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[-Jay-]

Why Girls Aloud didn't reach Spice Girls level of popularity in the world?

In 2003, there was an attempt at launching them in European countries including Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. There was some promotion and chart success. Only mild success for Sound of the Underground (single) in France and Germany, however that single did quite well in the other countries listed, as did Jump.

Europe fizzled out for them during the What Will the Neighbours Say? era. An appearance at the TMF Awards in 2005 seemed to be their final attempt at breaking through.

They released singles in Australia in 2003 (as far as I'm aware, this was without visiting there) and again in 2006 (when they did visit). However they weren't met with particularly good chart positions in 2006 to have justified their trip over there. Sometimes I think the main reason they went to Australia was for the Off the Record TV show and to provide some interesting content for an episode of that series, lol.

To the best of my knowledge they never attempted to become known in Asia, and definitely not in the USA/Canada.

Ultimately I believe that it was a lack of budget that was a big factor in them struggling/failing to break through outside of the UK. They really needed to devote way more time overseas to achieve even a fraction of what the Spice Girls achieved... who were truly jet-setting here there and everywhere from the moment they released Wannabe to instantaneous massive success.

Even Girls Aloud remaining signed in the UK was a worry for them at a couple of stages - towards the end of 2003 before Jump, which did well enough for them to be given the green light to proceed to a second album, and in 2006 it kind of felt like they were gearing up for The Sound of Girls Aloud to be their last hurrah, until it & Something Kinda Ooooh were very successful. So without them having unwavering faith from their label in the UK, it was possibly even more difficult to get the belief and budget required for a truly big international push.

It seems to me that following the success of The Sound of Girls Aloud era, the label/Girls Aloud themselves may have made a decision that it was better to purely focus on the UK (and to an extent Ireland) which they had cracked, than to keep trying abroad.