Girls Aloud have announced a new version of ‘I’ll Stand By You’ with the late Sarah Harding featuring exclusively on lead vocals, in aid of this year’s BBC Children In Need.
The girl band first released their cover of The Pretenders‘ 1994 ballad 20 years ago as the official Children In Need single. It reached Number One in the UK, and featured on the setlist for the group’s UK and Ireland reunion tour earlier this year.
Harding’s lead vocals on the song were discovered in the Girls Aloud vault when they were pulling together archive material for their sell-out 2024 arena tour.
Now, it has been confirmed that ‘I’ll Stand By You (Sarah’s Version)’ will arrive next Friday (November 15) after premiering on BBC Radio Two today (November 6). Pre-order/pre-save it here.
“The track played a key part in our ‘The Girls Aloud Show’ arena tour this summer and was an emotional moment for us all,” the group wrote in a joint statement.
‘I’ll Stand By You (Sarah’s Version)’ features Sarah on lead vocal throughout using vocals we discovered in the vault from the original recording sessions. The track played a key part in our ‘The Girls Aloud Show’ arena tour this summer & was an emotional moment for us all 🎙
— Girls Aloud (@GirlsAloud) November 6, 2024
Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde – who wrote ‘I’ll Stand By You’ with Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly – said: “How wonderful to hear I’ll Stand By You with the lovely vocals of Sarah Harding leading the way for BBC Children in Need. Happy Christmas all!”
Proceeds from the single will benefit BBC Children In Need projects working with children in communities across the UK facing a variety of challenges, including those supporting children with cancer.
BBC Children In Need 2024 will air on BBC One and iPlayer at 7pm GMT next Friday. Find more information here.
Harding died from breast cancer in September 2021 after announcing her diagnosis to the public in August 2020. She was 39 years old.
Girls Aloud revealed in late 2022 that they had raised more than £1million in funds for breast cancer charities over the past year.
The group paid tribute to their late bandmate at various points in their 2024 reunion show. Speaking about Harding singing lead vocals on ‘I’ll Stand By You’ at the dates, Nadine Coyle explained: “When we were putting the show together, there was this piece of Sarah singing this song all by herself, singing it amazingly.
“And when we all heard it we were like, ‘Wow, she should have done this whole one by herself the whole time’. So she’s going to tonight; we’re going to do a duet with Sarah tonight. It’s going to be us, Sarah, you. Let’s do this together.”
Earlier this year, Girls Aloud shared some previously unheard music featuring vocals from Harding.
In late 2023, Cheryl revealed that Harding had suggested when she was ill that the group should reunite.
“She turned to me once and said, ‘You know when I’m not here, you girls should do something’,” the singer recalled.
“But when you’re face to face with someone that’s dying… We just thought some miracle was going to occur. We all thought we might be able to do something together.”