FACTBOX: Who are the Spice Girls?

(Reuters) - British girl band the Spice Girls kicked off a reunion after nearly a decade apart by performing at the Victoria's Secret lingerie fashion show in Los Angeles on Thursday as a warm-up to a world tour that starts next month.

Rather that marking a new chapter, the band members have signaled that the tour starting in Vancouver on December 2 is more of a final bow to celebrate a career that saw the group sell more than 55 million albums and rack up 10. No. 1 singles.

Here is some background:

WHO WERE THE SPICE GIRLS?

-- The Spice Girls' sex appeal, catchy tunes and "girl power" philosophy made them a pop music phenomenon in the mid-1990s.

-- The British band was created in 1994 by two would-be managers who advertised for women to form an all-female group. The five winning applicants each took nicknames:

* Sporty Spice - Melanie Chisholm, also known as Mel C, born January 1974.

* Posh Spice - Victoria Adams (married surname Beckham), born April 1974.

* Ginger Spice - Geri Halliwell, born August 1972.

* Baby Spice - Emma Bunton, born January 1976.

* Scary Spice - Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B, born May 1975.

THEIR SUCCESS:

-- Their 1996 album "Spice" included the hit singles "Wannabe" and "Say You'll Be There" and launched them to international fame.

-- They hit the peak of their fame in 1997 with the release of a second album, "Spiceworld," plus a feature film of the same name.

THE SPLIT:

-- Halliwell left the group in 1998 and the other four went their separate ways after releasing the album "Forever" in 2000.

-- This year, a DNA test confirmed actor-comedian Eddie Murphy was the father of Brown's newborn daughter. Brown gave birth to her second daughter on April 3 in a California hospital, naming the girl Angel Iris Murphy Brown after the Hollywood star. Brown and Murphy split up last December.

* Halliwell is back on the girl power trail -- this time penning children's books about a feisty 9-year-old. Halliwell, following in the literary footsteps of fellow singers Madonna and Kylie Minogue, announced in April she would publish a series of six books she started writing when she was pregnant.

* Melanie C, who got her nickname because she always wore sports gear with the Spice Girls, launched her own singing career and has released four albums, the most recent this year.

* Victoria Beckham, formerly Posh Spice, signed up this year with television network NBC for an hourlong TV special, "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America," about her move to Los Angeles with her husband, English soccer player David Beckham.

* Bunton gave birth to a baby boy on August 10.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Stuart Grudgings)