As reported on the official American Idol website Carrie Underwood will sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl next week.

Here’s what they had to say:

Carrie Underwood will sing the National Anthem as part of the Super Bowl XLIV pregame festivities at Sun Life Stadium in South Florida on Sunday, February 7, the NFL announced today. The performance will be televised live prior to kickoff.

More than 151 million viewers in the U.S. watched last year’s Super Bowl, the most-watched television program in history. The pregame show and Super Bowl XLIV will be broadcast worldwide in more than 230 countries and territories.

Carrie is among many great performers who have been honored with singing the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, and this makes a total of three years in a row that the Anthem singer is an American Idol alumni! Jordin Sparks was the first American Idol alum to sing it, when two years ago the game was played in her hometown of Glendale, Arizona. Last year, Jennifer Hudson performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl game in Tampa, Florida.

A four-time Grammy Award winner, a member of the Grand Ole Opry, the 2009 Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year, and three-time CMA and ACM Female Vocalist winner, Carrie Underwood has amassed more than 11 million in U.S. album sales since her debut CD in 2005, more than any other American Idol winner. Along the way, she has consistently broken new ground and became the first country artist in history to achieve eleven consecutive #1 singles.

What do you think? Do you think Carrie Underwood is the right choice? Leave your comments below.

Source: http://www.americanidol.com/news/view/pid/2567/

DANNY YOUNG
AGE: 23
OCCUPATION: ACTOR
SKATING PARTNER: FRANKIE POULTNEY

“It’s not as if I am ever going to do this again so I’ll happily embrace the costumes and it’s going to be gold lame and feather boas all the way for me!”

Former Coronation Street star Danny Young (who played footy-mad Warren Baldwin) has very special reason for doing the show – he will be skating in the memory of his much-loved grandmother.

‘My nan passed away a little while ago and she was a massive fan of Torvill and Dean. So that was one the reasons I wanted to be on the show and I will be doing it for her. When I was offered the job I saw that as a little bit of a sign and, bless her, she would have been buzzing if she knew I was working with Jayne and Chris. She would’ve been so happy for me. So while I’m sad she won’t be in the audience to see me strut my stuff, I’m sure she’ll be watching down on me from somewhere and cheering me on!’

‘The thing is that if I fall over in training with Frankie then we have a laugh about it. But if I fall over on the first live show it could mean that I get low scores, the public may think I’m not very good and my journey could be over all because I fell. So it all starts to get very serious and I don’t want to make a total plum of myself.

‘Everyone keeps asking me if I think I’m one of the best skaters but from the few bits I’ve seen of the other contestants I would say I’m around the middle mark. Actually, so long as I don’t get voted off in the first week and as long as I have time to improve as the weeks go by then I’ll be happy. Am I competitive? I think all blokes are. But I’m not striving to win at the moment. Of course I’d be well chuffed and amazed and really happy if I did. But you know what, as long as I don’t walk off the ice thinking ‘if only I’d worked harder’ then I’ll be a happy bunny. So long as I think ‘I did all I can do but there are better people than me’ then that’s fair enough.

‘To be honest, my first time on the ice was very scary. I was chit – chatting and waddling around and unsure I was going to be able to do it. You do kind of think you’re never going to get any better. So now I have improved I am definitely enjoying it more. Every day I wake up and I’m looking forward to skating.

‘But at the same time I am mentally and physically drained. I had no idea how full-on it would be when I signed up. Because I go to the gym quite a lot and I play a lot of football, I thought I’d be able to cope with the training, but I was clearly wrong. When you’re skating you are using totally different muscles to any other kind of sport, so after every training session my knees – and most of the rest of my body actually – are constantly aching. Going to the gym is child’s play compared to this and anyone who looks down on ice skating as an easy option should give it a go. They might be in for a shock because it’s easily the most gruelling thing I have ever done.’

While his grandmother may not be there to see him skate, the rest of Danny’s family are looking forward to being in the front row and cheering him on. He says:

‘My mum is very excited, bless her cotton socks. But she’s always behind me, with her I could say I’m going to sell lemonade on the other side of the street and she’d be proud of me. My dad is really getting into it too and he’s now calling me his very own little Billy Elliott.

