Nicola Roberts wrote a letter to Geri Halliwell asking for help to make it in the music industry.

The 36-year-old pop star revealed that when she was a child she tried to get in touch with Geri - who at that time was at the height of her fame as Ginger Spice in the Spice Girls - and begged her to listen to her tape and "pass it on" to industry execs.

She said: "I wrote a letter to Geri when I was 11. I put the blonde bits in the front of my head and I wrote a letter because I used to sing, Say You’ll Be There, all the time in competitions. I wrote a letter to say, 'Hi Geri, I'm such a big fan, I really would love to be in the music industry. I'm a really good singer. I sing, 'Say You’ll Be There' all the time and I win all the competitions. Please, if you could listen to my tape and pass it on to somebody, that could help me.' I don't know where we sent the letter off, maybe my parents didn't even send it, I don't know, but I wrote the letter!"

Nicola later found fame as a teenager when she was selected alongside Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Kimberley Walsh and the late Sarah Harding to be in Girls Aloud via the ITV talent show 'Popstars: The Rivals' and spoke of how surreal it was to end up being mentored by the 'Mi Chico Latino' singer on the programme after being a fan for so many years.

Speaking on the 'Hear Her Voice' podcast, she told host Laura Whitmore: "Then for Geri to be so supportive of me and so encouraging and really championing me throughout 'Popstars: The Rivals' was just one of those moments where you're just like, the universe…what is this? What is happening right now? You can't write that!"