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Popstars winners Girls Aloud flip the girlband script once more, offering relatability, authenticity, and a weird drum’n’bass banger in Sound of the Underground, despite rising from a TV talent show. It went straight to No 1, beating their reality pop contest rivals, the boyband One True Voice.

It looked like the UK had a new Spice Girls…one who had to brave the brutal 2000s gossip-mag era. Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts takes us through the band’s wild early years, and how they’ve stuck together. Alongside the producer of her music, Brian Higgins, she explains how their music was so risk-taking and why girlbands are the ultimate vehicle for pop experimentalism.

In this episode we hear from: Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts, songwriter MNEK, producer Brian Higgins of Xenomania, drag queen Cheryl Hole and Glyn Fussell of The Mighty Hoopla Festival.

Presenter: Mollie King
Producer: Kate Hutchinson
Written by Kate Hutchinson
Assistant Producer: Nadine Peters
Additional production: Holly Fisher
Script consultants: Owen Myers, Sharon O’Connell
Mix Engineer: Gareth Isles
Executive Producer: Joe Haddow
Commissioning producers: Jonathan O’Sullivan, Sarah Gosling
Commissioner for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Music: Will Wilkin