‘I think once all my friends and family see me in the costumes I’ll never hear the end of it. But I am going to embrace the sequins – the costume guy asked me if I had a problem with a bit of sparkle and I just thought: ‘Do you know what? This is a once in a lifetime experience – just go for it.’ It’s not as if I am ever going to do this again so I’ll happily embrace the costumes and it’s going to be gold lame and feather boas all the way for me!’

JEREMY SHEFFIELD
AGE: 43
OCCUPATION: ACTOR
SKATING PARTNER: SUSIE LIPANOVA

“Of course in my mind I am still 20 years old at the height of fitness and think I can do everything. And then suddenly I rip a hamstring and it’s quite clear I’m not!”

He won a place at the Royal Ballet School when he was 10 and by the age of 17 he’d joined the Royal Ballet where he remained until he turned to acting a decade later. But even a background in dance couldn’t prepare Jeremy Sheffield for the sheer frustration of learning how to figure skate.
‘It’s horrible, it’s so frustrating!’ he says, laughing. ‘The first time I went on the ice I was all over the place and even managed to fall flat on my face when I met Torvill & Dean. How much more embarrassing can it get? And that was in front of the cameras too: I could tell the producers were rejoicing going: ‘Yippee, the first person has already fallen over and made a fool of himself.’

‘I think for me the most difficult thing about learning to ice skate has to be the frustration. Obviously I haven’t danced for ten years and I’m sure if I tried to do classical ballet now I’d make a fool of myself and be awful as well. In my mind I can feel how ballet should be and it’s the same with skating, but skating is just a lot more difficult to get right because you are flailing around on the ice and barely able to stand up.

‘Dancing is the thing I know best in the world so I have a picture in my mind of each routine but then I get up and try it on the ice and it’s a million miles away from what it should look like which is a horrible feeling really. I know what I want to do, I know how it should look, but I just cannot make it happen which is so frustrating.’

The former Holby medic quit ballet aged 27 after a series of injuries. Similarly, injury nearly forced him to pull out of Dancing On Ice only with only weeks to go before the live shows.

‘Basically I was stretching and joking around with my partner Susie and then bang, my hamstring went. That wasn’t too bad because I’ve done that before, what I then did which was so stupid was to carry on. The next day I trained for two hours and by the end of that session I was trying to do quite a simple move and obviously not being very good I was off balance and tired and all of a sudden all the muscles came into play and it just felt like something had exploded in my leg. It was a sharp tear in my hamstring and very painful indeed.

‘As a ballet dancer you spend half your career injured, so I could tell it was something serious. But luckily muscles heal themselves relatively quickly and I was back on the ice about two weeks later. But it was very frustrating time and I felt quite miserable not knowing if I’d have to drop out completely because I’d been so looking forward to the whole experience.

‘While there are lots of aspects of the dancing world that I don’t miss at all, I did miss that sense of fitness and attention to detail that you have in ballet. I do things like yoga but I’m actually a bit lazy and unless someone makes me go to classes I only go once a month. So this seemed like a great opportunity to get back to that world of hard physical training and graft. Of course in my mind I am still 20 years old at the height of fitness and think I can do everything. And then suddenly I rip a hamstring and it’s quite clear I’m not!’

A self-confessed perfectionist, Jeremy says his progress on the ice is all thanks to the patience and skill of his skating partner, Susie. He explains:

‘Susie is great because she’s started doing this thing when I’m working myself up into a frenzy and there’s lots of cursing and stamping of feet going on. Basically she does this thing where she just walks off the ice and goes and gets a cup of tea. That’s just the sort of pragmatic person I need because it stops me in my tracks from acting like a petulant child. She says she wouldn’t put up with that kind of behaviour from her five year old son so she’s not going to put up with it from me!’

KIERON RICHARDSON
AGE: 23
OCCUPATION: HOLLYOAKS ACTOR
SKATING PARTNER: BRIANNE DELCOURT

“When I get nervous my legs turn like jelly – and jelly and ice don’t really mix do they?’

Hollyoaks actor Kieron Richardson says he’s been beefing up for his new role on the ice because he doesn’t want to drop his skating partner.

