Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh 'excited' to appear on Dancing with the Stars

Ottoline Spearman

Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh is the first celebrity announced for the next series of Dancing with the Stars 2026.

Ms Kavanagh is best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Ireland with the ballad "In Your Eyes" in 1993. She returned to the contest in 2010 with "It’s for You", qualifying for the final in Oslo.

Ms Kavanagh said she was excited to join the show, but that didn't stop the nerves.

"I am beside myself but trying to act all cool – like it’s no bother! It would be a lie to say I'm not nervous, stepping into the unknown publicly brings its own nerves," she said.

"However, what I mostly am is excited, I don’t have to be good at this but I’ll work hard to get as good as I can.

"The glitz and glam side of things is probably the most difficult part for me as I usually don’t think too much about sequins and certainly not fake tan – I haven’t even had my ears pierced. I have very little experience in formal choreography."

The show  is hosted by Jennifer Zamparelli and Laura Fox, who is standing in for Doireann Garrihy  while she is on leave.

The RTÉ series will see 12 well-known figures team up with a professional dancer to perform a live routine every week. Each pair will have a different dancing genre to master every week, and they are given 7 days to rehearse their routine before performing it live.

Each celebrity couple will be scored by a panel of four judges: Oti Mabuse, Brian Redmond, Arthur  Gourounlian and Karen Byrne, as well as the viewing public at home.

The series returns in January on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.