Strictly Come Dancing 2026 songs and dances revealed for first live show

Read the original at Evening Standard ↗
Cite

Huggett, P. (2026, September 25). Strictly Come Dancing 2026 songs and dances revealed for first live show. Evening Standard. https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/bbc-strictly-come-dancing-2026-songs-dances-first-live-show-b1298398.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Evening Standard · collected 2026-09-25 · by Poppy Huggett

Quick Summary

Strictly Come Dancing has announced the songs and dances for its first live show in 2026, set for Saturday night. The lineup includes a samba by Delta Goodrem with Kai Widdrington to "Baiana" by Barbatuques and a tango between Jaime Winstone and Carlos Gu to Donna Summer’s "I Feel Love". Other dances include Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola performing a cha-cha to Whitney Houston’s "How Will I Know", and actress Melanie Walters with Aljaz Skorjanec dancing the same style to Elton John and Kiki Dee’s "Don’t Go Breaking My Heart".
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-27, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

Based on the provided articles, here's a summary of what happened during the first live show of Strictly Come Dancing 2026:

The scores from this first live show will carry over into the following week, as there are no eliminations at this stage of the competition. The judges' comments indicated that several couples showed promise in their routines, particularly John Nellis who received high praise for his elegance and sophistication.

Written for “Strictly Come Dancing 2026 Live Show” on 2026-10-21, grounded in this article and the 7 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Strictly Come Dancing 2026 Live Show
Entertainment · 8 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 18% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Evening Standard · 0.95 cosine similarity
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 18% hedged 2 of 11 📰 publisher trust 66
“Both articles describe the reveal of songs and dances for the first live show of Strictly Come Dancing 2026 on the same date.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 7% hedged 1 of 15 📰 publisher trust 66
“Both articles discuss the first live show of Strictly Come Dancing's 2026 series on Saturday, revealing songs and dances for the celebrity contestants.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 10 📰 publisher trust 66
“Both articles describe the first live show of Strictly Come Dancing in 2026, which is a single specific occurrence.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 8% hedged 2 of 25 📰 publisher trust 66
“Article A describes the reveal of songs and dances for the first live show, while Article B reports on the actual performances and leaderboard results from that show.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 15 📰 publisher trust 66
“The articles describe different aspects of Strictly Come Dancing, one focusing on Brendan Cole's critique and the other on the announced songs and dances for the first live show.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 14% hedged 1 of 7 📰 publisher trust 66
“The articles describe different stages of the Strictly Come Dancing 2026 competition: one reveals the songs and dances for the first live show, while the other announces that the leaderboard will be revealed after the celebrities face the judges.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 91 📰 publisher trust 66
“Article A discusses the new couples, hosts, and judges for the Strictly 2026 series, while Article B focuses on the songs and dances revealed for the first live show.”
Evening Standard
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 6 📰 publisher trust 66
“Article A describes the reveal of songs and dances for the first live show, while Article B covers updates leading up to and during the actual broadcast of the first live show.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
17
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
18%
3 of 17 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
Evening Standard's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
8
Entertainment
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-27 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Evening Standard · 6295 article(s) · 52 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 52 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Poppy Huggett
55 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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Also by Poppy Huggett
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 55 articles by Poppy Huggett →

Topics

Aperture England Smokey Joe’s Cafe

Subjects

Aljaz Skorjanec PERSON · 2× Carlos Gu PERSON · 2× Elton John PERSON · 2× Julian Caillon PERSON · 2× Kai Widdrington PERSON · 2× Kiki Dee PERSON · 2× Lacey Turner PERSON · 2× Melanie Walters PERSON · 2× Sarah Storey PERSON · 2× Vito Coppola PERSON · 2×

Narrative

It was also confirmed earlier this week that former Love Island winner Dani Dyer-Bowen will perform a samba with Nikita Kuzmin, while TV presenter Will Best and Dianne Buswell will also take on a samba, dancing to Robbie Williams’ Rock DJ.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-27
🔮 The 15 celebrity contestants and their professional partners will take to the ballroom on Saturday night, following last weekend’s launch show which revealed this year’s pairings.
2026-09-27 · Evening Standard
Strictly Come Dancing 2026 songs and dances revealed for first live show · assertive framing

Claims (17 extracted, 3 hedged)