‘My partner Brianne is making me go to the gym everyday to work on my arms and upper body strength to help me with my lifts because I was panicking about that,’ explains Kieron.

‘The first time I met Brianne she jumped on me straight away and I thought: ‘Phew, I can lift her’ but it was still a bit wobbly. But lifting someone on the ice and skating at the same time, keeping your body upright and trying not to look totally panicked on your face is a whole different ball game. So I need to have the strength be able to get those lifts right and do it with confidence. Because if I drop her and she breaks something, I’ve ruined her career forever. So there’s a lot of pressure there for me to get it right.

‘I’ve really enjoyed training but at first I thought I was going to be terrible because my stamina and strength aren’t very good as I never used to go to the gym and didn’t do any kind of exercise whatsoever. I was like a slob at home and would just sit there shovelling food down my neck in front of the TV. So it has been completely alien to me having to train on the ice and at the gym everyday and doing all these exercises as well which are absolutely killing me. My life now consists of going to work at Hollyoaks, then the ice rink, then the gym and basically trying to catch a few hours sleep in between before it all starts again the next day.

‘I really didn’t think it would be as hard work as it is. I hadn’t expected the training to be so intense and I didn’t think I’d be doing it every single day. I was expecting just a couple of hours each week. How naive was I, eh?

There’s been so much information that I’ve had to take in and I picked it up quite easily at the start. But now I feel like I’ve hit a wall. I don’t seem to be picking anything up anymore which I’m worried about as the live shows are looming. But I’m quietly confident about our routine for the first show. I’ve got it in my head, the only thing is it’s a bit sloppy so I just need to work on tidying it up. My only issue now about when we go live is my nerves. Because when I get nervous my legs turn like jelly and jelly and ice don’t really mix – do they?’

So, thanks to his new fitness regime is Kieron now looking all buffed-up in his ice costume? He laughs: ‘Put it this way, there is not an inch of flab on me. It’s just mainly skin and bones and there’s still absolutely no sign of toning or definition! Actually, I tried my costume on for the first time yesterday and I thought I was going to hate it. When I saw it hanging there on the rail I was like: ‘There is no way I’m wearing that!’ Mainly because it was fuchsia pink, it was just hilarious. The costume guy said well at least you’re the first person to get the pink out of the way and I tried it on and do you know what, I like it now…it brings out my eyes,’ he adds, grinning.

In order to hone his skating technique Kieron reveals he’s been glued to the internet watching Dancing On Ice clips as well taking tips from another former Hollyoaks contestant.

‘I’ve spoken to Chris Fountain a few times and he said the most important thing of all is to try and enjoy everything because it’s a great experience. He also said not to panic too much because the live shows aren’t as scary as they look. Anyway, I’ve already decided that if I do fall over on the live show I’m just going to lie there and pretend I’m practising for the Bolero. I’ll just pretend I got confused and thought I was in the final!’

‘To win would be amazing but in my head I can’t ever see that happening, because I’ve been watching people’s performances from previous years on YouTube for weeks and weeks now and each week they get better and better – people like Ray Quinn, Chris Fountain and Gareth Gates. I just can’t see myself being that good.

GARY LUCY
AGE: 28
OCCUPATION: ACTOR
SKATING PARTNER: MARIA FILIPPOV

“I’m not a dancer and I’m not a skater, so while I’m a blank canvas for them to work with, I am also way out of my depth.”

His mates are already taking the mickey out of his decision to do Dancing On Ice – but there’s only one audience member that Gary Lucy wants to impress and that’s his four year old daughter, India.

‘She’s so excited and can’t hide it, so she has been the toughest one to keep quiet about me doing the show, because obviously I had to keep it a secret for quite a long time. I’d go and pick her up from school and the teachers would say she’d been telling everyone that daddy’s been ice skating and then the teachers all wanted to know if I was doing Dancing On Ice and I had to swear to them that I wasn’t!

‘When I get home after training, my daughter comes running up to me all excited going: ‘What did you do today, Daddy?’. So I lift her up and spin her round and show her. She loves it and when we watch Dancing On Ice on telly she re-enacts all the different routines for us around the living room. When we start the live shows, even if I’m rubbish, I’m sure in her eyes whatever I do it’ll be okay so that’s all that matters to me.’

