Spice Girls Wannabe in Vancouver First

It has been six years since the Spice Girls' trademark phrase "Zigga zig-ah" was silenced.

But that's about to change Sunday night as the '90s British all-girl pop group kick off their much-anticipated world reunion tour at GM Place.

Melanie "Scary Spice" Brown, Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell, Melanie "Sporty Spice" Chisholm, Emma "Baby Spice" Bunton, and Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham will no doubt be a more sophisticated version of themselves, judging from their new sleek-and-sexy grownup look in the recent video of their new single, the ballad "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)," from their Greatest Hits collection.

"Like everybody, we've matured and mellowed a bit," Chisholm told 24 hours news services. "But, for me, we still have that chemistry."

So far, all that's known about the tour - its only other two shows in Canada take place in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre on Feb. 3-4 - is the Spice Girls have rehearsed 20 songs, they have 10 male backup dancers and their costumes will be designed by Roberto Cavalli (the mastermind behind J.Lo's overflowing outfits to mask her then secret pregnancy).

So who will be in the audience to see them?

 
Likely, teenage girls and twenty-something women, who were massive fans on the first go-around when the Spice Girls were a pop juggernaut between the mid-to-late '90s with such hits as "Wannabe," "Say You'll Be There," "2 Become 1," "Mama, Spice Up Your Life," "Stop," "Viva Forever" and "Goodbye."

 
Their album sales totalled 55 million and they even starred in their own movie, Spice World, before Halliwell shocked fans by quitting in 1998, leaving the four others to complete a soldout world tour without her before they began pursuing solo careers in 2001.