Nicola Roberts was “sick” when she made her solo performing debut.

The ‘Lucky Day’ singer admits she was terrified when she first went on stage without her Girls Aloud bandmates to showcase her own material but was grateful for the support of the “amazing” crowd.

She said: “I was sick with nerves when I first had to go on stage on my own.

“I felt scared and I didn’t like it. I’d gone from being in a studio solidly for a year and feeling so comfortable and so confident, to having to do the other half of putting a record out, fronting it.

“The first thing I did was sing to 10,000 people who didn’t know my music. The crowd were amazing, but I felt like a beginner again.”

Nicola also admitted she has had moments of getting emotional when penning her solo material.

She told Top of the Pops magazine: “The last time my job made me cry was just the other day. I was singing a song I wrote called ‘Sticks and Stones’ and it’s quite sad.

“I’m hardened to criticism – that usually doesn’t hurt me, but when something is sad, I’m emotional about it.”