Meanwhile Gary reveals his mates might be harder to please: ‘They’re all giving me a hard time already. I think they are looking forward to seeing me on it, but maybe not for the right reasons. They think I’m going to make an absolute fool of myself and will be praying for me to fall on my backside in the first week, there will be no support at all I can guarantee it,’ he adds, laughing. ‘They’re just out to have a good laugh at my expense. And to be honest, that kind of spurs me on a little bit to make sure it’s not as bad as they think it’s going to be. If I can win them over, then that will be the biggest feat of all.’

After four years on The Bill as DC Will Fletcher Gary admits he’s looking forward to letting his hair down and having some fun on the ice.

‘It’s a challenge for me because I’ve done TV dramas for the last 11 years and in drama everything thing is much more contained and restrained. You don’t really get to throw your arms around in the air, wear sequins and be theatrical in The Bill. But I just fancied doing something totally different, the fun aspect appealed to me as did the opportunity to be taught by a couple of legends such as Christopher and Jayne, it’s worth doing it for them alone.

‘But skating is much more difficult than I thought it was going to be and I’m really nervous about messing up on the live shows. I’m not a dancer and I’m not a skater, so while I’m a blank canvas for them to work with, I am also way out of my depth. As an actor I’m used to doing what I’m told and hitting my mark, no problem. But when it comes to throwing your arm in the air at the same time as pointing your leg in the opposite direction, my brain doesn’t really compute.

‘The worse thing to happen for me would be if I forget what I’m doing live on national television. I have this bad habit I’m slipping into of stopping when I can’t get it and obviously Maria is telling me: ‘No, you don’t stop. You carry on regardless. Only you know you’ve cocked up, but once you stop everyone else does as well.’

‘I used to roller-skate as a kid which I think might help a bit, but at the same being on eight wheels on solid ground is totally different to being on two blades on the ice. I’m generally reasonably sporty so I think that helps a bit as well, but I am still way out of my comfort zone. Put it this way, if it was a race from one end of the rink to the other I would have every confidence. It’s all the stuff in between that I’m finding difficult.’

But one thing Gary isn’t phased by is the glitz and glamour of the Dancing On Ice costumes. He says: ‘Over the years I’ve worn some bizarre outfits when I’ve been acting and I’ve been down to my underpants or just plain naked, which is about as embarrassing as it gets. Actually in Footballers Wives I once had to wear a skirt and a turban in the same scene and I don’t think it gets much worse than that. After wearing a skirt I think I can handle a few sequins, no problem!’

DR HILARY JONES
AGE: 56
OCCUPATION: GMTV DOCTOR
SKATING PARTNER: ALEXANDRA SHAUMAN

“Have I got rhythm? I don’t know yet. I’ve certainly never been complimented on my dancing. I would say I’m not quite Mr Bean but neither am I John Travolta.”

GMTV medic Hilary Jones has revealed the main thing that’s worrying him about going on Dancing On Ice is whether he will even be able to stay upright.

‘To sum things up I would say progress has been slow. Four weeks ago I couldn’t even stand up on the frozen water and but now I can put my boots on on my own which is a major step forward…’ he jokes. ‘I think I spent the first three weeks thinking what the hell have I done and I would say it’s only in the last week that I’ve started to enjoy the experience, so I’m slightly nervous about what those pesky judges are going to make of my skating style.

‘I’ve always been a fairly humble kind of bloke and the judges know what they are talking about, so if they want to tell me I am rubbish then I will accept that I am. And if they take the mickey then I will understand that too, because that’s probably exactly what I would do in their position, so it’s par for the cause. But it will be intriguing to see what they have to say and if they can find anything vaguely good to say then I will be thrilled.

‘My other problem is that because you’re training under the gaze of a professional skater all the time who is watching your every move, they have to keep saying to me: ‘Hilary, it’s quite important to breathe.’ Because I’m concentrating so hard I keep holding my breath, I’m not even conscious of it. So I am clearly quite tense when I’m on the ice.

