Jen Crothers

Musicians who find fame on reality TV are supposed to provide a bit of entertainment and then fade away - not have three UK Top 10 albums and more than a dozen UK Top 10 singles. Maybe someone forget to tell Girls Aloud the rules.November 2002 saw the birth of the most successful reality TV-formed pop band in UK chart history - but little did the triumphant daughters of Popstars: The Rivals know what was in store. Cheryl Tweedy, Nicola Roberts, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding, in their new guise as Girls Aloud, stormed to the coveted Christmas number one slot with 'Sound Of The Underground', consigning their rivals, One True Voice, to eternal oblivion.Stomping a stiletto-heeled shoe in the face of the pop landscape, Girls Aloud instantly changed what manufactured pop acts were about - with the talents of Brian Higgins' Xenomania behind their full frontal assault on the charts, Girls Aloud were unstoppable…and four-and-a-half-years, still were. The feisty fivesome proved right from the beginning that their unique and unabashed brand of punky girl-power pop would set the charts alight, and the Top 540 would never be the same again.But it hasn't always been straightforward for the girls. It was a hard slog to win over some sneering music critics, and when Cheryl was charged with assault after attacking a toilet attendant in a nightclub, some feared it would spell the end of the group's success. In true Girls Aloud style, however, the lovely ladies bounced back stronger than ever, hailed as the saviours of pop with a salvo of killer tunes and a bucketload of attitude.With the release of their greatest hits album in the autumn of 2006, rumours suggested the band were going to split up, but if anything they're better than ever. Now you can read the full story.