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Dancing with the Eurovision stars

08 January 2017 at 10:30 CET
Dancing With The Stars is an international television franchise based on the British TV format Strictly Come Dancing. Launched in 2004, the rights to the format have been sold to over 40 countries around the world. Today sees the format launch for the first time in Ireland. The series will be co-presented by Nicky Byrne who represented Ireland in the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest and participated in Strictly Come Dancing back in 2012. What other Eurovision stars have taken part in the television programme over the years?

With varying degrees of complexity, choreographed dance routines have always been a regular feature of Eurovision performances from over the years. Eurovision might be a song contest but the spectacle of performance is just as much a part of the show as the music itself.

Previous Eurovision winners to have participated in Dancing With The Stars/Strictly Come Dancing include Lulu (UK 1969), Dave Benton (Estonia 2001), Elena Paparizou (Greece 2005), Alexander Rybak (Norway 2009) and Måns Zelmerlöw (Sweden 2015). Måns participated in the Swedish version of Dancing With The Stars in 2006 and to date is the only Eurovision act to have won both competitions. 

Other Eurovision acts to have participated in the format include Paula Selling (Romania 2010 & 2014), Stella Mwangi (Norway 2011) and Edyta Gorniak (Poland 1994). Eurovision acts that have gone on to win Dancing With The Stars include Koit Toome (Estonia 1998), David Civera (Spain 2001), Rosa (Spain 2002), Yulia Savicheva (Russia 2004) and more recently Loïc Nottet, who finished fourth for Belgium in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, won the French edition of the format, Danse avec les stars, in the same year. 

Which Eurovision star would you like to see take to the dance floor?