Gabriela Irimia

The Cheeky Girls
The Cheeky Girls perform at Nottingham Pride 2010
Background information
Born	(1982-10-31) 31 October 1982 (age 34) Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, Romania
Genres	Pop, dance, Europop, Eurodance
Years active	2002–present
Labels	Multiply (2002–2004) XBN (2004–2006) GMI Music (2006 – present)
Members	Monica Irimia Gabriela Irimia

The Cheeky Girls are a Romanian-born British-based pop duo consisting of twin sisters Gabriela and Monica Irimia, originally from Cluj-Napoca. After appearing as auditionees in Popstars: The Rivals, they achieved success in the charts with four top 10 hits between 2002 and 2004. They are best known for their debut single, "Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)", which has sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide.

Gabriela and Monica were born on 31 October 1982 to Doru and Margit Irimia. Gabriela is older by 10 minutes. Their early life in Romania consisted of studying gymnastics and ballet and touring with the Hungarian National Opera. Moving to the United Kingdom with their mother in 2002, the girls shot to fame as the Cheeky Girls after auditioning on the British TV shows, Channel 4's Model Behaviour and more importantly Popstars: The Rivals. Following two appearances on the show with their audition which had judges Pete Waterman and Louis Walsh not knowing what to say (Waterman was later quoted as saying they were the worst act ever), various record companies approached the Granada Press Office. The Press Office contacted Paul Holland at Granada Ventures who was able to secure them a deal with the Multiply label part of Telstar Records. Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum) was swiftly recorded and released in the first week in December. Entering the chart at number two, the single remained in the top five for five consecutive weeks – four of them at number two. In the week before Christmas this was one of three singles from the Popstars: The Rivals show to occupy the Top 3, One True Voice and Girls Aloud held the other two positions.

This was quickly followed up with two more top three hits, "Take Your Shoes Off" and "(Hooray, Hooray!) It's a Cheeky Holiday!". Their style of music is primarily disco-pop, aimed at the pre-teen market. Most of their songs are written by their mother, who also acts as their manager. In January 2004, their first single, "The Cheeky Song (Touch My Bum)" was voted the worst pop record of all time in a Channel 4 poll.