Cheryl Cole's solo career, and what this means for Girls Aloud

In a few weeks, Cheryl Cole's debut solo single arrives and the future of Girls Aloud shall be told from there.

It's a very peculiar time for the band. Tangled Up truly helped establish them as a major force in the UK pop scene. While they had been enjoying accolades, rave reviews and continued top 10 hits ever since What Will the Neighbours Say?, they still hadn't quite crossed the threshold that divides a music group from being popular to being massive. That all started to change when "Call The Shots" refused to leave the charts from late '07 into early '08, and when "The Promise" and Out Of Control both stormed their way to number 1 later that year, it was apparent that the Aloud had paid their dues and earned their place in the "massive" category.

But now we've reached a turning point in the Girls Aloud story. Cheryl Cole has become the focal point of the band due to her new job on X Factor, and with the girls on hiatus for the next year or so, she's striking while the iron is hot and launching her solo career.

This could go a number of ways.

1. Cheryl Cole could become an even bigger star and have a massive-selling album, which would render those four other cows she sang with before completely useless and there would be no need for that little girl band. (NOTE: This does not in any way reflect the opinions of Mp3s and Cookies, and in fact we would be unspeakably devastated if this were to happen.)

2. Cheryl Cole's first single would enter the charts at No.7, not too shabby but not impressive, whereas the accompanying solo album would bomb because people would say "Christ, can't we get something like 'Love Machine' on this?"

3. Cheryl Cole's first single would enter the charts at a high position- top 2, at least- and the solo album would perform marginally well- not spectacular, not enough to completely eradicate anything she's done before, but enough to prove that there is an audience for her- and Girls Aloud would still return in 2010 because, come on, that's her real money maker.

Number 3 seems most plausible out of all these scenarios, and the one we would be most pleased with. Let's face it, we'd be happy with number 2 as well because that would still imply the necessity of more Girls Aloud.

Let's just hope that the next Aloud record is a bit more of a corker than Out Of Control. I think I might do myself in if I have to hear anything resembling "Live In the Country" again.