Read more about the return of the Spice Girls

With squeals of “Viva Vancouver!” the Spice Girls strutted, pouted, pole-danced and giggled through one of music’s most anticipated comebacks when they kicked off their reunion tour in Canada overnight.

Dressed in bronze and gold Roberto Cavalli-designed outfits, the British quintet appeared on stage following a video of five girls dreaming of growing up to be pop stars, starting their two-hour extravaganza with their 1997 hit single Spice Up Your Life.

More than 15,000 fans had flocked to the Canadian concert to find the Nineties band dressed to kill, surrounded by limber male dancers and performing on sets that revolved and offered trap doors and video sequences.

The group - Victoria Beckham (Posh), Emma Bunton (Baby), Melanie Brown (Scary), Melanie Chisholm (Sporty) and Geri Halliwell (Ginger) – hugged each other throughout the concert, seemingly to prove they have patched up the differences that led Halliwell to leave the band in 1998 three years before the group split up, having sold about 55 million records worldwide.

The Girls performed a tightly-staged and choreographed set featuring more than 20 tracks - including Stop, Say You’ll Be There, Wannabe, Mama, 2 Become 1, and Who Do You Think You Are – and changed costumes eight times.

They sent the audience into a frenzy when they appeared on stage in outfits that paid homage to those worn at the height of their fame. Halliwell donned a rhinestone version of the Union Jack dress she once wore to the Brit Awards, while Mel B pulled on an animal print ensemble with knee-high boots.

The mood reportedly dipped when the Girls launched into their new song Headlines (Friendship Never Ends), from their current Greatest Hits album, and fans stopped singing along.

One reviewer, Marsha Lederman, writing in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail, singled out Mel B as “an absolute delight to watch on stage”, and Mel C, who “remains the most distinctive vocalist of the group”.

She wrote: “Most of the Girls seem to have come into their own, displaying a maturity and comfort level that may not have been there during the height of their popularity a decade ago. The stand-out exception was Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Beckham, who looked uncomfortable in her tightly-corseted outfits and carefully-coiffed hair (which she spent a fair amount of time clearing from her face). Her dance moves were stiff and at at least one point she started to sing a line before it was time (not that you could hear her; her voice is not very strong).”

Beckham set tongues wagging by failing to take the spotlight. All four other band mates performed alone, singing songs from their solo careers including Halliwell’s cover of It’s Raining Men and Chisholm’s I Turn To You. Instead, fashionista Beckham chose to do what she does best and performed a catwalk-style solo which included pouting for the male dancers posing as paparazzi photographers.

But her husband David didn’t seem to mind. The footballer flew from New Zealand, where he had been playing with his team LA Galaxy, to watch his wife, who has just been announced as the new face of Marc Jacobs.

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