Cheryl Ann Tweedy is an English singer and television personality. She rose to fame as a member of Girls Aloud, a pop girl group created through ITV's reality competition show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. Named the United Kingdom's best-selling girl group of the 21st century in 2012, Girls Aloud amassed a string of 20 consecutive UK top ten singles (including four number ones), two UK number one albums, five consecutive platinum-selling studio albums, and five Brit Award nominations, winning Best Single for "The Promise" in 2009. The group went on an indefinite hiatus in 2013, before reuniting for a tour in 2024.
While still in Girls Aloud, Cheryl began a solo career in April 2009, and between then and 2014, she released four studio albums – 3 Words (2009), Messy Little Raindrops (2010), A Million Lights (2012) and Only Human (2014). Collectively, the albums spawned ten singles, five of which – "Fight for This Love", "Promise This", "Call My Name", "Crazy Stupid Love" and "I Don't Care" – reached the top position on the UK Singles Chart. Cheryl was the first British female solo artist to have five number-one singles in the UK, and she held the record until Jess Glynne overtook her in 2018.
Cheryl became a judge on the UK show of the television talent show The X Factor in 2008. She mentored two of the eventual winners of the competition (Alexandra Burke in series five and Joe McElderry in series six), before resigning in 2011 after series seven and joining the panel of the US version of the series, which she left during the auditions stage. She returned to judge series eleven and twelve of the UK series in 2014 and 2015. Cheryl next served as a judge on the television dance competition The Greatest Dancer from 2019 to 2020, and made her stage debut in the West End play 2:22 A Ghost Story in 2023.
Cheryl has become a recognised and photographed style icon, being referred to as a "fashionista" by the press. She has been photographed for the covers of British Vogue, Elle and Harper's Bazaar, and fronted cosmetic company L'Oréal from 2009 to 2018.
