Cheryl ‘thankful’ Girls Aloud found fame before intrusion of social media

Girls Aloud star Cheryl has said she is “thankful” she was part of a generation of pop stars that found fame without the intrusion of camera phones and social media.

The singer, 40, shot to fame as part of the girl group, which was formed as part of the 2002 reality show Popstars: The Rivals.

Speaking to Scott Mills on BBC Radio 2, she said: “I’m (…)  thankful to just be in this generation where we got to live as pop stars without the phones.”

Her bandmate Kimberley Walsh added: “Without Instagram, without any of that stuff.”

Discussing how much access there is to the daily lives to celebrities now, and whether that changes the popstar image, Cheryl said: “It does, and I don’t know whether that’s a good or a bad thing. I can’t decide.

“Because in a way it humanises you (…) and makes people realise, actually she’s just another person, just another human, and we should not be, like, adoring or idolising anybody.

“But in another way it takes away the sprinkle or magic of being, you know, a pop star (…) someone to aspire to or look forward for.”

Walsh added: “Growing up we kind of loved that, you know? I loved that I couldn’t see what Kylie had for breakfast.”

The group will be heading out on a reunion tour, in memory of their bandmate Sarah Harding, and Cheryl said she still remembers all the dances to the songs.

She said: “It’s funny because it’s like muscle memory. We’ve done it, it’s so ingrained and we did it so many times on different tours, the same choreography, your body remembers even before your brain catches up, really.”

Cheryl, Walsh, Harding, Nadine Coyle and Nicola Roberts dominated the charts in the early 2000s with hits such as Sound Of The Underground, Jump, Love Machine and Biology.

Harding died in 2021 at the age of 39 after breast cancer spread to other parts of her body.

After parting ways, the group reunited with new music for their 10th anniversary – while a second reunion was planned for their 20th anniversary when Harding was diagnosed with cancer.

The group have said the upcoming tour will be “a celebration of Sarah”.

The tour, dubbed The Girls Aloud Tour, kicks off in Dublin in May.