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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Entertainment
Emily Heward

Five things to expect from the Spice Girls' Manchester Etihad shows this week

The Spice Girls are back in a blaze of 90s nostalgia and Girl Power.

The decade-defining girl group opened their reunion tour in Dublin on Friday and will perform in Cardiff tonight before heading to Manchester.

Ginger Spice Geri Halliwell, Scary Spice Mel B, Baby Spice Emma Bunton and Sporty Spice Mel C will play three shows at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday, May 29, Friday, May 31 and Saturday, June 1.

If you're heading to see them, here's what you've got to look forward to.

Better sound (hopefully)

Reviews of the Dublin gig were overshadowed by complaints from fans about the poor sound quality.

A number of audience members took to Twitter to complain that they couldn't hear the vocals properly.

Responding with a video message on her Instagram story, Mel B said 'hopefully the vocals and the sound will be much, much better' during the rest of the tour.

Fireworks

(Andrew Timms/PA Wire)

Nobody could ever accuse the Spice Girls of subtlety - and a comeback this anticipated requires a suitably spectacular entrance.

The band took to the stage in Dublin beneath a burst of pyrotechnics as they opened the set with Spice Up Your Life, and more fireworks closed the two-hour show after a performance of Wannabe.

Iconic outfits

The six-act show features plenty of costume changes, with a total of 24 outfits - including some of their most iconic looks reimagined.

Geri's knicker-baring Union Jack dress, which she wore at the 1997 BRIT Awards, has been reinvented as a long, corseted gown, while Mel B wears a skin-tight catsuit in her signature leopard print.

Mel C's 90s tracksuits have been swapped for a sequinned, sport-luxe crop top and leggings look, while Emma wears a glittering baby pink mini dress.

Altogether their outfits sparkle with more than one million hand-sewn Swarovski crystals.

A Beyoncé remix

The setlist sticks mainly to the group's greatest hits, with no solo material from any of the girls' later careers.

Paying tribute to another girl power icon, their song Holler is remixed with Beyoncé's Run The World (Girls), and there's also a cover of Sister Sledge's We Are Family.

There'll also be some rarely performed tracks they haven't played live since the 90s, including Never Give Up On The Good Times, Love Thing, Do It and Something Kinda Funny.

Here's the set list fans can expect to hear at the Manchester shows:

Spice Up Your Life

If You Can’t Dance

Who Do You Think You Are?

Do It

Something Kind of Funny

Move Over (interlude)

Sound Off (interlude)

Holler

Queer Tango (interlude)

Viva Forever

Let Love Lead The Way

Goodbye

Car Wash

Never Give Up On the Good Times

We Are Family (Sister Sledge cover)

Love Thing Lady is a Vamp

The Last Waltz (interlude)

Too Much

Say You’ll Be There

2 Become 1

Girl Power (interlude)

Stop

Mama

Wannabe

Spice Up Your Life (outro)

Tears

Fans are in for a rollercoaster of emotions if Dublin's show is anything to go by.

Amid the effervescent pop anthems and high energy dance routines are some touching moments, too.

Mel B dedicated her Dublin performance to her late father, Martin, who passed away in 2017 after years of estrangement.

"Good things and bad things happen to all of us but I believe in honesty and respect and treating people as you wanted to be treated," she wrote in the programme.

"It’s true in the end love IS all you need. Dad I’m doing this for you. I love you forever.”

An emotional video montage halfway through the show also sees the girls pay a teary tribute to missing Posh Spice Victoria Beckham, saying: "She will always be a Spice Girl."

 
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