Girls Aloud fans have prayed and prayed for this moment and the pop gods have finally answered, as the group who, I'm sorry Spice Girls fans, are the best female act the UK has ever given birth to, are back.

No shade to the Spice Girls - I enjoy a zig-a-zah-ahh as much as the next hun, can rap the middle eight of Wannabe with the best of them and can pull out the Stop dance routine at any given opportunity, but there's something about Girls Aloud's music that just blows their counterparts out of the water.

The signs were there back at the end of 2002, when, just weeks after being formed on Popstars: The Rivals. they unleashed guitar riff drenched pop juggernaut Sound of the Underground on us. Let's be honest, 'battle' for the Christmas number one between Girls Aloud and One True Voice, was over by the time the first chorus of Sound of the Underground kicked in, with the instant classic more than a match for the boyband's dreary cover of little known Bee Gees track Sacred Trust.

READ MORE: Where are Popstars: The Rivals acts now? Tragic death, Katie Price spat and reunions

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Their festive victory over their ITV pals lit the touch paper on a career that would give us plenty more killer cuts from the Girls Aloud repertoire. Pop has given us some iconic partnerships over the years - PJ and Duncan, Kylie and Jason, Whitney and Mariah....Geri Halliwell and THAT Union Jack dress and up there with the most successful has to be Girls Aloud and Xenomania. They say behind every man is a strong woman, well, behind every top tier pop group, there's a cracking production and song writing team.

Girls Aloud struck gold with Xenomania, with their long lasting and mutually beneficial relationship blessing us with anthems like Biology, The Promise (with its Blankety Blank esque hook), Sexy No No No and Something Kinda Ooh, the kind of tracks that any other pop girly would kill to record. And, as far as comeback singles go, Girls Aloud could not have wished for a better one than Something New, when they burst back onto the music scene in 2012 and, yep, you've guessed it - that was a Xenomania creation as well.

However, a band can have all the amazing songs in the world at their disposal, but it's no good if they can't perform them with both conviction, enthusiasm and vigour and they are qualities Girls Aloud possess in spade loads. They've often come in for, perhaps unfair, criticism of their vocal abilities, to which I'd say go watch the Royal Variety performance of The Promise from 11 years ago and get back to me. They never claimed to be a band full of Celine Dions, but my, when they got their hands on a serious tune, they gave us PER-FOR-MANCE!

Which is precisely why, although tinged with much sadness due to Sarah not being part of it, the Girls Aloud reunion tour, should be the hottest ticket in town for 2024. It has now been over a decade since we last saw epic bops like The Show, No Good Advice, Call The Shots and The Loving Kind grace the stage and, while the recent reunion by the Sugababes earned the plaudits it deserved, you just know Girls Aloud are going to give spectacle, they are going to give glamour, they are going to give main character energy and, most of all, they are going to give us one hell of a show.

They say not all heroes wear capes, which is quite right, as these heroes are stiletto wearing music assassins who have come to give the industry a much needed injection of power pop, as well as a reminder that no one does cocktail soaked bangers and amazingly addictive hooks quite like Girls Aloud.

Welcome back ladies, we've missed you.