{"id":178944,"date":"2025-12-07T07:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/178944\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T07:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T07:49:09","slug":"niamh-kavanagh-first-for-dancing-with-the-stars-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/178944\/","title":{"rendered":"Niamh Kavanagh first for Dancing with the Stars 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh has been revealed as the first celebrity who will be taking part in the new series of Dancing with the Stars on RT\u00c9 One in January.<\/p>\n

Kavanagh is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the ballad In Your Eyes in 1993.<\/p>\n

The song became the best-selling single in Ireland that year and remains one of Eurovision’s most iconic ballads. She returned to the contest in 2010 with It\u2019s for You, qualifying for the final in Oslo.<\/p>\n

On joining the cast of Dancing with the Stars, Kavanagh said: “I am beside myself but trying to act all cool \u2013 like it\u2019s no bother! It would be a lie to say I’m not nervous, stepping into the unknown publicly brings its own nerves. However, what I mostly am is excited, I don\u2019t have to be good at this but I\u2019ll work hard to get as good as I can!”<\/p>\n

\"First
\nNiamh Kavanagh said she “can’t wait” to work with the DWTS team<\/p>\n

Eager to take to the dance floor, Kavanagh admits that the behind-the-scenes prep is a bit daunting for her.<\/p>\n

She explained: “The glitz and glam side of things is probably the most difficult part for me as I usually don\u2019t think too much about sequins and certainly not fake tan \u2013 I haven\u2019t even had my ears pierced! I have very little experience in formal choreography. When I did school shows I was mainly cast as a singer and mostly I was told to stay out of the way of other people until it was time for me to sing.”<\/p>\n

Kavanagh is looking forward to stepping out of her comfort zone and says she’s a big fan of dancing reality shows.<\/p>\n

“I love watching Strictly and Dancing with the Stars,” she said. “I watch them every year. I have opinions on all of the dance moves … that I can\u2019t do myself. I\u2019ve watched people grow while they do the whole process, so I\u2019m excited from that point of view, but for years I felt it wasn\u2019t for me because it involves so much of what I\u2019m not good at.”<\/p>\n

The singer said she’s looking forward to working with the entire DWTS team – including the expert panel of four judges: Oti Mabuse, Brian Redmond, Arthur Gourounlian and Karen Byrne – and is “very excited” to see how the other celebrities perform.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not going to lie, I probably will fan-girl a little bit over Oti and I already love Brian, Karen and Arthur. Truthfully, I can\u2019t wait to work with the whole team and I\u2019m very excited to see how the other celebs do,” she added. “I want to see them do well so I\u2019m just going to point myself at it and have the whole experience \u2013 sparkles, spray tan and all!”<\/p>\n

\"Dancing
\nOur hosts: Jennifer Zamparelli and Laura Fox<\/p>\n

Dancing with the Stars is hosted by Jennifer Zamparelli and Laura Fox, who is standing in for Doireann Garrihy this season while she is on leave.<\/p>\n

The RT\u00c9 series will see 12 well-known figures team up with a professional dancer to perform a live routine every week.<\/p>\n

Each pairing will have a different dancing genre to master every week, from the Charleston to Salsa, and they’ll have just seven days to perfect their routine before performing live to the nation.<\/p>\n

\"Dancing
\nThe judges: Brian Redmond, Karen Byrne, Oti Mabuse and Arthur Gourounlian<\/p>\n

Each celebrity couple will be scored by the judges as well as the viewing public at home, with the winning couple claiming the much-coveted glitter ball trophy at the end of the series.<\/p>\n

Tune in for all the glitz and glam from Sunday, 4 January 2026, on RT\u00c9 One and RT\u00c9 Player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh has been revealed as the first celebrity who will be taking part in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-178944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}