Who is Cheryl Cole?

It seems like here lately I keep running across someone named Cheryl Cole while I'm doing research online.
So who is this Cheryl Cole (or Cheryl Tweedy) person?
Well Cheryl is a singer, a songwriter, a dancer, a model, and a television personality.
And she's British.
She was born Cheryl Ann Tweedy on June 30, 1983 Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
And if you do a little research, you'll see Newcastle upon Tyne is known for musicians.
Eric Burdon, lead singer of The Animals was born there as was Mark Knopfler, and Sting was born in Wallsend, just outside Newcastle upon Tyne.

At the age of nine Cheryl joined the Royal Ballet's summer school and also did quite a bit of modeling, going on to win numerous modeling competitions.
In 2002, she auditioned for Popstars: The Rivals which was an interactive reality / talent show in the UK and through popular vote, was teamed up with Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts, and Kimberley Walsh to form the singing group, Girls Aloud.
Girls Aloud is one of the few UK reality television acts to really gain success, achieving 20 consecutive UK Top 10 singles.
So far they have released five studio albums, one greatest hits album, and two remix albums.
In 2009, Girls Aloud announced that they would be taking a year long break to pursue solo projects, but that they would all get back together in 2010 to do another album.

As her solo project, Cheryl released the album 3 Words and it went on to spend two weeks at number one.

The first single from the album, "Fight for This Love" quickly became the forth fastest-selling single of 2009 and became number one on both the Irish and UK Singles Chart.
Her second single from the album, "3 Words" became a top five hit.
Due to her working closely with will.i.am on the album, Cheryl will be the opening act for Black Eyed Peas' The E.N.D. World Tour while they are in the UK.

Cheryl was a judge on the fifth and sixth season of a the British television singing competition, X-Factor and get this...
Simon Cowell, (yes THAT Simon Cowell) ,the show's creator said Cheryl was "one of the best I've ever worked with."
Yes, Simon likes her!
No small feat in itself.

Besides singing, writing songs, modeling, and being loved my millions of Brits on TV, Cheryl has inked a deal with publishing company HarperCollins to write five romantic novels.
So I guess we can add author to the list.

But things have not always been so rosy for Britain's sweetheart.
Back in 2003, she got into a knock down-drag out with restroom attendant Sophie Amogbokpa.
Although she was originally charged with a racially aggravated assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, in the trial the jury dropped the racially aggravated assault part, and found her guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Cheryl claimed from the beginning that it was self-defense and she had been punched first.
She was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and had to pay £500 in compensation and £3,000 prosecution costs.
(Thats about $784 and $4704 US dollars respectively as far as I can tell)

In 2006, Cheryl married footballer Ashley Cole, and that hasn't been a bed of roses either.
They were married in 2006, and by 2008 allegations that Ashley was having affairs surfaced.
Even though those rumors were squelched (or forgiven) as of this post, even more allegations have surfaced.

But back to better stuff, Cheryl has appeared on the covers of British Vogue and Elle UK.
A 2009 poll by Style Network voted her the best dressed woman of the year and style icon of the decade.
In the 2009 edition of FHM's 100 Sexiest Women poll, Cheryl was named the "Sexiest Woman in the World".
She also came in at number eight in askmen.com's 2010 poll.

As far as awards go, Cheryl has won...

2007 Virgin Media Awards - Most Fanciable Female and was nominated for Hottest Female.
2008 Heat Magazine Awards -  Sexiest Female and Best Reality TV Judge
2009 Glamour Women of the Year Awards - TV Personality
2009 BBC Switch Live Awards - Switch's Prom Queen
2009 Virgin Media Awards - Hottest Female and was nominated for Legend Of the Year
2009 Women Of The Year Awards - Best Dressed

So who is Cheryl Cole?
She's a singer, a songwriter, a dancer, a model, a television personality, an author, unlucky at love and one of the sexiest women in the world. 

Although embedding has been disabled by request on You Tube, here are the links so you can see the videos for Cheryl's two singles from her album 3 Words.

Fight For This Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMiy_UsrPDs

3 Words
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT4t99xnkQ0

This video was done for the Comic Relief annual telethon  in the UK.
It's Girls Aloud and the English pop trio Sugababes doing a cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way".
The video itself is even a re-enactment of the old Run DMC and Aerosmith video.

And here is Cheryl (again with Girls Aloud) doing a cover of another song, I Think We're Alone Now, originally done by Tommy James & the Shondells back in 1967.
If you were around in the 80s, you'll probably remember the re-make done by Tiffany.

Cheryl filed for divorce on May 26th, 2010 in London's High Court.
The reason given was "unreasonable behaviour".
On September 3rd, 2010, she was granted a decree nisi (a court order that does not have any force until such time that a particular condition is met) that ended her four year marriage.