Cheryl Biography

Cheryl, formerly known as Cheryl Cole, is a British singer and dancer. She is mostly known as a former member of pop group Girls Aloud and as a judge on The X Factor.

Early Life

Cheryl Ann Fernandez-Versini was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 30 June 1983. She was interested in dancing early on and became a ballerina at her school. At the same time, she competed in modeling competitions and acted in several ads.

Girls Aloud

In 2002, Cheryl auditioned for the show Popstars: The Rivals and was chosen as one of the girls from Girls Aloud. The pop group would release a total of 19 top ten UK hits and become of the most popular and iconic groups in England. In 2009, however, the members decided to take a break, so Cheryl took the opportunity to work on her own career.

The X Factor

She was part of the singing competition the X Factor as one of the Judges during her Girls Aloud period. Thanks to her appearance the show was able to garner approximately 14 million viewers. In return, the show made a bonified celebrity.

Solo Career and Success

Taking advantage of that attention she released her debut solo album 3 Words. The album featured appearances from acts like will.i.am. The single Fight for This Love was a number 1 and became the fastest selling album of 2009. In addition, the album went platinum after only 2 weeks.  Messy Little Raindrops was her sophomore effort which went platinum thanks to the hit single Promise This. She was invited on the American version of The X Factor by Simon Cowell. After 3 weeks Cheryl left the show under unclear reasons as to why. She declined to return on the UK version also, deciding to focus on her music career more. Her next project was released in 2012 as A Million Lights. Its single Call My Name was produced by Calvin Harris. The same year it was announced that Girls Aloud might regroup and head for a tour. However, after the release of the charity single Something New, the girls officially split in 2013. Cole took the remainder of the year off. The following year she rejoined theThe X Factor and released a new album, entitled Only Human. The UK pop charts were topped by her Crazy Stupid Love and I Don’t Care singles. In 2016 she announced the beginning of a new musical effort, however later that year she left her management.

Photo credit: Allmusic