{"id":1953591,"date":"2025-08-11T08:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1953591"},"modified":"2025-08-11T08:03:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T08:03:35","slug":"bbc-strictly-come-dancing-line-up-as-first-celebrity-contestant-confirmed-for-2025-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/bbc-strictly-come-dancing-line-up-as-first-celebrity-contestant-confirmed-for-2025-series\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Strictly Come Dancing line-up as first celebrity contestant confirmed for 2025 series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<h2 class=\"LeadText_lead-text__wd_PA __className_0e0312\" data-testid=\"leadtext\">The celebrity contestants heading for the BBC dance contest&#8217;s ballroom this year are being confirmed<\/h2>\n<div class=\"Byline_byline-container__K_Owl\" data-testid=\"byline\"><span data-testid=\"byline-content\" class=\"Byline_byline-content-wrapper__Imque\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"Byline_author-badge-date-wrapper__Q7jj1\">\n<p><span class=\"\" data-testid=\"byline-publishedDate\">08:26, 11 Aug 2025<\/span><span class=\"Byline_updated-date__8vEV8 Byline_updated-date-with-published__ApG_G\" data-testid=\"byline-updatedDate\">Updated 08:26, 11 Aug 2025<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article29694523.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615\/4_395594.jpg\" alt=\"Strictly Come Dancing\" loading=\"eager\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article29694523.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s508\/4_395594.jpg 508w, https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article29694523.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615\/4_395594.jpg 615w,&#10;          https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article29694523.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1023\/4_395594.jpg 810w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 508px) 508px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 810px\"\/><span class=\"ImageEmbed_camera-style__Qjeby\"><\/span><span class=\"ImageEmbed_caption-title__FSINC\">Strictly Come Dancing is back for 2025<\/span><span class=\"ImageEmbed_caption-credit__uNiU6\">(Image: BBC)<\/span><\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The line-up of celebrities heading for the ballroom in<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/strictly-come-dancing\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\"> Strictly Come Dancing<\/a> is officially being revealed as fans seemingly had to wait longer for the announcements to begin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The sun may be shining, but we can already feel the autumn nights approaching, during which we&#8217;ll have the sounds of &#8216;Da-da-da-da-da-da-daah&#8217; filling our eardrums until Christmas<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/bbc\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"BBCLink opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\">BBC<\/a> One dance contest is now a matter of weeks away from returning to screens and up until now, all fans have known is that Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will be back as hots, with Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse, Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke returning to the judging panel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Those who follow the hit show also know which professional dancers will be back in the ballroom this year. It was back in April that Amy Dowden, Nadiya Bychkova, Karen Hauer, Nikita Kuzmin, Neil Jones, Gorka Marquez and Luba Mushtuk were confirmed to be involved in the 2025 series.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Dianne Buswell, Katya Jones, Jowita Przystal, Johannes Radebe, Michelle Tsiakkas, Alja\u017e \u0160korjanec, Kai Widdrington, Nancy Xu, Carlos Gu, Lauren Oakley and Vito Coppola will also take to the ballroom once more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">But that wasn&#8217;t actually the complete line-up, as when the initial announcement was made, it was also revealed that <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/tv\/strictly-come-dancing-reveals-two-32146342\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\">two brand new professional dancers <\/a>will be making their debuts when the competition show returns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The newcomers have since been revealed as So You Think You Can Dance champion Alexis Warr and Australia\u2019s Dancing With The Stars&#8217; Julian Caillon and<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/tv\/strictly-come-dancings-new-dancers-32150050\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\"> they were seen joining the pros in preparation for Strictly&#8217;s next run<\/a>, with the group numbers set to be pre-recorded before the main series gets underway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Now though, the first celebrity contestant for Strictly 2025 has been confirmed as Gladiator Nitro, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey will be switching out the battleground for the ballroom.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"image-group\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX false\" data-testid=\"imageembed-32239391\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article32239391.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/0_ECR_110825_gladiatornitro.jpg\" alt=\"Harry Aikines-Aryeetey \" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article32239391.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s458b\/0_ECR_110825_gladiatornitro.jpg 458w, https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article32239391.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/0_ECR_110825_gladiatornitro.jpg 615w,&#10;          https:\/\/i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/article32239391.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/0_ECR_110825_gladiatornitro.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 458px) 458px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\"\/><span class=\"ImageEmbed_camera-style__Qjeby\"><\/span><span class=\"ImageEmbed_caption-title__FSINC\">Olympian and Gladiators star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey is the first confirmed contestant of Strictly 2025<\/span><span class=\"ImageEmbed_caption-credit__uNiU6\">(Image: BBC)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The multi gold medal-winning Team GB sprinter has already appeared on Strictly once before as he took part in last year&#8217;s Christmas special with Nancy Xu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Harry shared: &#8220;After the Christmas Special, it was so nice I just had to do it twice! I\u2019m so excited to be part of the Strictly family this series and I\u2019m ready to give it all I\u2019ve got. I\u2019ll be bringing tons of energy to light up the dance floor. Let\u2019s hope I\u2019m as quick picking up the routines as I am on the track.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">This story will be updated as more celebs are announced.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The celebrity contestants heading for the BBC dance contest&#8217;s ballroom this year are being confirmed 08:26, 11 Aug 2025Updated 08:26, 11 Aug 2025 Strictly Come Dancing is back for 2025(Image: BBC) The line-up of celebrities heading for the ballroom in Strictly Come Dancing is officially being revealed as fans seemingly had to wait longer for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1953592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[25507,30156,21913],"class_list":["post-1953591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-bbc","tag-strictly-come-dancing","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/BBC-Strictly-Come-Dancing-line-up-as-first-celebrity-contestant-confirmed.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1953591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1953591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1953592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1953591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1953591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1953591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}