‘Have I got rhythm? I don’t know yet. I’ve certainly never been complimented on my dancing. I would say I’m not quite Mr Bean but neither am I John Travolta so it remains to be seen whether I have rhythm and I’m still trying to stand up vertically on the ice so there’s a long way to go yet. At the moment I’ll be quite happy if I manage to stay upright. I’d be really chuffed if that happened because I would really rather not make a total ass of myself.’

Hilary has been throwing himself into the Dancing On Ice experience with gusto:

‘I’ve probably been on ice for a total of 20 minutes in my entire life. That would’ve been on an ice rink on a skiing trip at school over thirty years ago and maybe once for a GMTV production a few years ago where I just had to stand there. I didn’t actually have to skate. So that, combined with maybe slipping on ice on a cold winter’s morning outside my front door, is the extent of my experience.

‘I do believe that not enough doctors actually practice what they preach and get off their bums and do something to keep fit. So part of my reason for doing this was to show people how good it is to do some exercise and that you can have some fun at the same time.

‘Plus I’ve always thought it’s important to learn something new every now and again. My main sport used to be rowing, I’ve learnt to play squash and enjoyed that, I swam the Great North Swim at Lake Windermere this year and last year and learning to windsurf was great as well. So when a challenge like this comes along and it’s something you’ve never done and never considered before, you have to give it a go. Where else would you get the chance to have a champion figure skater teach you to skate for two hours a day?

‘It’s a great opportunity but I don’t think people realise how full-on exercise skating is because it looks quite easy, but by God it is the most difficult sport I have ever attempted by far. Because when I play squash I don’t care how I look. I just play the game. Here you’ve not only got to skate, you’ve got to look stylish as well. It’s no good just getting around quickly. You’ve actually got to look graceful and smile and (as I mentioned before) remember to breathe all at the same time. There’s an awful lot to think about and I think the reason some of us feel so tired after a training session is that the concentration required is so intense, there is a lot of mental skill required as well. But I think perhaps breathing is the most important thing for me at the moment – I don’t think I’ll get very far if I forget to breathe!’

BOBBY DAVRO
AGE: 51
OCCUPATION: COMEDIAN & EX-EASTENDER
SKATING PARTNER: MOLLY MOENKHOFF

“I’m 51, I’m not an athlete and I’m not a sportsman. I’m a comedian – I’m built for comedy. Please take that into consideration everyone!’

Comedian Bobby Davro reveals that when it comes to the live shows he’ll be playing it for laughs.

‘I’m not in there to show people how brilliant I am, I’m in there to entertain and that’s hopefully what I will bring to the show,’ he says. ‘I’m going to have some fun with it. I’m sure I’m not going to win but I don’t want to go out the first week either. I’d like to stay in for a few weeks because of all the effort I’ve put in. I’m not expecting to get anywhere near the final but to get halfway would be great. I’ve got more chance of being handcuffed to a ghost than making the final. But people do like to see someone fall over and make an idiot of themselves and there is every chance I will be that person this year. Trying to make idiots like me look good on a pair of skates isn’t the easiest thing to do but I’m trying. I certainly won’t be the best one, but I’d like to think I won’t be the worst one either. All I will say it at this stage I’m better than Todd Carty ever was!
‘One of my mates came to see me in training a while ago and he nearly wet himself when he saw me on the ice. I’ve got a lot better since then and now I’d say my skating style is more like Ozzy Osbourne in the way he shuffles around the place.’
Despite a lifetime on the comedy circuit, Bobby insists Dancing On Ice is his toughest gig yet.
‘It is the hardest thing I have ever done. Physically hard. Plus I’ve been suffering terribly from cramp in my feet which is excruciatingly painful and won’t go away. Sometimes it lasts for the whole session which just spoils it for me. But I’m not going to whinge. I’ve learnt an awful lot and I’m enjoying it more every time I get on the ice. I really feel like I am achieving something even I’m a bit scared of doing myself an injury. At my age it’s not as easy as the youngsters find it, so I’ve decided I’m representing the dads. Hopefully all the fathers that think they’re not doing anything with their kids will see it’s never too late to get up and learn something new.
‘My kids are thrilled I’m on the show and can’t wait to come along. My youngest daughter loves skating and that’s the best thing for me about being trained to do this – that I’ve learnt something I can do with my daughter. I said to her: ‘I’m learning to skate for the show and I’ll make you proud of me’ and she just replied: ‘Daddy, I’m already proud of you.’ That was a lovely moment for me, it really was and means so much more to me than what the judges think. I know they’re going to criticise me and that Jason Gardiner loves to have a go doesn’t he? I don’t mind what he says, I can accept it. You can’t take it too seriously and as long as I’ve showed that I’ve tried I don’t mind him saying I’m crap because I probably am crap.’ he adds, chuckling.
‘Look, at the end of the day we are all there to entertain and if what he’s saying is constructive then fine, if it’s destroying someone for the sake of it then I will have a go back. But I’ve got to be careful. I’ve spent my life putting people down and making jokes about them, so if I’ve dished it out I’ve got to be prepared to take it haven’t I?
‘There are going to be a few people who know me well with smiles on their faces when they see me in my costumes. I never thought I was vain before but I looked at myself in my first outfit and I thought I could do with losing a few pounds. That lycra stuff isn’t very flattering. It sort of clings a bit. I’m not obese but I could do with losing half a stone, although I haven’t got enough hours in the day to go to the gym or the energy. I’m 51, I’m not an athlete and I’m not a sportsman. I’m a comedian – I’m built for comedy. Please take that into consideration everyone!’

