Nadine Coyle burst into tears as she paid tribute to her late bandmate Sarah Harding during the Girls Aloud tour at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool on Sunday.
The 39-year-old singer was comforted by her bandmates Cheryl, Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts as the band performed a heartbreaking tribute to their friend during their final performance.
Nadine couldn’t hold back her tears when Girls Aloud sang along with Sarah on a previously unreleased version of I’ll Stand By You.
Sarah, who tragically passed away from breast cancer in 2021, performed the song solo and the band and audience sang along as a video of her played.
Nadine wiped away her tears as emotions took over, before Cheryl, Kimberley and Nicola all came together to finish the song.
Nadine Coyle burst into tears as she paid tribute to her late bandmate Sarah Harding during the Girls Aloud tour at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool on Sunday.
The 39-year-old singer was comforted by her bandmates Cheryl, Kimberley Walsh and Nicola Roberts as the band performed a heartbreaking tribute to their friend during the final show
Somewhere during their last show, the girls stopped their performance so Cheryl could respond to a viral video of herself.
The singing sensation used the performance – which took place on her 41st birthday – to respond to an old video in which she talks about one of their biggest hits, Love Machine, which was released in 2004.
In the retrospective of their 2006 E4 documentary Off the Record, Cheryl seemed adamant that she would not be taking part in a reunion.
She said, “Can you imagine a 30-year-old saying, ‘I’m just a love machine?’ No. No, thank you.”
But while in Liverpool, she took the opportunity to respond on stage to the viral clip that was making the rounds again after their reunion tour was announced.
She said, ‘I just want to make something clear. You may have seen a video where I said that I would never sing Love Machine at 30.
‘Okay, but if we go there, the last tour I was 29, today I’m 41!’
The audience cheered as the girl band played the cheerful song.
Nadine couldn’t hold back her tears when Girls Aloud sang along with Sarah on a previously unreleased version of I’ll Stand By You
Sarah tragically passed away in September 2021 after a battle with breast cancer (pictured in 2017)
Elsewhere during their final show, the girls stopped their performance so Cheryl could respond to a viral video of herself
And Cheryl used the performance – which took place on her 41st birthday – to discuss an old video in which she talks about one of their biggest hits, Love Machine
The girls released their hit single Love Machine in 2004 as part of their second album What Will the Neighbours Say? and it reached number two in the UK charts (pictured in the video clip)
Nicola had previously responded to a fan who shared her excitement when the reunion tour was announced, again referencing Love Machine.
The fan responded to Nicola’s Instagram post about the reunion, saying: ‘I didn’t expect to be back in my fangirl life at 31… but I’m SO happy about it’
Nicola replied: ‘I don’t think Chez expected her to be singing Love Machine after she was 30, but she’s actually doing it now!’
Later in the show, Nicola, 38, spoke about her hometown and said it was ‘an honour to spend the last night of the tour with Scousers’.
“I’ve been waiting the whole tour to finally come back to this city.”
It comes after Girls Aloud appeared ‘stronger than ever’ last week when they played their final London gig on Thursday, despite having to sell cheap tickets.
The group were forced to cut prices by 60 percent after failing to sell out their three concerts at the O2 Arena.
But despite the last-minute decisions, Nadine (40), Kimberley (42), Nicola and Cheryl looked in their element as they took to the stage in front of the arena, which appeared to be packed.
The tour, their seventh in total and their first without the late Sarah Harding, began in Dublin in May and ended on Sunday night in Liverpool.
The group looked so confident on stage that one body language expert declared they were now “stronger than ever.”
Nadine Coyle, Cheryl, Nicola Roberts, Kimberley Walsh and Sarah Harding formed the iconic band in 2002 after winning Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 (pictured)