Will Young confirms he's dancing on this year's Strictly

Will Young, Strictly
(Image credit: PA WIRE)

Mega selling pop star Will Young will be a contestant on the new series of Strictly when it premieres in September

Brit Award-winning pop star Will Young will contest the new series of Strictly Coome Dancing, both he and the BBC confirmed today.

Will, 37, follows Monday's announcement that former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls will join the hit BBC1 celebrity dance contest.

Will said today: "As a fan of Strictly for years, I have always imagined myself on the show, but the timing has not been right... until now! Music is my passion and the dancing I have done has always been with a microphone in hand. Now there will be no microphone or band, just me, my partner and the dance floor."

He continued: "Strictly is a show with fantastic live music and has an ethos of positivity and growth. I practice these two things every day, and I will try my hardest to be the best dancer possible."

Will first came to the public's attention when he contested and won the first Pop Idol contest in 2002 and since then has gone on to have not only a very successful music career, but has also appeared in a number of film, stage and television productions.

His credits include the BBC film Mrs Henderson Presents, the Marple drama The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side, and on stage as the MC in Rufus Norris’s production of Cabaret, for which he received an Oliver award nomination.

Will is no stranger to Strictly as a performer:

https://youtu.be/FSUF30EBrsc

Strictly said the third contestant for this year's series will be announced live on The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw tomorrow.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.