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The UK's biggest girl band hits revealed

BBC / Getty A montage of girl bandsBBC / Getty
The chart included songs by (clockwise from top left): Destiny's Child, Spice Girls, TLC, Little Mix and All Saints

The Spice Girls' Wannabe has been named the UK's best-selling single by a girl group, 23 years after it was released.

The track has sold 1.7m copies since 1996, said the Official Charts Company, as it unveiled the Top 100 girl group singles of the last 25 years.

Little Mix come a close second, with sales of 1.52m for their 2017 single Shout Out To My Ex.

The X Factor winners have 16 further songs in the Top 100. Girls Aloud and TLC also score multiple entries.

The oldest track on the countdown comes from The Ronettes, whose 1963 single Be My Baby is at 99 on the countdown, after racking up almost 300,000 combined sales since digital record-keeping began in 1994.

The chart was unveiled ahead of the closing dates of the Spice Girls' reunion tour at Wembley this weekend.

The 13-date stadium tour got off to a shaky start, with reports of sound issues at the opening night in Dublin - but those appear to have been ironed out on subsequent dates.

Several dates were beset by heavy rain, but singer Emma Bunton took the bad weather in her stride.

"It was very, very wet [in Bristol] but do you know what? I quite like dancing in the rain," she told Heart Breakfast on Thursday.

'Dream come true'

The Official Charts Company also revealed the UK's best-selling girl group albums and, unsurprisingly, the Spice Girls' debut topped that chart, too.

Spice, which featured the singles Wannabe, Who Do You Think You Are and Say You'll Be There, spent 15 weeks at number one in 1996 and 1997, and has notched up 2.98m combined sales.

Second place went to the sequel, Spice World, which has 1.6m sales, followed by All Saints' self-titled debut album from 1997, with 1.47m sales.

The best-selling girl band compilation was The Sound of Girls Aloud, which has sales of 1.2m.

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Speaking about their achievement, the Spice Girls said: "This is so incredible - we can't believe it! The last couple of weeks have been magical. To be back together and celebrating with all our fans is an absolute joy.

"It's phenomenal that over 20 years later our music and message still resonates with so many people. This band, the Spice Girls belongs to everyone. Not just five girls, it belongs to eight billion people, and everyone is welcome.

"Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making our dreams come true - we love you all."

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