Cheryl Cole
Background information
Birth name	Cheryl Ann Tweedy
Born	30 June 1983 (1983-06-30) (age 25)
Origin	Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Genre(s)	Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, television personality
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	2002—present
Label(s)	Polydor, Fascination
Associated acts	Girls Aloud, will.i.am

Cheryl Ann Cole (née Tweedy, born 30 June 1983) is a British singer and member of the band Girls Aloud. As part of Girls Aloud and as a featuring artist, Cole has had 20 UK Top Ten singles. In 2008, Cole became a judge on the British reality TV show The X Factor.¹² She is married to the Chelsea and England football player Ashley Cole.

Biography

Early life and career

Cheryl Cole was born in Newcastle, England on a tough council estate.³ 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.⁴ She sang, modelled and appeared in recitals on some television shows.

In addition to dancing, Cole 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.⁵She also appeared in two British Gas adverts, an SCS advert, and an Eldon Square Christmas advert with younger brother Garry.

Girls Aloud

Main article: Girls Aloud

Cole auditioned for Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, singing S Club 7's "Have You Ever". She was the first person to be chosen for Girls Aloud which has gone on to be one of the most successful British pop groups of the decade.⁶

Collaboration with Will.I.Am

After taking streetdancing classes during the filming of Passions of Girls Aloud series, Cole was picked to appear in the music video for Will.I.Am's single "Heartbreaker". She was later asked to sing additional vocals on the track.⁷ The song was released in the UK on 5 May 2008, but had already entered the top ten on download sales, peaking at number 4 in the UK Singles Chart.

The X Factor

Main article: The X Factor (UK)

On 10 June 2008, it was announced Cole would replace Sharon Osbourne as a judge for the fifth series of The X Factor.¹²

A week before the 2008 series in a 9 August 2008 interview with Cosmopolitan (magazine) magazine, Cole's fellow judge Dannii Minogue said she believed Cole could bring a new side to the talent show: "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'."⁸

Personal life

In July 2006, Cole married footballer Ashley Cole in Barnet, Hertfordshire.⁹

Assault 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 "Harper's"). Cole was subsequently charged with racially aggravated assault (she had allegedly called Amogbokpa a "jigaboo"¹⁰) and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. During her trial Cole claimed she acted in self defence (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.¹¹ 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.¹²

Discography

Main article: Girls Aloud discography

Solo releases

References

External links

• Girls Aloud official site
• Cheryl Cole at the Internet Movie Database