Dancing with the Stars is back this weekend with a brand new gang of Irish celebrities donning their sequin and showing off their dancing skills!
One of those stars is Mickey Joe Harte.
Yes, the Eurovision star is swapping his green guitar for dance shoes.
Although he is quick to tell VIP Magazine: “I’m hoping they’ll bring in a guitar somewhere along the lines! I’ll do my Bill Bailey bits!”
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So why has he decided to take the leap into the beloved competition in 2025?
“I had been sounded out on this a few times before but I never felt that it was right. This year I was approached by Larry Bass, who I know from You’re A Star. I have a lot of respect and time for Larry, so I knew it was serious when he was talking to me. I think I was ready for it. I had a long think about it as well,” he tells us.
He goes on to say: “I’m 51, it’s not old but it’s not young either. So I thought it was good to tap into parts of your brain and your body and your psyche you haven’t before. It’s not like anything I’ve done in my life before. It’s a different level of learning stuff and trying to retain stuff. I can retain songs, but as I’ve gotten older retaining lyrics can be hard.”
He adds that he’s always up for a “challenge”!
“I just wanted the challenge and to experience the spirit of it. There’s endorphins running around my body, in a way that I haven’t experienced before. I can’t really explain it! When you’re doing it, it taps into something that you’ve never experienced unless you’re a dancer. It’s a nice feeling.”
He’ll certainly have a great support system from his wife Louise and their four children, Kayleigh, Kyle, Percy and Cristian, as well as his two grandchildren, Ariah and Olivia. Oh and his mother is a massive fan!
“My mother loves the show. She still dances herself, she’s 84, and she loves the Foxtrot! She watches it every Sunday, I always catch it when I go out to visit her! She’s definitely the most nervous and excited.”
Well, we’re buzzing for her to watch him!
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And it looks like things are going well for Mickey Joe as he tells us: “Rehearsals have been going good. It’s weird, it’s an up and down kind of thing. One day, you retain the information and you feel great coming out and you have your chest up, but the next day it leaves you and you’re a bit despondent.
“December was particularly busy for me, so trying to balance it was tough. There was a lot of things in December that were distracting me. But I can clear the decks in January. It was challenging. The rehearsals are going good and I’m feeling confident again. If you had have asked me last week it would have been a different answer.”
Dancing with the Stars begins on Sunday night at 6:30pm on RTÉ One
