Welcome to Pure Dancing with the Stars

I don’t want to brag, but I do want to point out how right my predictions were about the music that would be performed on tonight’s Dancing with the Stars. Actually I really surprised myself when my predictions were dead on. The only one I missed was that Aretha Franklin would do 2 songs. Honestly, I was just amazed with the incredible talent DWTS is able to bring to the show. Here’s the full list of songs sung:

Aretha Franklin sang “Chain of Fools” while Karina Smirnoff, Anna Trebunskaya, Louis van Amstel & Dmitry Chaplin danced.

Leona Lewis sang “Bleeding Love” while Maksim Chmerkovskiy & Karina Smirnoff danced.

Julianne Hough sang “My Hallelujah Song” while Derek Hough, Mark Ballas & Lacey Schwimmer danced.

John Legend sang “Green Light” while John Legend’s dancers performed.

Aretha Franklin sang “Respect” while Kristi Yamaguchi & Mark Ballas danced.

This was an interesting video to see Nigel Lythgoe talking about Dancing with the Stars. He touches on some interesting issues about SYTYCD stars making the move over to Dancing with the Stars including Lacey Schwimmer and even the possibility of Chelsie Hightower being on the show. Chelsie is beautiful and would be an interesting addition to the show. Nigel also talked about fat dancers and what he thought about people calling Lacey Schwimmer a fat dancer.

Check out the video of Nigel:
Read more…

We already know for sure that Julianne Hough will be singing her new single “My Hallelujah Song” while brother Derek Hough & old partner Mark Ballas dance. (Check out Julianne Hough’s music video for My Hallelujah Song on iTunes )

Being a Las Vegas boy, I’m willing to bet that Leona Lewis will be performing her song Bleeding Love . (Check out her music video also ) That song has been one of the most popular songs ever on So You Think You Can Dance and I think that it will do really really well on Dancing with the Stars too. I’m looking forward to seeing her perform it live.

Anyone want to make a guess on what Aretha Franklin will sing when Kristi Yamaguchi & Mark Ballas return to the dance floor? I’d love to hear her sing Respect. What about John Legend? Maybe Green Light?

I don’t think it’s any surprise that Disney (also owns ABC) darling Miley Cyrus will be singing “Fly on the Wall” on the finale show. A very nice pick. Although, I must admit that it’s really interesting that there have been so many younger talents singing on the show. I can’t imagine Dancing with the Stars is trying for the younger demographic. Maybe they just assume they already have the older demographic locked in.

Both the stars and the professional dancers on Dancing with the Stars are incredible talents. Tonight’s semi final performance was when the Dancing with the Stars talent really starts to show. The dancers are so refined and have been trained so well that each of the performances is incredible.

As usual, here’s a list of all the music performed by the talented band. I have a few missing, but will update them as I find them.

Brooke & Derek danced a Jive to the song “The House is Rockin’”—Brian Setzer Orchestra

Brooke & Derek danced a Salsa to the song “Barbarabatiri”—Tito Puente

Cody & Julianne danced a Paso Doble to the song “Le Disko”—Shiny Toy Guns

Cody & Julianne danced a Salsa to the song “Juventud de Presente”—Tito Puente

Warren & Kym danced a Mambo to the song “Tequila”—The Champs

Warren & Kym danced a Jitterbug to the song “That Old Black Magic”—Sammy Davis Jr.

Lance & Lacey danced a Mambo to the song “Straight…to Number One”—Touch and Go

Lance & Lacey danced a Jitterbug to the song “Jim Dandy”—Black Oak Arkansas

Reuters is reporting that Cloris Leachman has been hospitalized with pneumonia.

Oscar winning actress Cloris Leachman, who saw a resurgence in her popularity recently on the TV show “Dancing with the Stars,” has been hospitalized for pneumonia, celebrity TV show Entertainment Tonight reported on Monday.
…
Leachman, 82, became the oldest contestant ever when she appeared on this season’s “Dancing with the Stars” in the United States, in which celebrities are paired with professional dancers and compete in ballroom dancing.

She won a large fan base for her good sense of humor on the program, but was eliminated sixth in the competition.

Some have asked if Dancing with the Stars has a curse with all of these people getting injured (see Misty May, Kim K, and many other injuries too numerous to list.

