Entertainment

Dances and songs revealed for second episode of Strictly Come Dancing

Find out who will be hoping to salsa or tango themselves into the top position on the leaderboard.
Find out who will be hoping to salsa or tango themselves into the top position on the leaderboard. Find out who will be hoping to salsa or tango themselves into the top position on the leaderboard.

Aston Merrygold will be channelling his inner Latin heart-throb in the hopes of holding on to the top position of the Strictly Come Dancing leaderboard this weekend.

Merrygold and his dance partner Janette Manrara will be doing the salsa this Saturday to the remix of the catchy Spanish song Despacito which features Justin Bieber.

Strictly Come Dancing 2017
Strictly Come Dancing 2017
BBC handout photo of Aston Merrygold and his dance partner Janette Manrara (BBC)

The former JLS singer received the judges’ highest score of 31 for his first dance, the foxtrot, last weekend.

Also hoping to impress with some fancy footwork will be Holby City star Joe McFadden and his partner Katya Jones, who will perform the tango to Ed Sheeran’s Castle On The Hill.

The Saturdays singer Mollie King and AJ Pritchard will also take on the tango, performing to Tina Turner’s Addicted To Love.

Strictly Come Dancing 2017
Strictly Come Dancing 2017
BBC handout photo of Mollie King and her dance partner AJ Pritchard (BBC)

Taking things upbeat will be Paralympian Jonnie Peacock and Oti Mabuse, who will jive to Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode.

Two couples will perform the waltz, including Gemma Atkinson and Aljaz Skorjanec (to an Italian rendition of Josh Groban’s A Time For Us) and chef Simon Rimmer and Karen Clifton (to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s You’ll Never Walk Alone).

After last week’s entrance on a cloud, viewers will be waiting to see Rev Richard Coles’ rendition of the American Smooth this week, performed to Billy Ocean’s Love Really Hurts Without You.

Newsreader Charlotte Hawkins and Brendan Cole will take on the Cha Cha Cha (performed to Maroon 5’s Sugar).

Entertainer Brian Conley and dance partner Amy Dowden will be hoping to climb up the leaderboard from the joint-lowest position as they also do the cha cha cha (to Peaches & Herb’s Shake Your Groove Thing).

The other couple in the bottom position on the leaderboard is Ruth Langsford and Anton Du Beke, who will perform the Charleston to The Charleston by Bob Wilson and his Varsity Rhythm Boys.

Comedian Susan Calman and Kevin Clifton will also be going back to the jazz age with a Charleston, performed to If You Knew Susie by Enoch Light and The Charleston City All-Stars.

EastEnders star Davood Ghadami and Nadiya Bychkova will do a Quickstep to The Strokes’ 2006 hit Last Nite while Chizzy Akudolu and Pasha Kovalev will Foxtrot to I’m A Woman (by Smokey Joe’s Cafe).

Strictly Come Dancing 2017
Strictly Come Dancing 2017
BBC handout photo of Davood Ghadami and his dance partner Nadiya Bychkova (BBC)

Last week’s second-ranking contestant on the leaderboard, Debbie McGee, will be gliding along the dance floor with Giovanni Pernice doing a Viennese Waltz to Billy Joel’s She’s Always A Woman.

Former X Factor winner Alexandra Burke will perform a Paso Doble with Gorka Marquez to a Spanish version of Jennifer Lopez’s upbeat hit On The Floor.

Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturday at 18:45 pm on BBC One.