The Passions of Girls Aloud

The Passions of Girls Aloud is a four-part^[1] television series starring girl group Girls Aloud.^[2] The series premiered on ITV2 on 14 March 2008.^[3]

Premise

The show is based around each member achieving something they always wanted to do, other than sing:^[4]

• Cheryl Cole attempted street dancing in Compton;
• Sarah Harding learnt polo in Argentina;
• Kimberley Walsh tried musicals in the West End;
• Nicola Roberts created her own make-up range in Taiwan.

Episodes

Cheryl (14 March 2008)

Cheryl's aspiration is to be a street dancer. She has received training in ballet, ballroom and tap, but has never done any hip-hop or street dance.^[5] She meets with Kenrick "H2O" Sandy and Kymberlee Jay, choreographers, in London and learns basic street dancing. She takes a gymnastic lesson and also learns how to pop and lock. Cheryl's main problem was her lack of confidence.

Later, she flies to Los Angeles with her mother Joan. After going sightseeing around Hollywood, Cheryl meets with Kennis Marquis, Diddy's choreographer, at the Millennium Studios. He teaches her about dancing with style and swagger. He takes Cheryl shopping for hip hop fashion, so that she fits in with the L.A. street dancers. The next day, Cheryl heads to Compton, one of the most dangerous areas of L.A., to dance with Tommy the Clown and his friends. He teaches her "krumping" and she participates in a block party. Cheryl dances with two professional dancers to work on her routine further the next day.

Finally, she auditions for a part in will.i.am's video for his new single "Heartbreaker", and gets the part. The show ends with an advancing screening of the music video, which Cheryl's bandmates, family and friends all attend. Cheryl also contributes vocals to the radio edit of the song (on the UK version of the song only).^[6]

Sarah (21 March 2008)

Sarah's aspiration was to play polo. During the show, Sarah trained in the United Kingdom and Argentina.

Harding had a love of horseback riding, but her skills were "rusty". She learned the basics of polo while practicing in the UK. Whilst in Argentina, Sarah was set to compete in a polo competition against a successful polo team, but due to weather issues, the match was cancelled and Sarah flew back home. Luckily for her, a British polo competition was available for her to take part in. Sarah completed her passion when she competed against some of the best polo players across the world during a British game. Band members Cheryl Cole, Kimberley Walsh and Nadine Coyle came to support her.

During the game, Sarah suffered from a lack of oxygen and fell off the horse. Although she didn't sustain any major injuries, she insisted that she couldn't remember what had happened, causing her mentor and the coach to pull her out due to scares about her health if she continued. At first, Sarah was distraught about this, but support from her fellow band members and family cheered her up.

Kimberley (28 March 2008)

Kimberley decided to audition for a West End production of Les Misérables. Kimberley trained in both London and New York City.

Walsh met with a vocal coach in London, notorious for being difficult. She had less than a week to practice her audition. The producers of the show cast her as a whore in the song "Lovely Ladies", and she would also perform an encore of "On My Own" in character. Walsh then went to New York City to practice with a Broadway vocal coach, as well as a coach who helps her act through facial expressions and body language. Kimberley returns to London for the show. She participates in a dress rehearsal with the rest of the cast, and must perform "On My Own" in front of them. On the night of the show, her family, Steven Ansell, and Cheryl Cole came to watch her perform. Walsh stated in an interview with Metro that the experience was hard because "the range for musicals is huge and you have to sing everything clearly. I haven’t used my upper register for years."^[7]

Nicola (4 April 2008)

In Nicola's episode, she has had a passion for many years to create her own foundation for girls with fair skin like herself.

Nicola proves her point by going to a high street store, where there are no foundations for girls with such pale complexion. She meets with two directors from Jelly Pong Pong, a cosmetics company. They tell Nicola that creating a make-up range in two weeks could be difficult. They call in some favours, and Nicola goes to Taiwan to test out various textures and shades. She personally makes these decisions, and takes a tour of the factory where her range is created. She also arranges a launch party for the press, her family, and her friends. She selects models and a venue, and has creative control of the launch. Her bandmates Kimberley Walsh and Cheryl Cole attended the launch at London's Sketch.^[8]

Dainty Doll, Nicola's make-up range, was released on 18 April 2008.^[9] The foundation was praised by The Times, which said that it "sinks in instantly, leaving a velvety second skin."^[10]

Controversy

It was reported on 13 November 2007 that Nadine Coyle would not be taking part.^[11] Nadine was initially going to conduct an orchestra, but pulled out of the television programme. This is said to be due to the programme's bosses refusing to let her change her passion project to being a charity worker in Brazil.^[12] Sarah Harding later stated in an interview that Nadine was simply more reserved than the rest of the band, and didn't enjoy taking part in Reality-TV shows.^[13]

As a part of Passions, the Girls Aloud website posted a competition called "Be A Model for Nicola", which was meant to give one fan the chance to model for Nicola as part of her final task.^[14] However, it was later revealed that the winner would actually be attending the show and getting a makeover by Nicola.^[15] Nicola said that she tried to stick to her word, but the production company had the final decision.^[15]

References

External links

• Girls Aloud - Official Website
• Passions of Girls Aloud at itv.com
• Clips, Reviews and News On Girls Aloud's New TV show.