Cheryl Cole is hottly tipped to be about to take America by storm. Her high profile position on the X-Factor is said to be about to make the Girls Aloud singer to be a major star in the US.
Who is she?
Cheryl Ann Cole (née
Tweedy; born 30 June 1983) is an English
singer, and member of the band Girls Aloud. Cole is also a judge on the British reality TV show
The X Factor since 2008. She is the wife of Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole.
Career
Early Career
Cole was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. She is one of five children, with three brothers, Andrew, Garry and Joseph, and a sister Gillian.
Interested in dancing from an early age, Cole joined the Royal Ballet's summer school at the age of nine. She sang, modelled and appeared in recitals and on some television shows.
As well as dancing, she won many modelling competitions, including Boots Group's bonniest baby, Mothercare Happy Faces Portrait competition, Best Looking Girl of Newcastle, The Evening Chronicle 'Little Miss & Mister' and Most Attractive Girl at the MetroCentre.
She appeared in two British Gas adverts, an SCS advert, and an Eldon Square Christmas advert with younger brother Garry.
At age 12 Cole signed to a management agency, Aim Development, based in CVC Studios Clara Vale near Newcastle alongside other acts such as 3NM and Xscape, and performed on stage at the Metro Centre's Metro Land.
Girls Aloud
Girls Aloud are a British girl group created by ITV1 talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The group, consisting of Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy), Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, has become one of the most successful British pop groups of the decade, with a record-breaking 18 consecutive Top 10 singles (including three number ones) and five platinum albums (including a number one). They are Smash Hits poll winners, have won a TMF Award and have been nominated for two BRIT Awards.
Their British production team Xenomania are well-known for embracing various influences, from electronica, house, power pop and dance, among others. Indeed, the music of Girls Aloud ranges from the distinctly 1980s sound of "No Good Advice" and "Jump" through the 1960s sound of "Love Machine" to the more futuristic sound of "The Show" and "Sexy! No No No..."
Girls Aloud hold the record for the shortest time between formation and reaching number one in the UK Charts (with their platinum-selling début single "Sound of the Underground"), and have since become one of the few reality television groups to achieve continued success. Guinness World Records lists them as "Most Successful Reality TV Group" in the 2007 edition, and they also hold the record for "Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group" in the 2008 edition, with 15 consecutive top tens from "Sound of the Underground" in 2002 through to "Walk This Way" in 2007. Girls Aloud have since extended this record to 18 consecutive Top 10s from debut — the most recent being "Can't Speak French" which reached #9 in March 2008.
For a contemporary pop group manufactured on reality television they have received unprecedented praise from broadsheet newspapers and the rock music press, with publications including the Observer Music Monthly and the NME giving their music rave reviews. The Observer has referred to "Biology" as the single of the decade.
Single of the decade? Biology - Girls Aloud
Collaboration with will.i.iam
During the Passions of Girls Aloud series, Cheryl auditioned as a street dancer to gain a part in the music video for will.i.am's single Heartbreaker. Cheryl won the part and was later asked to sing additional vocals on the track. The song was released in the UK on 5 May 2008, but had already entered the top ten on download sales and peaked at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.
X-Factor
On 10 June 2008, it was announced that Cole would be replacing Sharon Osbourne as a judge for the fifth series of The X Factor.
In an interview with
Cosmopolitan Magazine on August 9, 2008, a week before the 2008 series of
The X Factor aired on ITV1, Cole's fellow judge Dannii Minogue believed that she could bring a new side to the talent show, saying: "One week Cheryl was talking about urban music and telling Simon Cowell, 'This is what the show needs; this is where you’ve been going wrong.' “
Private Life
Nightclub incident and conviction
On 11 January 2003, Cole was involved in an altercation with a nightclub
toilet attendant, Sophie Amogbokpa, in "The Drink" nightclub in Guildford (now called "Harpers"). Cole was subsequently charged with racially
aggravated assault (she had allegedly called Amogbokpa a "Jigaboo" among other racial slurs) and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. During her trial Cole claimed she acted in self defense (claiming she had been punched first) and denied using racially abusive language. The jury found her guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but cleared her of racially aggravated assault. The judge sentenced her to 120 hours of community service and ordered to pay her victim £500 in compensation, as well as £3,000 prosecution costs.
Media Attention
In July 2006 Cole signed a deal worth a reported £200,000 to become the face of Coca-Cola Zero for its UK launch.
During a recording at Top of the Pops, Mike Skinner of The Streets dedicated his song "When You Wasn't Famous" to Cole, leading to much media speculation and many believing the song was about her. Skinner later corrected everyone by saying that he only dedicated the song to her because Girls Aloud were at the same taping of TOTP.
Lily Allen has a song about her called "Cheryl Tweedy", which is exclusively available as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of her 2006 CD Alright, Still.
Cole co-presented the August 25, 2006 episode of The Friday Night Project along with Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding, where she did impressions of Sharon Osbourne and Big Brother 7 winner Pete Bennett.
Cole appeared on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice in 2007 to raise money for Comic Relief.
Cole is a strict vegetarian, and was criticised by Gordon Ramsay on his show The F-Word when she asked for a vegetarian meal, saying "Didn't you get the message? Vegetarians aren't welcome here."
Cole was also featured in will.i.am's new music video for the single Heartbreakerand sings backing vocals on the track.
Ashley Cole
Even before marrying Ashley Cole, she won the title of "Sexiest Footballer's Wife" in FHM's 2006 Bloke Awards, and as Cole's fiancée she was a prominent "WAG" in Germany during the 2006 World Cup.
She married Cole at St. Albans, Hertsmere, Hertfordshire, where Ashley Cole is from on 15 July 2006. When the two changed their plans, Tweedy and Cole had asked the staff there to lie to the press and not to disclose the fact they weren't actually getting married there. Cheryl had a dress designed by Roberto Cavalli, reportedly worth £110,000 (€145,000), flown to England. The wedding was paid for by OK! Magazine, who paid the couple £1 million to publish pictures of the wedding.
In late January 2008, The Sun newspaper reported that Ashley Cole had been sleeping with several other women during their relationship, and that the couple were in the process of separating.
In September 2008, Cheryl and Ashley appeared at number 18 on BBC Three's 50 most annoying couples.
It was seen on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross that Cheryl Cole had put her wedding ring back on since January when it was reported Ashley Cole had been sleeping with several other women.
