Cheryl Ann Tweedy (born 30 June 1983), known mononymously as Cheryl and formerly as Cheryl Cole and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, is an English singer, dancer, and media personality.
Cheryl is best known for being a founding member of the girl group Girls Aloud, with whom she performed since their inception on Popstars in 2002 until 2013. With them, she boasts twenty consecutive top ten singles on the UK Singles Chart (including four number ones) and five studio albums.
While in the group, she began her role as a judge on The X Factor (originally from 2008 — 2010 and then again 2014 — 2015), where she mentored the likes of Alexandra Burke, Cher Lloyd, and Diana Vickers, while additionally helping create One Direction. During this time, she also launched a successful solo music career, setting a record for the most number one singles by a British female artist with five total.
In conjunction with her music career, she's noted for being a "style icon", having appeared in many fashion and gossip magazines due to her attractiveness.
Cheryl is just as known for her checkered personal life, having changed her professional name thrice. She was married to footballer Ashley Cole from 2006 to 2010, but kept his name for years after their divorce. In 2014, she married French restauranteur Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini after only three months of dating —changing her professional credit to Cheryl Fernandez-Versini as a result— but separated from two years later.
From 2016 to 2018, she was in a relationship with One Direction's Liam Payne (whom she first met while serving as a judge on X Factor when he was fourteen) and gave birth to their first child, Bear Grey, in 2017.
Not to be confused with the similarly-named Sheryl Crow, nor the drag queen (and impersonator) Cheryl Hole.
Solo Discography:
- 3 Words (2009)
- Messy Little Raindrops (2010)
- A Million Lights (2012)
- Only Human (2014)
Tropes:
- Animal Motifs: The artwork for Only Human features her with leopard spotted makeup and the single for the title track features a sliver of a leopard's face.
- Auto-Tune: Her second and third studio albums were released at the height of the auto-tune craze and feature vocal processing quite prominently. "Only Human", the title track from her fourth album, is entirely vocodered for an ironic robotic effect.
- Berserk Button: Gets very upset from hearing music played from a laptop, due to the sound compression.
- She also dislikes being referred to by her previous married names, and she definitely doesn't like jokes about cheating, as one not-very-bright X Factor auditionee discovered.
- Cluster F-Bomb: When Simon texted her that she was fired from the American X Factor after two episodes, her reply was nothing but a barrage of "fuck yous" and she sued him and won for breach of contract.
- Embarrassing Tattoo: She's admitted that some of the tattoos she had as a teenager are rather embarrassing. She's since had the ones on her back covered up with a gigantic bouquet of roses.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Katy Perry started fawning over her when the former was a guest judge on The X Factor and when the two appeared on Graham Norton's talk show together. She herself has admitted to fawning over Beyoncé and Rihanna.
- The Fashionista: A famous real-life example, becoming a popular model for high fashion editorials and fashion campaigns. Has also been criticised for having questionable taste in fashion sometimes.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Married her second husband, Jean-Bernard Fernandez-Versini, after only dating him for three months. Of course, they eventually divorced after 19 months.
- The Gadfly: When she returned to the The X Factor, she basically becomes a thorn in Simon's side. She deliberately delayed an audition just so Simon couldn't excuse himself to go to the bathroom, and in the middle of re-negotiating her return to the show, she hired a plane on Simon's birthday to fly a banner over his home stating how old he was.
- Gratuitous French: The entire hook in "Promise This".
- Hidden Depths: Is (allegedly) a member of this site
, according to an Urban Legend from a British football forum. - I Have Many Names: Her full name is Cheryl Ann Tweedy. You may know her as just Cheryl, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, or Cheryl Cole.
- Motor Mouth: Self-described as "gobby" or "The one who just didn't ever shut up! I just talked all day!"
- Ms. Fanservice: Although she's known to have been this for the decade she's been on the scene, her stripperiffic outfit choices in the video for her song "Ghetto Baby" got her into huge trouble with her father.
- She is also considered a style icon by various magazine publications like ''Vogue'' and ''The Telegraph''.
- She is also considered a style icon by various magazine publications like ''Vogue''
- Non-Appearing Title: Messy Little Raindrops is not a song on the album, but rather, part of a lyric from the track "Raindrops".
- Only One Name: She kept "Cole" after the divorce largely because her solo career as already established under the name. After she remarried, she billed A Million Lights and Only Human under her first name solely for aesthetic reasons and uses her new surname for everything else. After her second divorce, she's famous enough in the UK to be just referred to as Cheryl.
- Oop North: She's a Geordie, although her infamously thick accent seems to have tamped down a bit with media training. Some of the auditionees on The X Factor will play up to this in hopes of getting a "Yes" from her and she's also confessed to putting episodes of Geordie Shore on at night to help fall asleep or when she gets homesick. Fellow Geordies Ant and Dec have joked that the three of them can understand each other perfectly, it's everyone else who can't. Ross Noble, another Geordie comedian, jokes that the reason her L'Oreal commercials are so popular is because she sounds just like any other girl in Newcastle.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: While her speaking voice is pure Tyneside, her singing voice is lovely and completely un-accented.
- Stealth Insult: She's a master of this on The X Factor, especially when she's dealing with Simon Cowell.
- Vocal Dissonance: Cheryl looks very much like a glamorous pop diva, but speaks with a working-class Geordie accent thick enough to need a chainsaw to cut.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Her songs have featured the likes of Wretch 32, will.i.am, Travie McCoy, Tinie Tempah, and Dizzee Rascal.
