Dancing with the Stars Ukraine: Jamala, MÉLOVIN and KAZKA’s Oleksandra Zaritska find their feet in debut performances

At Eurovision and the various national finals, we get to witness the vocal talent of many artists. But not all competing acts also showcase their dancing skills. Now, four Ukrainian Eurovision and national final stars are hoping to prove that they can master the latter as well as the former. Jamala, MÉLOVIN, KAZKA’s Oleksandra Zaritska and KADNAY’s Dmytro Kadnay have all made their first appearances on Ukraine’s Dancing with the Stars 2021.

Танці з зірками (Tantsi z zirkamy) is the Ukrainian version of British dance competition TV show Strictly Come Dancing. It sees a number of the country’s stars learning the art of ballroom and Latin dancing.

The 2021 edition of Танці з зірками features two past Eurovision stars – 2016 champion Jamala and Ukraine’s 2018 representative MÉLOVIN. Oleksandra Zaritska is also participating – as the lead vocalist of KAZKA, she participated twice in Ukraine’s Eurovision national selection Vidbir.

Edit (20:55 BST): Dmytro Kadnay is another past national final star competing in this year’s show. He leads the band KADNAY, who competed at Vidbir in 2017 and 2018.

On Sunday, all three singers took to the dancefloor for the first time in the debut episode of the season. Read on to see how they did.

Eurovision stars on Dancing with the Stars Ukraine 2021

Jamala – Viennese waltz

Jamala performed a Viennese waltz alongside her partner Anton Nesterko. The Eurovision 2016 winner was dressed as Dutch exotic dancer (m-m-m) Mata Hari, wearing a nude-coloured dress with gold embellishments and a gold headpiece.

Starting alone onstage, Jamala performed as if she was the Dutch courtesan. She then made her way through a prowling group of men to Anton, from where they began the Viennese waltz.

The judges responded positively to the performance. Jamala and Anton earned a score of 19 out of 30, which placed them joint third on the leaderboard.

 

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MÉLOVIN – Experimental

MÉLOVIN and partner Elyzaveta Rusina took on an experimental dance routine. The couple performed to Maurice Ravel’s orchestral piece “Boléro”. Sadly, the judges were not so receptive to their routine and only awarded MÉLOVIN and Elyzaveta 13 points. This put them in second-to-last place on the leaderboard at the end of the show.

Despite the low score, MÉLOVIN still left his mark on the debut episode of Танці з зірками 2021. The Eurovision 2018 star professed to being a fan of judge Kateryna Kukhar and handed her a gift box. Upon opening it, the prima ballerina found an actual heart inside. “When I said that this is my heart, I was not joking”, commented MÉLOVIN.

 

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A post shared by Танці з зірками на 1+1 (@tanci1plus1)

Oleksandra Zaritska – Tango

KAZKA vocalist Oleksandra Zaritska danced a tango with her professional partner Yuriy Meshkov. The theme of the performance was built around a game of chess, with Oleksandra dressed in black and Yuriy in white.

As you can see from the embedded image below, the couple were not afraid to get up close and personal. This connection was seen by the judges and they awarded Oleksandra and Yuriy 16 points. They finished the show in ninth place out of 14 competing couples.

 

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A post shared by KAZKA (@kazka.band)

Dmytro Kadnay – Cha-cha-cha

Edit (20:55 BST): For Танці з зірками 2021, Kadnay is partnered with Alina Lee (she was a backing dancer for Azerbaijan’s Efendi at Eurovision 2021). Together, they performed a fiery cha-cha-cha to “Kiss” by Prince and The Revolution. The singer went bare chested for the performance, while his trousers were covered in black fringe that added extra dynamism to his movements.

Kadnay and Alina’s routine went down very well with the judges, who gave the couple 21 points. That was the highest score of the evening and put the pair at the top of the leaderboard.

 

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Танці з зірками 2021: Episode 1 leaderboard

No elimination took place during the the first episode of the season. Thus, Jamala, MÉLOVIN and Oleksandra will all be back again next week to take on a different style of dance.

What do you make of the first results of Dancing with the Stars Ukraine 2021? Are you excited to see Jamala, MÉLOVIN and Oleksandra perform again? Sound off in the comments below!

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