Kimberley Walsh admits Girls Aloud are ‘feeling the pressure’ to do a 20-year tour

Kimberley Walsh admits Girls Aloud are ‘feeling outside pressure’ to reform for the band’s upcoming 20th anniversary.

Speaking on The One Show, the singer, 38, explained: ‘It’s 20 years in 2022 so we’re feeling a bit of outside pressure now.

‘People keep asking if we’re making any plans and we actually haven’t made any yet, but we’re definitely feeling a bit of pressure from the outside so you never know.’

Kimberley has remained close to fellow bandmates Cheryl and Nicola Roberts – and her comments suggested she’s chatted to Nadine Coyle and Sarah Harding about the situation too.

She recently revealed that she put a stop to her seven-year feud with Nadine, 35, as lockdown put things into perspective. 

During an interview with OK! magazine, Kimberley was asked if she’s still in touch with her bandmates, replying: ‘I speak to Cheryl and Nicola [Roberts] all the time anyway, but I have been in touch with Nadine and Sarah, too.’

She continued: ‘Lockdown has been a time for reflection. Nadine and I were chatting the other day and we’re going to get the kids together as they haven’t met yet.’ 

She also revealed that her life nearly took a very different turn, having been in the running for the role of Maria Sutherland – later Maria Connor – in long-running ITV soap Coronation Street.

‘I actually got down to the last two or three for Maria in Coronation Street. I think it was the year before I got into Girls Aloud, which could have been very different!’ she mused.

Actress Samia Longchambon was cast in the role, first appearing in the soap in 2000. Girls Aloud was then formed in 2002 on TV talent show Pop Stars: The Rivals.

They went on to amass a fortune of £30 million by 2010, sold over 4.3 million singles and 4 million albums in the UK.

They split in 2009 but reformed in 2012 for a 10 year tour and album. 

Kimberley has since gone on to appear in musical threatre and will be in Sleepless: A Musical Romance, the first live indoor theatre show to start up since lockdown, which is based on the film Sleepless In Seattle.

‘We start rehearsals in a week’s time and there will definitely be certain things we need to rework slightly,’ she said of returning to work as the pandemic rumbles on. ‘But with the theatre we’re in, it’s almost like a bit of a gift from God, also the show itself really works for social distancing.

‘Jay [McGuinness] and I are the leads and we don’t actually meet each other until the final scene in the show, same as the movie, so everything kind of lends itself to this crazy time we’re living in. 

‘We’re able to not change that much in the show actually which is amazing!’

Of how similar the theatre adaptation is, she added: ‘It’s really close which I think is nice, because when you have got an iconic movie like that, you sort of want it to be the same, you don’t want to miss any bits that you remember, it’s so nostalgic.

‘So it does run really closely, the script is brilliant and it was written by the same people who wrote the original screenplay.

‘And then we’ve got these amazing new songs that have been written by British composers, and they’re like Big Band numbers, and they really work for the time, and they add a bit of musical magic to it really.

‘It’s a big, happy, warm musical romance, and who doesn’t need a bit of escapism right now!’