Toronto beats Baghdad to 'win' extra Spice Girls show

LONDON: The Spice Girls won't be bringing girl power to Baghdad on their reunion tour.
Toronto, Canada, beat out the war-torn Iraqi capital in a contest where the girl band asked the public to vote on the Internet to choose any city for them to play an extra show, the band said in a statement Friday.
Several Web sites began campaigns encouraging people to vote to send the Spice Girls to Baghdad. As a result, Baghdad received thousands of votes and emerged as one of the strongest contenders, a source close to the band was quoted as telling Britain's Mirror newspaper.
However, the lakeside Canadian city won after fans used the social networking Web site Facebook to mobilize votes. A Spice Girls spokesman credited dozens of Facebook groups — the largest of which had more than 23,000 members — with helping the city win.
"We are delighted to be going to Toronto," the Spice Girls said in statement. "We have such incredible fans there and we are amazed at such a positive reaction. It's a great place and we can't wait to get back there."

The girls were prepared to go anywhere in world, "be it Baghdad or Antarctica," a spokesman was quoted as telling the Mirror.
The Spice Girls' publicists would not say Friday how many votes Toronto or Baghdad received.
The five-member band is set to begin its world tour on Dec. 2 in Vancouver, Canada. The tour will end Jan. 24 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Toronto show will be scheduled for sometime in January, the band said.
------------------------------------------------------
Erm really? I like to think the best of the girls but something tells me that none of them (including their insurance company) would be too keen for them to go to Baghdad right now. Of course that's just my personal opinion and I could be wrong. What do you think? And if it hadn't been Toronto where would you have wanted them to be?