DANNIELLA WESTBROOK
OCCUPATION: ACTRESS
AGE: 36
SKATING PARTNER: MATTHEW GONZALEZ

“You know, I’m 36 now. I think I’ll leave having all the cleavage on show to the younger contestants!”

EastEnders star Danniella Westbrook reveals appearing on Dancing On Ice will mean conquering one of her greatest fears.

‘I don’t do theatre and I don’t do live shows because I can’t bear them. The idea of going on telly and doing this live is a living hell for me. It’s my greatest fear and on the night of the first show I know I’ll be cr*pping myself. I’m frightened, absolutely petrified of cocking up. You only get one shot at it and if you muck it up, that’s it. So it’ll be a real challenge to get out on the ice and get through it. But to force myself to do this is going to be a positive thing for me, because I really want to conquer this fear once and for all,’ admits Danniella.

‘I’m having a bit of a love-hate relationship with the whole experience so far. What I’m really enjoying is the actual skating and I came out of training this morning at half nine and I’d been there since half six and I felt great. I felt so alive, you know, that feeling where you think anything is possible and I even considered going to the gym straight afterwards because I was so full of energy. But then later everything starts to seize up – my ankles and the balls of my feet are the worst – and I end up lying in a hot bath for ages groaning because everything is aching so much.

‘I was dreading falling for the first time because you think you’re going to hurt yourself and then when it happens you realise you were right – it really does hurt like hell. Especially when you’re going quite fast and when I fall I tend to land quite badly on my thighs and ribs.’

‘When I signed up for this I imagined it was going to be pretty hard work, but Dancing On Ice is harder than any other show because ultimately it’s a completely different ballgame because the people that do this for a living are sportsmen, ice skating is a sport. As an actor or actress you just learn your lines and turn up, give your performance and that’s it. Whereas with this you’ve got to do the dance, skate, perform, remember your routine and most importantly do everything you can to make sure you don’t fall on your backside. It’s really difficult. There’s a lot riding on this, you’ve got to stay upright and the slightest mis-step on your blade could turn the whole thing into a disaster zone.

‘But at the same time I’m in it to learn something new, have a challenge and push myself and just enjoy it. What a great opportunity to learn to ice skate and the best thing about it all of course is to be able to have one to one tuition from Jayne and Chris. It doesn’t get much better than that. To be able to stand there and watch them pull a routine out of the bag, well, it’s an amazing pinch-me once in a lifetime experience.’

After making a highly anticipated return to Walford in September as troublesome Sam Mitchell, Danniella says these days she likes to challenge herself.

‘It was so nice to be back at EastEnders this year and now it feels good to be going from that straight into something completely different that’s also completely out of my comfort zone. Compared to EastEnders where we had a giggle this is pretty intense and everyone at EastEnders thinks I’m a bit crazy doing it!’ she adds, laughing.

