life Got Cold” single. The re-issue also included Jump.

The first single to be taken from their second album was The Show in July 2004. This single showed off a brand new look for the girls. Love Machine shortly followed and also peaked at #2 in September 2004. This has been considered to be the best Girls Aloud release.  Love Machine was nominated for ITV’s Record Of The Year and has been used in a television advert for Homebase. 

Their 7th single reached the #1 position in November 2004, a cover of The Pretenders classic I’ll Stand By You. This was 2004’s single for the Children In Need
What Will the Neighbours Say?, Girls Aloud’s second album was released on November 29, 2004 and entered the album charts at number 6 and achieved platinum status within one month.

Girls Aloud co-wrote five out of fourteen tracks on their second album: Big Brother (Cheryl Tweedy), Hear Me Out (Sarah Harding), Thank Me Daddy (Kimberley Walsh), I Say a Prayer for You (Nicola Roberts), and 100 Different Ways (Nadine Coyle). They also co-wrote two B-sides History and Loving Is Easy (both from the Wake Me Up single.)
The success of this album led to the girls announcing their first tour in May 2005. For their first tour they were supported by “Kute” and “Cookie”.

The girls’ eighth single, Wake Me Up was released on February 21, 2005 and charted at number four; it was their eighth top-five single.
In 2005, after a short break after their successful tour, the girls began to work on their third album “Chemistry”.
The first single to be released was Long Hot Summer in August 2005 and charted at number seven, ending their consecutive Top 5 run.

The single that launched their third album was Biology. It entered the UK charts at number four on November 20, 2005, therefore equalling the Spice Girls record of ten consecutive Top 10 singles in the UK. “Biology” also reached number one on the iTunes Most Downloaded Chart, TV Airplay Chart and number two on the Official UK Download Chart.

Chemistry was released on December 5, 2005, “Chemistry” peaked on the charts at number 11, it eventually went Platinum and has currently sold over 330,000 copies in total. One track was written by the group (It’s Magic). Some of the girls’ other efforts appeared as B-Sides on singles from the album, such as Crazy Fool from the single “Whole Lotta History”.

Their cover of Dee C. Lee’s “See The Day” was released in the Christmas week, and charted at number nine. With this single they became the first girl group in the UK to achieve 11 consecutive Top 10 singles in a row from debut. See the Day became Girls Aloud’s biggest hit on Radio Airplay since Sound Of The Underground, peaking at number six.

Girls Aloud released their debut DVD Girls On Film in June 2005, featuring the first 8 music videos & TV performances. This was followed by What Will The Neighbours Say? Live DVD in November 2005.

“Whole Lotta History” was the fourth single to be taken from Chemistry, released in March 2006. It entered the UK Singles Chart the week prior to its physical release due to a new rule stating that singles could enter on the Sunday before release based on download sales. It became the 4th highest ‘download only’ entry at #80. The week after it officially debuted at number six - as the #80 position was outside the recorded Top 75, this became the week’s highest new entry.
Girls Aloud recorded a six-part fly on the wall documentary series for E4 called Girls Aloud: Off The Record, which started on April 11th, 2006. A DVD of the series will be released on July 17th, 2006.

Girls Aloud soon embarked on their second UK Tour “Chemistry” and were supported by “Frank” and “Nylon”.
Soon afterwards Girls Aloud stated that their next album will be their fourth studio album, and not a Greatest Hits compilation as had previously been reported by other sources.

June 2006 saw the group facing a great deal of press attention, with rumours that Sarah was quitting to go solo, which prompted the singer to post a message on the groups official website stating she “would be insane to even consider leaving.”
The Sun newspaper then showed a picture of Kimberley apparently smoking cannabis at a private New Years party. She apologised immediately, but reports later suggested she was forced to admit to smoking weed when in fact the story was embellished.
On June 16th 2006 Girls Aloud won the Heart Award for the single “See the Day” at the O2 Silver Clef Lunch, an annual awards honouring song writing and performance in aid of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy. Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, members of the band, attended the awards presentation ceremony.

In September 2006, the official Girls Aloud’s web site ended months of rumours by confirming the release of The Sound of Girls Aloud - a compilation that contains Girls Aloud’s singles and some new material.
The lead single from the album is “Something Kinda Ooooh”, which was released on October 23rd, 2006 - a week prior to the release of the compilation.

According to The Newspaper The Sun, the Girls Next Single from the Greatest Hits album will be out in time for Christmas as the Girls hope to get a Christmas number one with a cover of “I Think We’re Alone Now” a hit for a hit in 1988 for American teen sensation Tiffany.