ROBERTS
Nicola

• 1. Music career
• 1.1. 2002: Popstars: The Rivals
• 1.2. 2002–2009: Girls Aloud
• 1.3. 2013–present: Upcoming second studio album, The Masked Singer and City of Angels

Nicola Maria Roberts is a British pop singer. She rose to prominence in late 2002 upon winning a place in Girls Aloud, a girl group created through ITV's Popstars: The Rivals. The group's success helped them win the competition and they were later entered in Guinness World Records as the most successful reality television music-group. They enjoyed 20 consecutive top-ten singles, spawning five albums and positive critical responses.

In 2008, after releasing the pale skin make-up collection Dainty Doll, Roberts advocated, in the documentary Nicola Roberts: The Truth About Tanning, a ban on underage usage of tanning beds. Her public stance with a British MP led to a bill which banned under-18s from using tanning beds. In 2011, Roberts released her debut solo album, Cinderella's Eyes, which peaked at number 17 on the UK Albums Chart, and respectively produced the successful single "Beat of My Drum". Two follow-up singles, "Lucky Day" and "Yo-Yo", both gained equally positive critical responses but were not huge hits. In February 2020, Roberts won the first series of ITV's The Masked Singer UK, masked as Queen Bee and in 2021, Roberts returned in the final of the second series as a guest judge. She later returned in the third series final in 2022 to perform a duet masked as Queen Bee with Markus Feehily masked as Robobunny.

Music career

2002: Popstars: The Rivals

Still a teenager, Roberts auditioned for the reality television series Popstars: The Rivals. Participants checked into a hotel in Kensington, London, before performing to a panel of celebrity judges; Roberts found that, up to that point, she "didn't really have much life experience". During the auditions she coincidentally sat next to Kimberley Walsh, who was to complete the competition to become one of five in the final line-up of the girl group; the two spent time rehearsing before their solo audition. Roberts felt confident before the audition, but during the actual audition she was "terrified" and was unable to smile until celebrity judge Geri Halliwell complimented her performance stating "I think you're great, you're an individual, you really stand out". Roberts found her clothing and personality were different from those of the other participants in Popstars: The Rivals; most were well-trained vocalists and were well-dressed, while her clothing was less fashionable, due to lack of funds, and she was not as vocally well-trained as the others.

Having progressed in the competition, Roberts was left as one of 15 remaining participants but found that the reality show was becoming increasingly based on personality instead of vocals. She found her personality to be more concealed than others', but was "confident" with her performances. One notable incident during the competition was when a show-producer expressed to her mother that Roberts would not win, for she was not "outrageous" or as outgoing as others stating that vocals were secondary. This left her mother shocked by the politics of the show. After the final ten participants were selected Roberts was eliminated from the competition, but in the following weeks after participant Nicola Ward quit, she was enlisted as a wild-card to return to the show – despite reservations from judge Louis Walsh, who did not back her return. However, he was overruled by judges Geri Halliwell and Pete Waterman. Roberts then made it through to the final where she sang the track "I'm So Excited" by the Pointer Sisters. She was the second contestant to be selected for the group, after Cheryl Tweedy. That night the group was formed, and a party involving promotional photographs saw their introduction to manager John McMahon, who would become more of a personal friend for the group.

Roberts described her time on the show Popstars: The Rivals and her successes within the show: "Every week before I went on stage I used to go to the toilet, to the same cubicle, and pray, just ask God to please let me have this. Even though I was confident in my singing ability, and I knew I had a stronger voice than most at the time same time I still had a little bit of insecurity because I'd been told Louis didn't want me. I was never in the bottom two, though, and the producers told me I always came in the top two or three in terms of votes each week, which was great."

2002–2009: Girls Aloud

After their formation on Popstars: The Rivals, the group Girls Aloud went on to record their debut single and music video. In addition to that, a large stint of publicity left the group exhausted, since McMahon continually pressured them to promote the single "Sound of the Underground". At this point, the competition with Popstars: The Rivals was still ongoing with the two groups; Girls Aloud and One True Voice competing to outsell each other with their debut single releases. Girls Aloud ultimately won the competition with their single topping the UK Singles Chart and gaining a record deal from Polydor Records. In the following days, however, news broke that McMahon had died in a car accident, shortly after texting Roberts, who was too busy to respond. The death of McMahon had a large impact on Roberts, who found herself increasingly emotionally unstable; it came at a time when she moved in with bandmate Cheryl Tweedy, this being the first time she had lived without her family. Thus, at this time Roberts was under great stress; the biggest problem, though, was the constant media criticism of her image, in which critics labelled her "unattractive".

Girls Aloud as a group enjoyed many successes, including two entries into the Guinness Book of World Records for "Most Successful Reality Television Group" and "Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a female group". In addition to this, the band gathered five BRIT Award nominations, winning Best British Single in 2009 for "The Promise". The group earned four UK number one singles, twenty consecutive UK top-ten singles and critically they have been well-received with most albums, although Roberts found at times critical opinion was "less than desirable". Their debut album, Sound of the Underground, peaked at number two in the UK and was certified Platinum. Their second album, What Will the Neighbours Say?, was certified double Platinum and peaked at number six. The third album, Chemistry, saw a critical improvement, but failed to enter the UK top ten. The fourth album, Tangled Up, became another Platinum-certified album, peaking at number four. Finally, their fifth record, Out of Control, became their first studio album to reach number one in the UK. In 2009, Girls Aloud took a break after embarking on their 2009 Out of Control Tour in support of the Out of Control album – which became their most extensive tour – and following this, each member took time to work on solo projects.

2013–present: Upcoming second studio album, The Masked Singer and City of Angels

In October 2011, Roberts stated that she had started work on a second album. On 13 January 2012, Roberts commented on her second album, stating, "Maybe. I'm not sure. There's lots of stuff coming up and I think there always has to be a right time. I'm always working on music and if a second album came out then that would be a great thing to happen." Roberts wrote 4 songs for friend and former colleague Cheryl's fourth studio album, Only Human, entitled "It's About Time", "Throwback", "Goodbye Means Hello" and "Yellow Love", as well as writing for the Girls Aloud's greatest hits album Ten, she contributed the track "On the Metro". Roberts also wrote two songs for Little Mix's second album Salute, entitled "See Me Now" and "They Just Don't Know You".

In January 2014, producer Fred Ball confirmed he was working with Roberts on a new album. She also confirmed that she had written for Cheryl's album Only Human, which was released later that year. In 2018, Roberts worked with Cheryl again, co-writing the songs "Love Made Me Do It" and "Let You".

It was announced in December 2019 that Roberts would join the City of Angels musical cast, playing the role of Avril/Mallory from March 2020. In 2020, Roberts participated in the ITV series The Masked Singer as Queen Bee and eventually won the competition. On 15 August 2020, Nicola performed The Captive's Hymn at a VJ Day concert at Horse Guards Parade in London.