Girls Aloud will reunite for a 2024 arena tour in memory of their late bandmate Sarah Harding.
The band announced the tour with a video which saw Nadine Coyle, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh reunite at a drive-in cinema where clips of the band performing their hit tracks including Sound Of The Underground, Love Machine, Call The Shots and Biology were played.
The tour will be a “celebration of Sarah, our music and our incredible fans”, the social media announcement said.
Announcing The @GirlsAloud Show arena tour next May/June 2024. A celebration of Sarah, our music & our incredible fans. On sale Fri 1 Dec, Presale Weds 29 Nov. Presale signup: https://t.co/uNLymJO9VX. We can’t wait to sing & dance with you again 📣 pic.twitter.com/Kgifar5BWM
— Kimberley Walsh (@KimberleyJWalsh) November 22, 2023
The tour will kick off on May 18 in Dublin, hitting Manchester, Cardiff and Newcastle at the end of the month, before heading to Aberdeen and Glasgow in June, as well as Nottingham, Leeds and Birmingham.
The band will perform two nights at London’s O2 before closing the tour at the Liverpool M&S Bank Arena on June 29.
It comes after the death of Harding in 2021 at the age of 39, after revealing she had breast cancer which had spread to other parts of her body.
In an interview with BBC News, Roberts said: “We’re going to do our absolute utmost to celebrate her in the most enormous, magical way.”
Coyle confirmed that while rumours of the reunion tour were true, there is no new music or video coming – “although we’ve shot a commercial”, she said.
Cheryl said: “Making new music without Sarah would be odd, but celebrating what we made together? Fabulous.”
The group formed in 2002 on reality show Popstars: The Rivals and went on to achieve four UK number one singles and a Brit award for The Promise.
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.
Roberts said: “It’s not going to be easy for us to put a show together with four people, instead of five”, while Cheryl added: “It hasn’t felt right, until now, to do anything without her, but now we feel strong enough, emotionally.”
While Coyle suggested that some of Harding’s original vocals could be used in the show.
A pre-sale will begin on November 29 at 9am with the general sale on December 1 at the same time.