So after the doom and gloom of Walford, is Danniella looking forward to the glitz and glamour of the ice rink? She says: ‘To be quite honest glitz and glamour isn’t really my bag anymore. I said to the guy who does the costumes that I want to be quite covered up. I told him I don’t want it all hanging out. You know, I’m 36 now. I think I’ll leave having all the cleavage on show to the younger contestants!’

HAYLEY TAMADDON
AGE: 32
OCCUPATION: ACTRESS
SKATING PARTNER: DANIEL WHISTON

“It’s a dream come true for me to do this. Injury or no injury, you’ll have to drag me off the ice by my hair to stop me doing this show!”

The ex-Emmerdale star reveals she had a secret schoolgirl crush on her skating partner when they grew up together in Blackpool – and now finally having the chance to dance with Daniel is a dream come true.

‘For me this is more than just another job, I’ve wanted to do this for such a long time and I dreamt about skating with Dan as a 12 year old,’ admits Hayley.

‘We met when I went to a little theatre school that was based in the back of the ice rink in Blackpool where Daniel trained. I used to be so wrapped up in the skating and would just stand and watch him and love it. I remember he used to have a massive bouffant hairdo which was hilarious and he wore big glasses too. I suppose he looked a bit like Harry Potter but with blond hair,’ she adds, laughing. ‘Not that I looked that great when I was that age. I had way too much curly hair and probably a monobrow if I remember correctly!

‘One day we got talking and he said I should give skating a go and but my mum wouldn’t let me so I used to just go and watch him doing his shows instead and we became really good mates. Actually, I remember once I auditioned for a little part in one of Dan’s shows because they wanted someone to stand in the middle of the ice on a podium and do some acting. I auditioned for it because I was desperate to skate with Dan and I had a bit of a secret crush on him truth be told when I was that age, but I never got the part. I really wanted to do it but my friend got it instead. So to have come all this way down the line and to finally be able to skate with him is just phenomenal.

‘We had a good few years when we were younger when we were together every day and as adults we’ve seen each other every now and again. But now all these years later it just feels like we’ve gone full circle, we’ve fallen back into the same relationship and it’s so weird. Daniel keeps saying: ‘Every time I’m with you I feel naughty, I feel like we’re 12 again.’ Because all we do is laugh. I’m amazed we have actually got anything done. But spending so much time with Daniel after so long has been amazing and when we found out we were going to be partners on Dancing On Ice it was just the best news ever, it was unbelievable.’

Although Hayley says there wasn’t much laughter when she suffered her first major injury in the ice – in fact laughing was almost a physical impossibility:

‘We were trying a new lift over and over again and one time Dan went to put me down and my top half kind of stretched away from my bottom half and I heard this nasty pop. I couldn’t move and I could feel my back going into spasms which was horrible. What happened was that my muscles had popped away from my ribs and for about a week afterwards I was finding it difficult to breathe and I couldn’t cough or anything like that. Even now every time I go to laugh. I’m having to hold my sides because it’s so painful. And don’t even get me started on sneezing, that’s just impossible.

‘So it has been a nightmare and I can’t do any lifts for the time being, which is a bit of a shock to the system and your confidence does suffer when things like this start to go wrong. I never even knew your ribs could pop like that, but you’re using these muscles that you’ve never used before so I suppose your body just isn’t used to it.

‘Being injured has held me back from training properly which hasn’t helped my nerves and I’m just praying right now it gets better in time. There is no way I’m missing out on this experience because as I said earlier, it’s a dream come true for me to do this. Injury or no injury, you’ll have to drag me off the ice by my hair to stop me doing this show!’

SINITTA
AGE: 41
OCCUPATION: SINGER
SKATING PARTNER: ANDREI LIPANOV

“I don’t care how crazy, silly, ridiculous or mad I look, I would definitely want to break out one of my most bonkers Sinitta outfits “

After a lifetime of fabulous outfits culminating in the wonderfully jaw-dropping ensemble worn on The X Factor this year, where a naked Sinitta was clad only in some carefully arranged palm leaves, it’s probably no surprise that it was the costumes rather than the skating that initially attracted the 80s popstar to Dancing On Ice.

