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Girl Power! Live in Istanbul
Concert by Spice Girls
VHS release cover
Venue Abdi İpekçi Arena
Istanbul, Turkey
Associated albums
Date(s)12, 13 October 1997
Spice Girls concert chronology

Girl Power! Live in Istanbul was a two-night concert by English girl group the Spice Girls. The concerts, which were organized by Pepsi as part of the group's sponsorship deal, were performed at the Abdi İpekçi Arena in Istanbul, Turkey on 12 and 13 October 1997.

Broadcast

See also: Spice Girls filmography

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 broadcast included a Christmas message by the group. [1]

In the US, an airing of the full concert was first made available as a pay-per-view event on 17 January 1998 at 9 p.m. (E.T.) via Showtime Event Television. [2] The broadcast was titled Spice Girls In Concert: Wild!. The pay-per-view event was "hugely successful" and the concert subsequently premiered on Showtime's main channel on April 5, 1998. [3]

The concert was aired again in the US on Fox Family Channel on Sunday, 16 August 1998 at 6:00 pm. [4] The broadcast was titled Spice Girls—Wild! in Concert [5] and featured trivia before and after commercials and backstage footage in addition to the set list. The show was two hours in length with advertisements and managed to receive a 1.8 Household rating when it aired despite being up against a four-hour Spice Girls MTV special and a different pay-per-view Spice Girls special airing the same weekend. [4] All songs from the set list except for "Naked" were aired during the broadcast. Interestingly, the concert would go on to be aired again on Fox Family Channel nearly a year later, in July 1999.

Set list

Act 1:

  1. "If U Can't Dance"
  2. " Who Do You Think You Are" (Intro contains samples of "Diva" by Club 69)
  3. "Something Kinda Funny"
  4. "Saturday Night Divas"
  5. " Say You'll Be There"
  6. " Step to Me"

Act 2:

  2. "Naked" (Intro contains excerpts from the film Batman Forever)

Act 3:

  2. " 2 Become 1"
  4. " Stop"
  6. " Too Much"

Act 4:

  2. " Spice Up Your Life"
  4. "Love Thing"
  6. " Mama"

Act 5:

  2. " Move Over"
  4. " Wannabe"

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue
Europe
October 12, 1997 Istanbul Turkey Abdi İpekçi Arena
October 13, 1997

Video release

Following the concert, a VHS of the concert was released but did not include all of the songs on the set list, omitting "Something Kinda Funny", "Saturday Night Divas", " Stop", " Too Much", "Love Thing" and " Mama". The VHS, however, includes interviews with the girls and backstage footage. Although the original concert was completely live, studio vocals were dubbed into several songs for the video version of the performance.

A DVD of the concert was made available in the UK on December 10, 2007, to coincide with the release of the Greatest Hits album and their reunion Return of the Spice Girls tour. It features the "Girl Talk" documentary, a countdown to the concert, and the 9-song concert, as previously available on VHS. [6]


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. [7]

Personnel

Vocals

Band

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

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
France ( SNEP) [8] Diamond 100,000*
United Kingdom ( BPI) [9] 5× Platinum 250,000^
United States ( RIAA) [10] Platinum 100,000^

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

  1. ^ "ITV Christmas TV 1997". UK Christmas TV. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  2. ^ "SPICE GIRLS GO PAY-PER-VIEW". MTV News. 3 December 1997. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  3. ^ "Dateline: Viacom". Business Wire. 29 April 1998. p. 1. ProQuest  446927691. Retrieved 29 March 2021 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ a b Katz, Richard (19 August 1998). "Fox Family debuts well". Variety. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  5. ^ Sterngold, James (9 August 1998). "COVER STORY; A Family Channel Welcomes Black Sheep". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 May 2010.
  6. ^ "Woolworths DVD sale page".
  7. ^ "Spice Songs". Discogs.
  8. ^ "French video certifications – Spice Girls – Girls Talk" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
  9. ^ "British video certifications – Spice Girls – Girl Power - Live In Istanbul". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
  10. ^ "American video certifications – Spice Girls – GIRL POWER: LIVE IN ISTANBUL". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
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