Strictly Christmas' Keisha admits she's 'nervous' and 'struggled' with setback

22 December 2023 , 19:00

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Strictly Christmas' Keisha admits she's 'nervous' and 'struggled' with setback (Image: BBC/Guy Levy)

Keisha Buchanan has revealed she didn't have "much time to rehearse" for the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special.

The pop star, who is one-third of Sugababes with Mutya Buena and Siobhán Donaghy, has been partnered with Gorka Marquez for this year's Strictly festivities. Despite being paired with one of the BBC show's beloved stalwarts, Keisha admitted she's concerned.

She said: "Well I feel like I have struggled and haven’t had that much time to rehearse. I definitely think that's one thing that I am nervous about." Gorka added: "Keisha had to learn another two dances so I might get to the point where I play the music and she's going to go ‘what am I doing?’"

The Sugababes star continued: "It takes me a while I want to be complimentary on Gorka’s arm. I take my studio sessions and my writing seriously, like the dancers do with their careers, so I want to do well. You have to focus, you have to act when you don't get it right and I want to do well for Gorka. I’m very hard on myself."

(BBC/Guy Levy)

Explaining why she wanted to take part, Keisha said: "Mutya and the girls in general, have always said, ‘You've had never done anything outside of the group. Why don't you?’ A lot of people don't know this about me, but I'm actually a bit of an introvert and extrovert. They call it ambivert, so I am kind of shy and self-conscious, and I just never thought that I would do this.

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"But the girls gave me courage. So I just thought okay, but I knew that I was going to come in and definitely have step my game up a lot. A lot of people do think, ‘Oh, you perform to millions of people and you must be so confident’, but actually you have to gear yourself up.

"The Sugababes, are actually known as the girl band who didn't dance so I want people to know that, because the comments that I get on Instagram say, ‘This is going on this be so easy for her’. But when we all get together and rehearse, I feel like I've struggled the most."

The Sugababes star will take to the dance floor alongside a host of other celebrities including Dan Snow, Sally Nugent, Jamie Borthwick, Danny Cipriani and Tillie Amartey. Nadiya Bychkova is paired with Dan, Graziano Di Prima with Sally, Nancy Xu with Jamie, Neil Jones with Tillie, and Jowita Przystal will perform with Danny.

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Charlotte McIntyre