Beverley Knight has been compelled to respond to utterly unsubstantiated criticisms about her performance on Strictly Come Dancing.
Our Bev is widely regarded as one of the top vocalists in the UK, having established a career as a major UK R&B performer in the 1990s and 2000s before storming the West End.
She performed her new tune I’m On Fire with the London Community Gospel Choir on Sunday night, before the third Strictly elimination, as pros Gorka Maquez and Katya Jones sizzled about the dancefloor in front of her.
It was a great watch but many claimed the Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda hitmaker was ‘miming’.
‘Why is Beverley Knight miming? And badly!’ asked one viewer, while another agreed: ‘Beverley Knight is amazing. Why on earth is she miming on Strictly?’
Anyone who has seen Bev live knows she is truly exceptional.
The singer was subsequently quick to shut down the accusations, and wrote on Twitter, formerly X: ‘Hello everyone who was watching #Strictly tonight! In the entirety of my career, I’ve never EVER mimed a note. Not once.
‘The slay is real people, note for note.’
While Beverley had a near-perfect performance, Paralympian Jody Cundy CBE was removed from Strictly after failing to perform well in his dance-off against comedian Eddie Kadi.
Eddie received unanimous approval from all four judges, and Jody was fired.
Despite his sadness, Jody assured host Tess Daly that he had a fantastic experience on the show.
‘You know what, when I signed up for this I thought what on earth am I signing up for and we did that first live show and I absolutely loved every second of it,’ he shared.
‘And just being able to dance and do something I’ve never done before and get completely out of my comfort zone and with this amazing person.’
Paying tribute to his pro partner Jowita Prystal, he continued: ‘‘This person’s got so much energy, every morning like 9 o’clock we’ve got, start of training and she’s like BAM, like this, she comes into the room like an absolute cannonball and she just doesn’t stop the whole day.
‘And she doesn’t lose any faith, doesn’t lose anything, motivates me on to do more and more. So I’ve had an absolute blast.’
Strictly Come Dancing continues Saturday at 6.35pm on BBC One.