Of course, I don’t believe in curses in general. However, even if I did believe in curses, I think it’s easy to see while there are all these injuries. It’s called people who are not usually active and bending like gumby actually doing those things. Welcome to dancing!!

Brad Paisley did indeed rejoin Julianne Hough on Dancing with the Stars tonight. Along with a cool appearance of Benji Schwimmer with his sister Lacey. Check out the music from the results show:

Lacey Schwimmer & Benji Schwimmer danced to Brad Paisley singing “Ticks”

Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Karina Smirnoff, Alec Mazo, Edyta Śliwińska, Genya Mazo & Kym Johnson danced to Brad Paisley singing “Let the Good Times Roll”

Design-A-Dance by Derek Hough & Julianne Hough dancing a Jive to the song “Great Balls of Fire”

I’m also very glad to say that I was right about Derek and Julianne being the design a dance couple. I love when I’m right. This does show that Derek and Julianne are the most popular professional dancers too. I wonder how the other professionals feel about that.

I just heard them say that Lacey will be performing with her brother Benji on tomorrow’s Dancing with the Stars results show. That will be really cool. I always love watching Benji perform. Here’s a little video look at Lacey and Benji dancing together a few years back in Reno:

(Lacey joins about half way into the video)

I love watching Benji and his sister dance, but I wish Dancing with the Stars would have invited Benji and his cousin Heidi (also of So You Think You Can Dance fame) to perform on the show instead of Lacey. Benji and Heidi were just meant to dance together. If you don’t believe me, then check out Benji and Heidi’s Black Mambo performance on So You Think You Can Dance or even Benji and Heidi’s US Open Swing Dance Championship dance. Now that’s what I call dancing.

Brad Paisley will be performing tomorrow on Dancing with the Stars before hosting the CMA Awards the next night. What a busy man. Of course, the cool part for country music fans that love Dancing with the Stars is that Julianne Hough will be dancing on the show tomorrow night. Who would have thought that this is how Julianne Hough and Brad Paisley would be sharing the stage again? (Julianne toured with Brad Paisley earlier this year where she met Chuck Wicks)

Tomorrow is the Design a Dance performance where the audience got to select the dance, the song, the costume and the dancers. I think we can easily assume that the dancers that were selected for the design a dance competition were Julianne and Derek Hough. They are the most popular dancers and why else would Julianne be dancing tomorrow? Not exactly sure why Derek will be the guy other than it would be really cool to have Derek and Julianne dancing again together tomorrow night. Let’s just say that I’m not a betting man, but I know the show well and my bet is that Julianne and Derek will be dancing on the show tomorrow night.

Starting tomorrow, it looks like country music is taking over ABC. At least for a couple days. Not a problem for me.

5 Couples left on Dancing with the Stars and with 2 dances for each couple this was an intense night of dancing and broad range of music. Also, make sure to check out the songs from the previous Dancing with the Stars.

Cody & Edyta danced a Foxtrot to the song “Call Me Irresponsible”—Jimmy Van Heusen

Cody & Edyta danced a Mambo to the song “My Way”—Los Lonely Boys

Brooke & Derek danced a Tango to the song “Tango Diabolo”—Christa Behnke

Brooke & Derek danced a Mambo to the song “Cuban Mambo”—Xavier Cugat

Maurice & Cheryl danced a Quickstep to the song “Puttin’ on the Ritz”—Irving Berlin

Maurice & Cheryl danced a Paso Doble to the song “Let It Rock”—Kevin Rudolf and Lil Wayne

Lance & Lacey danced a Foxtrot to the song “Sweet Pea”—Amos Lee

Lance & Lacey danced a Samba to the song “1 Thing”—Amerie

Warren & Kym danced a Tango to the song “Peter Gunn Theme”—Henry Mancini

Warren & Kym danced a Jive to the song “Hallelujah I Love Her So”—Ray Charles

Cody and Edyta were barely saved on tonight’s episode of Dancing with the Stars. Susan and Tony were sent home. At least I can say that America got this right. It would have been really wrong if Cody got sent home while Julianne is recovering.

Lionel Richie sang “Good Morning” while Alec Mazo & Edyta Śliwińska danced.

Lionel Richie sang “Dancing on the Ceiling” while Cheryl Burke, Kym Johnson, Tony Dovolani & Maksim Chmerkovskiy danced.

Dave Scott “It’s Magic!”