Girl Power! Live in Istanbul was a two-night concert by English girl group the

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Mel B ("Scary Spice"), Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). They have sold over 10 ...

. The concerts, which were organized by

Pepsi Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...

as part of the group's sponsorship deal, were performed at the

Abdi İpekçi Arena Abdi İpekçi Arena, formerly known as Abdi İpekçi Sports Complex, was a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul, Turkey, situated just outside the ancient city walls, in Yedikule. History Designed in 197 ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

on 12 and 13 October 1997.

Broadcast

In the UK, highlights from the concert were broadcast on ITV on 25 December 1997 under the title ''Spice Up Your Christmas!''. The

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

broadcast included a special greeting by the group. In the US, an airing of the full concert was first made available as a

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...

event on 17 January 1998 at 9 p.m. (E.T.) via Showtime Event Television. The broadcast was titled ''Spice Girls In Concert: Wild!'' The pay-per-view event was deemed to be "hugely successful", and the concert subsequently premiered on Showtime's main channel on April 5, 1998. The concert was again aired in the US on Fox Family Channel (formerly

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Network) on Sunday, 16 August 1998 at 6:00 pm. This broadcast coincided with the Spice Girls' first North American tour which was ongoing from 16 June 1998 through the end of August 1998. The televised concert event was titled ''Spice Girls: Wild! in Concert'' and, besides the musical performances, featured the same interviews and behind-the-scenes footage included on the home video. The broadcast was roughly two hours in length, including commercials, and managed to receive 1.8 million viewers when it aired, despite being up-against a four-hour Spice Girls

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

special and a different

Spice Girls documentary airing that same weekend. All songs from the setlist, except for "Naked", were aired during the broadcast. The concert would go on to be aired several more times on the Fox Family Channel throughout 1998, up-until nearly a year later, in July 1999.

Set list

Act 1 # Intro / "If U Can't Dance" # "

Who Do You Think You Are Who Do You Think You Are may refer to: Television series * ''Who Do You Think You Are?'' (British TV series), a genealogy documentary with many adaptations: ** ''Who Do You Think You Are?'' (American TV series) ** ''Who Do You Think You Are?'' ...

" (with elements of "Diva" by

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and "

Cover Girl A cover girl is a woman whose photograph is used for the front cover of magazines. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a person making a single, casual appearance on the cover of a magaz ...

" by

RuPaul RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960) is an American drag queen, television host, singer, producer, writer, and actor. He produces, hosts, and judges the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' and has received List of awards ...

) # "Something Kinda Funny" # "Saturday Night Divas" # "

Say You'll Be There "Say You'll Be There" is a song by the English girl group Spice Girls from their debut studio album, ''Spice (album), Spice'' (1996). The Spice Girls co-wrote the song with Eliot Kennedy after the group left Heart Management in 1995. Later, Jo ...

" # " Step to Me" Act 2 #

"Naked" (with excerpts from the film ''

Batman Forever ''Batman Forever'' is a 1995 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Batman by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. It is the third installment of the ''Batman'' film series, acting as a standalone sequel to ''Batman Returns''. Directe ...

'' (1995)) Act 3 #

" 2 Become 1" # " Stop" # " Too Much" Act 4 #

" Spice Up Your Life" # "Love Thing" # "

Mama Mama(s) or Mamma or Momma may refer to: Roles *Mother, a female parent * Mama-san, in Japan and East Asia, a woman in a position of authority *Maternal uncle, in some parts of South Asia Places * Mama, Russia, an urban-type settlement in the Mam ...

" Act 5 #

" Move Over" # "

Wannabe "Wannabe" is the debut single by the British girl group the Spice Girls, released on 26 June 1996. It was written by the Spice Girls, Matt Rowe and Richard "Biff" Stannard and produced by Rowe and Stannard for the group's debut album, ''Spice ...

Video & DVD release

Following its global live broadcasts on various channels, a

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

version of the show was released. Interestingly, the video features only 9/15 of the original setlist's songs, as production opted to omit "Something Kinda Funny" (song no. 2), "Saturday Night Divas" (no. 3), "Stop" (no. 9), "Too Much" (no. 10), "Love Thing" (no. 12) and "Mama" (no. 13) from the final edit. However, the entire show was broadcast on television (minus "Naked", which does appear on the video). The video includes extended interviews with the girls and behind-the-scenes footage, filmed in and around Istanbul, as well as pre-show and rehearsal footage. Before the show begins, footage shows the girls excitedly arriving to the venue, in-costume, and taking to the stage. Additionally, while the concert itself was sung and broadcast completely live, studio vocals were dubbed-in to portions of certain songs for the final home video edit. A DVD of the concert was made available on 10 December 2007 to coincide with the release of the girls' compilation album ''Greatest Hits'' (2007) as well as their '' Return of the Spice Girls'' (2007-08) reunion tour. The DVD features a documentary called "Girl Talk" and a countdown to the concert, as well as the edited, nine-track setlist, as was previously available on VHS.

Audio release

In 1998 the Mégaphone company released a CD with the complete concert of 15 songs in audio format with the voices dubbed from the video edition entitled Spice Songs.

Personnel

Vocals

Melanie Brown Melanie Janine Brown, MBE (born 29 May 1975), commonly known as Mel B or Melanie B, is an English singer, songwriter, television personality, and actress. She rose to fame in the mid 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which ...

Emma Bunton Emma Lee Bunton (born 21 January 1976) is an English singer, songwriter, media personality, and actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the Pop music, pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice, reflecting the ...

Geri Halliwell Geraldine Estelle Halliwell-Horner (''née'' Halliwell; born 6 August 1972) is an English singer, songwriter, television personality, author, and actress. She rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which ...

Victoria Beckham Victoria Caroline, Lady Beckham (; born 17 April 1974) is an English fashion designer, singer, and television personality. She rose to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Posh Spic ...

Melanie C Melanie Jayne Chisholm (born 12 January 1974), commonly known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Sporty Spice. W ...

Band

* Simon Ellis – Musical Director / Keyboards *Andy Gangadeen – Drums *Paul Gendler – Guitars *Fergus Gerrand – Percussion *Steve Lewinson – Bass *Michael Martin – Keyboards

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girl Power! Live In Istanbul Spice Girls concert tours 1997 concert tours Spice Girls video albums