Lembit Öpik is a former British politician. A former member of the Liberal Democrats, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Montgomeryshire in Wales from 1997 until he lost his seat at the 2010 general election. He was the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2001 to 2007.
Girls Aloud are a British pop girl group that was created through the ITV talent show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002. The line up consisted of members Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. In 2012, the group was named as the United Kingdom's biggest selling girl group of the 21st century so far, with over 4.3 million singles sales and 4 million albums sold in the UK alone. During their two decades together, the group achieved a string of twenty top ten singles on the UK Singles Chart, including four number ones. They also achieved seven certified albums, two of which debut at number one. They have been nominated for five Brit Awards, winning the 2009 Best Single for "The Promise".
Phixx were an English-Irish boy band formed in 2003 from the five runners up on British TV show Popstars: The Rivals. The original members were Andrew Kinlochan, Chris Park, Mikey Green, Peter Smith, and Nikk Mager. Between 2003 and 2005, they achieved four top 20 singles in the UK. They broke up in 2006.
Siân Mary Lloyd is a Welsh television presenter and meteorologist from Maesteg. She was the United Kingdom's longest-serving female weather forecaster, having appeared on ITV Weather for 24 years, from 1990 until 2014.
Sarah Harding was an English singer, model and actress. Her professional career began in 2002 when she successfully auditioned for the ITV reality series Popstars: The Rivals, during which Harding won a place in the girl group Girls Aloud. The group achieved twenty consecutive top ten singles in the UK, six albums that were certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), two of which went to number one in the UK, and accumulated a total of five BRIT Award nominations. In 2009, Girls Aloud won "Best Single" with their song "The Promise".
Telstar Records was a British record label that operated from 1982 to 2004.
"Sound of the Underground" is a song that was the debut single of British-Irish pop group Girls Aloud, and later featured on their debut album of the same title. The song was written by Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins and Niara Scarlett, and produced by Higgins and his production team Xenomania. Following Girls Aloud's formation on the ITV1 reality television show Popstars: The Rivals, "Sound of the Underground" was released 16 days later, on 16 December 2002. Commercially, it was an immediate success; it became the year's Christmas number one in the UK, spending four consecutive weeks atop the chart. It also reached number one in Ireland and peaked within the top forty in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland.
PartyTime is The Cheeky Girls' debut album. It reached number 14 in the UK Albums Chart in 2003.
Edward Glyn Davies is a former Welsh Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Montgomeryshire from 2010 to 2019. Davies previously served as a Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) for the Mid and West Wales region from 1999 to 2007.
"Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday" is a 1979 single by German Euro disco band Boney M. as an adaptation of nursery rhyme "Polly Wolly Doodle". Despite breaking their row of 7 consecutive German #1 singles, peaking at #4, the single was a big hit all over Europe, peaking at #3 in the UK. The song and its B-side, "Ribbons of Blue", were taken from the movie Disco Fever. "Ribbons of Blue" has a strong country feel with the addition of a pedal steel guitar. Even though the single cover announced the arrival of the next Boney M. album, Oceans of Fantasy, it would still be another six months before the album was released, and of the two songs, only "Ribbons of Blue" was included and just in a one- or two-minute edit, depending on the pressing.
Peter Edward Kirtley is an English songwriter, record producer and music entrepreneur. He has produced over 200 records worldwide with sales exceeding 15 million and 100 million streams, including seven number-one hit singles worldwide, tracks on seven number-one albums, eight UK top-ten hits and thirty-five top-forty hits in Europe. He has written and/or produced for artists such as Tiësto, the Sugababes, Armin Van Buuren, Hear'Say, Newton Faulkner, Mutya Buena, Boyzone, Peter Andre, Lee Ryan, Heather Small, Kim Wilde and Alexander O'Neal. His production collaborations include Ryan Tedder, Guy Chambers and Stargate and metaverse music collaborations include Izzy Bizu and Nina Nesbitt.
"Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)" is a song by Popstars: The Rivals contestants the Cheeky Girls. Written by Pete Kirtley and Tim Hawes (under the name The Cheeky Boyz) and the girls' mother Margit Irimia, the song was released as a single on 13 October 2002, while the show was still running, and was later included on the group's debut album PartyTime. The song spent four non-consecutive weeks at number two in the UK Singles Chart in December 2002 and January 2003. It was also successful in several other European countries, reaching the top 10 in the Netherlands and the Flanders region of Belgium. Despite its success, the song was voted the worst pop record of all time in a Channel 4 poll, in January 2004.
Popstars: The Rivals is a British television talent show series that was broadcast on ITV in late 2002. It was the second UK series of the international Popstars franchise. Unlike Popstars, which resulted in the formation of one winning group, Hear'Say, Popstars: The Rivals created two rival groups, Girls Aloud and One True Voice, who competed against each other for the Christmas number one spot on the UK Singles Chart. Girls Aloud won and would go on to achieve twenty consecutive top ten hits, four number ones and six top ten albums, two of which reached number one and from that, group member Cheryl would achieve five number-one singles and two number one albums.
"Sacred Trust / After You're Gone" is the debut double-A side single of British boy band One True Voice. It was released on 16 December 2002, the same day that female winners Girls Aloud released their single "Sound of the Underground". The two songs were competing for the coveted Christmas number one spot on the UK Singles Chart. "Sacred Trust / After You're Gone" reached number two on that chart, beaten to the top by "Sound of the Underground". The double A-side also reached number nine in Ireland.
Popstars (UK) is a British reality television show produced for ITV that aired for two series. The first series, Popstars, aimed to find five singers to form a new pop group. During the second series, Popstars: The Rivals, two music groups were formed to compete for the Christmas number-one single in the United Kingdom.
Popstars is the debut album by British pop group Hear'Say, formed through the ITV television show Popstars. It was released in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2001. Hear'Say worked with a number of British and Scandinavian producers, including Stargate, and Quiz & Larossi. The album drew comparisons to similarly co-ed pop groups such as S Club 7 and Steps.
"Have a Cheeky Christmas" is a song by Romanian pop duo the Cheeky Girls. It was released as a single on 8 December 2003 in the United Kingdom. The single peaked at number 10 on the UK Singles Chart and number 32 on the Irish Singles Chart.
