Spice Girls, Samba, Maybe Beatles for London Closing Ceremony

(ATR) Tonight's closing ceremony for the London Olympics should be spicy: the Spice Girls will sing from the tops of black taxis and Brazilian samba will offer a taste of Rio 2016.

ATR's Karen Rosen offers this preview, and stay tuned for her live blog of the show itself.

While David Beckham was a star in Opening Ceremony, his wife Victoria, aka Posh Spice, will be reunited with her bandmates as part of "A Symphony of British Music," the theme for the closing spectacle.

The segment will start with music from classical composer Edward Elgar and then shift to popular British acts of the past and present including George Michael, Tinie Tempah, Muse, Annie Lenox, the Pet Shop Boys and One Direction.

"Waterloo Sunset" by Ray Davies will conclude the piece. Adele, The Who and Madness are also expected while Kate Bush is rumored to make a rare live performance.

Naturally, the Beatles will be represented. Paul McCartney performed at the end of the Opening Ceremony. "If the artist was not available we would ask someone," Closing Ceremony director Kim Gavin says. "People have come along and sung someone else’s song."

Filmmaker Stephen Daldry ("Billy Elliott"), the creative director, says the ceremony will "celebrate the worlds that come together for these extraordinary Games. He also reportedly has said it will be "bizarre, surreal, funny, camp and moving" and will incorporate dancing girls, Coldstream Guards and "half –naked Brazilian girls and half-naked Brazilian boys."

Gavin, who has a tough act to follow in critically acclaimed Opening Ceremony director Danny Boyle, says, "I want it to be the best after party people have ever seen."

He says the musical piece, which will last 1 hour and 8 minutes of the 2:45 show, will demonstrate "how good British music is in the world and how global it is." He started with about 1,000 songs and whittled them down to 30.

Unlike the Opening Ceremony, when the athletes enter the arena by country, they all come in together for the Closing and the procession will take 15 minutes instead of more than an hour.

Select athletes will be invited to "become the moshpit" as the immediate audience on the field of play.

"I think it’s a gift we’ve got Rio next," Gavin says. "Their 8 minutes is wonderful. It’s full of that samba beat. We’ve helped them every step of the way. I wanted to really make us look forward to the future…make us excited about the next Games."

Rio producer Marco Balich says "we have very exciting flag handover, very exciting, full of joy, full of passion."

Rapper Bnegao and singer Seu George are among the 80+ performers from Brazil in that portion of the ceremony.

Gavin says that the segment in the flame is extinguished is a "great sequence."

Jacques Rogge will invite the athletes of the world to return for the 2016 Games, the final time he will deliver those words, as he steps down as IOC president next year.

Closing ceremony flagbearers will include Bryshon Nellum of the United States, who survived three gunshot wounds in his legs in 2008 and won silver on the men’s 4 x 400-meter relay, Malcolm Page of Australia, who won the 470 class with his sailing partner Mathew Belcher. The Great Britain flagbearer has not been revealed.

The London 2012 website has advertised a limited number of tickets for 1,500 pounds apiece.

The stadium transformation, which will include bringing in replicas of London landmarks such as the Tower Bridge, could not begin until 11 p.m. Saturday night after the conclusion of athletics events.

Written and reported in London by Karen Rosen.

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