Strictly Come Dancing judge makes huge career change with major 2024 plans
Fans of Anton du Beke’s music have reason to rejoice - because the Strictly Come Dancing judge is gearing up to unleash his new album.
The 57-year-old has had quite the career as a professional dancer - being one of the professionals on the long-running BBC dance show for 18 seasons from 2004 until 2020. He was then promoted to a judge - taking a seat alongside Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas - for the 2021 season and he has been casting his professional eye on the steps on the ballroom floor in the years since.
But in-between his own dance past, the star found time to knock together an album of songs - with his debut album, From The Top, being released in 2017 - which reached number 21 in the charts. Now, six years later, news has finally emerged that Anton is planning to unleash a second collection of tunes.
Appearing on the Power Of Joy podcast, Anton explained: “What I am going to do at the beginning of next year is . . . I’m going to get into the studio with some of the guys from the band and we’re going to do a ‘sessions album,’ we’re going to give it a sessions feel. You don’t put CDs out any more so we’ll put it out for download. It will be fun and we’ll film it.”
Early reports suggest the album will be unleashed next year - and that he could even release a third album before the end of next year too. Anton has expressed ambitions of releasing a Christmas album, which means he could be covering famous festive tracks by this time next year.
Strictly's Molly Rainford and Tyler West fuel romance rumours while on tourHe said: “A few years ago, we started to put together a Christmas album, but realised we had no time to promote and tour the album because I can’t do anything when I’m doing Strictly. So we put it to one side and we thought we’ll revisit that when we’ve got a bit more time.”
But it’s not just singing that will be keeping Anton busy in 2024. There are of course expectations that he will return to the urging panel of Strictly for what will be the 22nd season, but he will also be hitting the road to wow audiences with his own dancing.
The star this week completed a tour, and has already teased his plans to return to stages across the UK in 2024 with a brand new show of his own. He teased via Instagram on Tuesday: “The final show on my Autumn leg at the Cliffs Pavilion last night, and we'll be back on the road again next March!"
He continued: "Huge thanks to everyone who's come along to see us this year – every single audience has been incredible, and we wouldn't have a show without you!”
He added: “Dates and details for next year can be found at antontour.com - do come!” Fans of the star confirmed future audiences were in for a treat - with one follower stating in the comments: "I was there last night , bloody brilliant!"