‘I would place the blame squarely on the costumes for the fact that I’m doing this show because when the idea came up, that’s all I was seeing. All I could think about was me twirling about on the ice looking pretty in lovely sparkly dresses. I didn’t really think about the skating bit…’ she admits, laughing.

‘So I’ve promised the producers that if by some miracle I was to do extremely well in the show then I would want to go for it with the costumes. I don’t care how crazy, silly, ridiculous or mad I look, I would definitely want to break out one of my most bonkers Sinitta outfits and celebrate any success I might have in style.’

While the So Macho singer seems to have got the costume situation in hand, she reveals that learning to skate has been much more of a challenge.

‘I wanted to do the show because I’m a big fan, particularly watching Ray Quinn last year who was our baby when he was in our category on The X Factor. He was just a little boy when we worked with him and then watching him transform into this muscled hunk spinning girls around and doing split jumps and landing on one blade on Dancing On Ice – well, I got so emotional I actually cried watching him in the final.

‘I suppose because it all looks so beautiful on TV and the skaters look so lovely spinning around it made me think: ‘Oh I want to do that.’ But you forget that it involves a lot of hard work. What I realise now is that it’s one thing to be watching it at home on the sofa and a very different thing to be on the ice actually doing it.

‘My first major fall happened the very first time I went on the ice with Torvill and Dean. At the time I was so embarrassed that I tried not to make a fuss but I was really in pain actually. Interestingly the only other time I’ve fallen was in front of them again when we had to show them what we’d learned over the last five weeks and for the first time ever Andrei and I fell on top of each other. I don’t know why but Jayne and Chris just seem to have this effect on me. I must keep away from them in the future!’ She jokes.

‘As someone who is used to performing, being on the ice is quite frustrating for me because in my head it’s all wonderful and you can really feel the music and you want to perform it to the best of your ability. But of course when you get out there on the ice suddenly you are like this person who doesn’t have any feet. You’ve got blades instead, which changes everything. So I think I need to ease up on myself and understand that restriction instead of thinking that I can somehow overcome it.

‘I’m definitely getting better every week but I got very, very frustrated the other day and was on the brink of tears trying to learn to let go and do these three turns on my own. It’s very frightening and I just kept thinking I was going to break my neck so the fear and frustration was overwhelming and I think it all started to get to me. Then there was another time a few weeks ago when I had horrible flu and I had to go to rehearsals in a surgical mask type thing so I wouldn’t give it to Andrei and it was laughable because I just looked so ridiculous. I was so sick that in any normal circumstances I would’ve stayed at home in bed. But because I can’t bear to miss a day of skating and I get in such a panic about being behind, I couldn’t stay in bed. I was having anxiety attacks so I got out of bed, put on the mask and turned up at skating and tried not to sneeze all over him.

‘I can’t even bring myself to think about the live shows – I find it laughable that I’m going to be skating on TV in front of an audience of millions and that it’s supposed to be entertainment. Well, it will be entertainment but probably not in the way I intended. Actually, I’ve been told I’m quite elegant on the ice but I’ve got this riot going on in my head – it feels explosive and crazy and really stressful, because there’s just so much to remember. So while I’m loving the challenge, it just feels utterly crazy that we’re going to be doing this live on television.’

After sitting behind the X Factor judges every week and seeing the contestants’ fear up-close, Sinitta admits she isn’t looking forward to facing the Ice panel.

She sighs: ‘I’m trying not to think about the drama of being judged in public. It’s such a cruel thing, I don’t think they should have that bit because we’ve got enough to worry about without having to listen to them laying into us. Especially Jason. He’s like the Simon in this isn’t he? I think I’m just going to have to wear cotton wool in my ears.’

Talking of Simon Cowell, Sinitta reveals that when she told him she was competing on this year’s show, he was gobsmacked:

‘I managed to keep it a secret for a while until I finally told Simon and he said: ‘Are you out of your mind?’ and seemed quite shocked about the whole thing. I’m not sure if that’s because he thinks it’s funny or if he thinks I’m going to embarrass him because he knows I can’t skate. Well, I can definitely skate better now than I ever could so I asked him if he’ll come and watch the show. He said he would if I made the final – but I’ve got a feeling I may have to persuade him to come down a bit sooner than that!’