It’s the song that became a viral hit earlier this year in the United Kingdom, and the love for “Think About Things” continues across the country. Now, British celebrity Jamie Laing has performed a dance routine to Daði & Gagnamagnið’s Eurovision 2020 entry for his first appearance on the new season of Strictly Come Dancing.
Jamie Laing and Karen Hauer cha-cha-cha to “Think About Things”
Saturday was the first live show of Strictly 2020, with this year’s contestants strutting their stuff on the dancefloor for the first time. To add to this pressure, Made in Chelsea star Jamie Laing was tasked with opening the show. The TV personality performed a cha-cha-cha with his professional dance partner Karen Hauer.
The cha-cha-cha is a dance of Cuban origin, but Laing’s rendition had a chilly Icelandic flavour to it. That’s because the pair performed to “Think About Things” by Icelandic singer Daði Freyr.
Freyr was set to sing “Think About Things” at Eurovision 2020 as part of the group Daði & Gagnamagnið before the contest was cancelled. Thankfully, the group will still get their chance to appear at Eurovision and have been internally selected to represent Iceland in 2021.
Laing began the performance in front of a large glitterball and holding a glitter-encrusted keytar. The star then put his best step forward as he cha-chaed around the ballroom in an all-white outfit.
The dance routine performed by Daði & Gagnamagnið in the music video of “Think About Things” has gone viral on TikTok and other social media sites. Jamie and Karen incorporated a small amount of this into their routine, throwing in a few hip bounces. However, the entire cast of the show performed more of the routine for a fun teaser released earlier in the day.
After completing the dance, Laing commented that the experience was both terrifying and “the best thing I’ve ever done”.
Taking to Twitter after the performance, Daði Freyr approved of Laing’s moves, saying “This gives me LIFE!!!”
This gives me LIFE!!! https://t.co/yDXUSbbTm2
— Daði Freyr ? (@dadimakesmusic) October 24, 2020
Although Daði Freyr was positive about Jamie and Karen’s performance, the comments that the pair received from the judges were a bit more mixed.
Head judge Shirley Ballas noted that Laing showed “potential to have an outstanding, wiggly, rhythmical lower half”, while Motsi Mabuse commented that he has the energy and eagerness to perform. However, Craig Revel Horwood called the performance “flat-footed” and “stiff of hip”. Ultimately, Jamie and Karen received a 5, 5 and 4 from the judges respectively, giving the couple a total of 14 out of 30 and placing them second to last on the scoreboard.
Thankfully, there was no elimination from tonight’s show since this is first episode of the season. This means Jamie and Karen will be able to return to the ballroom next week for another performance.
This year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing was delayed for around one month due to Covid-19. The pandemic has also meant changes to the show format — it will include only nine episodes instead of 13. Each of the celebrities have been living in a support bubble with their professional dance partner whilst competing on the show. As well, the professional dancers previously lived in their own hotel bubble to prerecord all the group dance routines to be shown through the season.
Strictly Come Dancing and Eurovision
“Think About Things” isn’t the first Eurovision song to have been featured on Strictly Come Dancing. In 2013, business woman and Dragon’s Den star Deborah Meaden performed a jive alongside her dance partner Robin Windsor to Bucks Fizz’s Eurovision 1981 winning entry “Making Your Mind Up”.
For the show’s sixteenth season in 2018, television presenter Stacey Dooley danced a salsa to “Ooh Aah (Just A Little Bit)”, which was Gina G’s entry to represent the UK at Eurovision 1996. Dooley and her professional partner Kevin Clifton would go on to win the season.
A number of past UK Eurovision stars have also competed on the show. Eurovision 1969 winner Lulu danced on the ninth season, finishing in tenth position.
Two members of boyband Blue, who sang for the UK at Eurovision in 2011, have also taken part. Simon Webbe reached the final in 2014 and finished as a runner-up. Four years later, Lee Ryan took to the dancefloor, but was the second contestant to be sent home.
What do you think of Jamie Laing’s performance to “Think About Things”? Would you like to see more Eurovision songs and artists appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in the future? Let us know in the comments below!
Don’t know who this guy is but he’s painful to watch. Also what is he doing with his face/mouth? Looks like he’s in pain and mumbling lyrics of another song.
She’s stunning though, she should have done that dance alone.
3/4 of that were no chacha-mouvements. The song also doesn’t lend itself too much for this dance.
The jury comments are more than correct. Technically that is very weak.
Amar Pelos Dois has the same rhythmic meter as a waltz, so that could work.
Excellent – though please can someone do Chains On You too.
Though that being said, it is more suitable to cover on LM The Search. I would also like All Of My Love but am unsure it would fit Strictly either. But either way, Armenia, Iceland and Malta were my top 3, and Think About thing is ace! And liked them using the keytar.