Girls Aloud announce arena tour in memory of Sarah Harding
Girls Aloud are going on an arena tour in memory of Sarah Harding. (Getty Images)
The rumours and theories were true – Girls Aloud are officially back and they’re going on tour!
Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Nicola Roberts and Kimberly Walsh had been teasing fans all week with cryptic social media posts, hinting that something big was on the way.
Finally on Wednesday night (22 November), the girls confirmed what fans were all dying to hear: they’re getting the band back together.
The Girls Aloud Show arena tour will run across May and June 2024, in a number of stadiums across the UK and Ireland, stopping off in Dublin, Manchester, Cardiff, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Nottingham, Leeds, Birmingham, London, and Liverpool.
The tour has been described by the foursome as a “celebration of Sarah, our music and our incredible fans.”
Sarah Harding, the fifth member of the girl group, sadly died from breast cancer in 2021 aged just 39.
The girls had previously shot down whisperings of a reunion, explaining that it would be too hard to do it without Harding. But now, they say they’re ready to get back together to celebrate her memory.
Cheryl revealed in a statement that getting back together for a reunion tour had been on the girls’ minds for a while – but the plans were put on hold indefinitely after Sarah’s passing.
“We all started talking about the possibility of doing something to celebrate Girls Aloud’s 20-year anniversary a few years ago. The anniversary seemed like an obvious thing that we would celebrate. But when Sarah fell ill all priorities changed,” Cheryl said, per The Independent.
“She passed away a year before the anniversary and it just didn’t feel right, it felt too soon. But now, I think there is an energy that does make it feel right. It’s the right time to celebrate Sarah, it’s the right time to celebrate the band and the right time to celebrate the fact we can still do this 21 years later. That’s a big honour in lots of ways.”
Walsh added that the “outpouring of love” that fans gave Sarah and the rest of the group had “ignited something in all of us again.”
She continued: “It feels like something has changed and it does feel like the right time to celebrate Sarah and the 20-year anniversary that we didn’t celebrate at the time.”
Of the upcoming tour, Roberts said that the plan was to create a “massive celebration of everything we’ve done up to this point.”
She added: “We want people to leave being like, ‘Wow, I’ve just had one of the best nights of my life.’”
While there’s a tour on the way, the girls have said that, contrary to the rumours, there’ll be no new music.
Cheryl told Vogue: “We couldn’t because Sarah wouldn’t be included in that newness.
“This is about celebrating the 20 years we’ve all had. So the tour has got to be inclusive of Sarah because she’s such a massive part of our make-up.
“It will never feel like the old Girls Aloud again but we’ve reached a point where we’re ready to celebrate all of it. Sarah included.”
Tickets for The Girls Aloud Show arena tour will be available on pre-sale at 9am on Wednesday 29 November, and on general sale at 9am on Friday, 1 December via Ticketmaster.
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