Strictly Come Dancing has revealed the full list of songs and dances for the first live show of the 2026 series. asserted
Dancing → reveal → series
The 15 celebrity contestants and their professional partners will take to the ballroom on Saturday night, following last weekend’s launch show which revealed this year’s pairings. asserted
which → take → pairings
Delta Goodrem and Kai Widdrington will perform a samba to Baiana by Barbatuques, while actress Jaime Winstone and reigning champion Carlos Gu will dance the tango to Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. asserted
I → perform → Love
EastEnders star Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola will perform a cha cha to Whitney Houston’s How Will I Know. asserted
I → perform → Houston
Actress Melanie Walters and Aljaz Skorjanec will also take on a cha cha, dancing to Elton John and Kiki Dee’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. asserted
Walters → take → Heart
Paralympic champion Dame Sarah Storey and Julian Caillon will perform a quickstep to C’est Magnifique by Kay Starr, while Olympian Tabby Stoecker and Mark Karmalita will tackle a jive to Animal by KATSEYE. asserted
Stoecker → perform → KATSEYE
Love Island winner Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby will perform a quickstep to Bruno Mars’ I Just Might. uncertain
I → perform → Might
Elsewhere, Chris Appleton and Amy Dowden will dance a tango to No Roots by Alice Merton, while Graeme Hall, known for Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, and Lauren Oakley will perform a cha cha to the Smokey Joe’s Cafe version of Hound Dog. asserted
Dogs → dance → Dog
Social media personality John Nellis and Katya Jones will take on a foxtrot to Alex Warren’s Ordinary, while Emmerdale star Lawrence Robb and Jowita Przystal will perform a paso doble to Harry Styles’ Aperture. asserted
Robb → take → Aperture
Read More Former England footballer Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr will dance a cha cha to Lil Boo Thang by Paul Russell. asserted
Phillips → read → Russell
It was also confirmed earlier this week that former Love Island winner Dani Dyer-Bowen will perform a samba with Nikita Kuzmin, while TV presenter Will Best and Dianne Buswell will also take on a samba, dancing to Robbie Williams’ Rock DJ. asserted
Best → confirm → DJ
The opening show will begin with the judges, professional dancers and presenters Emma Willis, Johannes Radebe and Josh Widdicombe performing a group routine to an orchestral version of Raye’s Joy. asserted
judges → begin → Joy
Strictly 2026 contestants, songs and dances - Bethany Antonia and Nancy Xu – Quickstep to Stop This Flame by Celeste - Delta Goodrem and Kai Widdrington – Samba to Baiana by Barbatuques - Jaime Winstone and Carlos Gu – Tango to I Feel Love by Donna Summer - Lacey Turner and Vito Coppola – Cha cha to How Will I Know by Whitney Houston - Melanie Walters and Aljaz Skorjanec – Cha cha to Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee - Dame Sarah Storey and Julian Caillon – Quickstep to C’est Magnifique by Kay Starr - Tabby Stoecker and Mark Karmalita – Jive to Animal by KATSEYE - Cach Mercer and Maddie Ingoldsby – Quickstep to I Just Might by Bruno Mars - Chris Appleton and Amy Dowden – Tango to No Roots by Alice Merton - Graeme Hall and Lauren Oakley – Cha cha to the Smokey Joe’s Cafe version of Hound Dog - John Nellis and Katya Jones – Foxtrot to Ordinary by Alex Warren - Lawrence Robb and Jowita Przystal – Paso doble to Aperture by Harry Styles - Shaun Wright-Phillips and Alexis Warr – Cha cha to Lil Boo Thang by Paul Russell - Dani Dyer-Bowen and Nikita Kuzmin – Samba - Will Best and Dianne Buswell – Samba to Rock DJ by Robbie Williams uncertain
I → stop → Williams
The first live show follows a strong start for the new series, with a peak audience of 5.8 million tuning in for last Saturday’s launch. asserted
audience → follow → launch
According to BBC overnight figures, the launch attracted a peak audience 200,000 higher than last year’s opening show. uncertain
launch → accord → show
The 2026 series is the first to feature new presenting trio Willis, Radebe and Widdicombe, following Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman’s departure from the show last year. asserted
series → feature → show
Strictly Come Dancing returns for its first live show on Saturday at 6.15pm on BBC One and iPlayer. asserted
Dancing → return → BBC
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