Girls Aloud stepped out of the spotlight in the finale of their tour opening night on Friday - and placed late bandmate Sarah Harding centre stage.
Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts, who were performing The Promise in glittering golden gowns, all chose to turn their backs on the 13,000 audience during the encore. And as they did, footage of Sarah appeared on screen singing the lyrics: “So here I am. Walking Primrose. Wondering when I’m gonna see you again”.
The girls then turned back to finish the song, while an image of Sarah in a matching golden gown was projected across the stage backdrop. The tribute to their pal, who died in 2021 after battling breast cancer, was one of many poignant moments delivered during the show at the 3Arena, Dublin. Earlier in the night, an emotional Cheryl had thanked the audience for supporting the group through “everything we went through with Sarah.”
And the girls even performed a duet with the late star, using recorded audio of her singing ballad I’ll Stand By You. But the show still managed to be the joyful festival of nostalgia that their fans were hoping for, courtesy of their catalogue of party anthems.
Appearing on four platforms high above the stage at the top of the show, they belted out Untouchable before launching into The Show, Something New and Love Machine. They also performed from motorbikes suspended in mid air and in giant inflated red skirts that would not have looked out of place at a balloon convention.
And their energy never let up - reaching a high in the final act with Jump (For My Love) Call the Shots and Something Kinda Ooh. The latter saw the foursome simultaneously vanish through trapdoors in the stage, seconds after singing the final notes. But minutes later they reappeared, one by one, to take their glittering mike stands for the final number of the night.
And it went down a storm with the audience, who were still singing long after the girls had said goodnight and left the stage for the last time. Taking to their official Instagram hours later, they wrote: “Dublin you were absolutely incredible. What a start to The Girls Aloud Show tour.”