With an astonishing 21 Top 10 hits and charisma to spare, Girls Aloud were one of the biggest and brightest groups of the 00s – and Nicola Roberts, enigmatic and riveting, was a crucial element. As she heads to London’s West End in the musical Hadestown, she’ll be joining us to answer your questions.
Roberts was just 16 when she auditioned for the reality talent show Popstars: the Rivals, which whisked her from school in Runcorn, Cheshire, to pop fame. Stationed in Girls Aloud, the quintet hit Christmas No 1 with their debut single Sound of the Underground and the hits just kept coming: from quirky neo-rock’n’roll (No Good Advice, Love Machine) to chart-topping power ballads (The Promise, I’ll Stand By You) and melancholic pop such as Call the Shots, its poignant middle eight made unforgettable by Roberts.
After the group went on hiatus in 2009 – though they toured in 2013 and 2024 – Roberts released an acclaimed solo album, Cinderella’s Eyes, was a judge on the fashion design show Styled to Rock, and co-wrote songs for Little Mix and her Girls Aloud bandmate Cheryl. She also appeared in the West End musical City of Angels, and is now going back to musical theatre in the cast of Hadestown, playing Persephone in Anaïs Mitchell’s retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story.
Ahead of her run starting on 16 September at London’s Lyric theatre, Roberts will join us to answer your questions about the role and right across her career – post them below before 5pm BST on 1 September, and we’ll publish her answers later that week.