Love Island star Tasha Ghouri has been awarded the first perfect score of the 2024 Strictly Come Dancing series for an elegant American Smooth with her professional partner Aljaz Skorjanec.
The 26-year-old, who is the show’s second deaf contestant, performed a series of high lifts and dips during their dance to Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi to secure the top score of 40 during Saturday’s live show.
Head judge Shirley Ballas praised it as the “Rolls-Royce” of the American Smooth while Craig Revel Horwood described it as “fab-u-lous”.
Motsi Mabuse hailed it as “perfection” and said Ghouri had brought the poignant song to life.
Anton Du Beke, who got emotional during the performance, added that this is why dancers perform because of “how it makes us feel”.
As the last performer of the night, she had to do a quick change out of her flowing silver gown with a sparkly bodice into a blue sparkly dress with tulle detailing for a second number.
This week saw the return of the dance-a-thon when all the couples performed the samba simultaneously while the judges looked on.
Ghouri picked up an additional six points as she was voted runner-up behind JLS star JB Gill, who was named the winner of the dance, landing seven points.
Earlier in the night, Gill secured a score of 39 out of 40 after delivering a series of dramatic lifts with his professional partner Lauren Oakley.
Dressed in white trousers, a striped shirt and braces, the pop star flipped Oakley upside down and in a cartwheel spin as well as showing off his quick footwork during his lively Charleston to Yes Sir! That’s My Baby by Firehouse Five Plus Two.
Revel Horwood praised the routine as “pure class”, while Mabuse said Gill has loosened up to now have the “right swag”.
Ballas also thanked Gill for bringing “so much joy” to the dancefloor as she described his performance as “amazing”.
Gill has been dancing with Oakley since week seven following the exit of his previous partner, Amy Dowden, who was forced to pull out because of injury earlier this month.
Welsh dancer Dowden, who was not able to compete in the last series due to undergoing cancer treatment, could be seen cheering the pair on from the audience.
Olympian Montell Douglas and her professional partner Johannes Radebe hopped their way to a score of 37 for their quickstep to Get Happy by Ella Fitzgerald.
Du Beke said it was their best performance since their couple’s choice while Revel Horwood thought it looked “a bit stiff” at the beginning but felt the dynamics were “out of this world”.
Miranda star Sarah Hadland, who jointly topped the leaderboard with Ghouri last week in Blackpool, served up a sizzling rumba to Chains by Tina Arena.
The actress was twirled and dipped by reigning champion Vito Coppola to secure a score of 36, the highest for a rumba in the series.
Ballas hailed it as the best rumba of the season so far, describing it as a routine that deserved to be in a “major championship”.
Du Beke agreed, saying it was one of her best performances, but Revel Horwood thought it “lacked chemistry”.
Reality star and podcast host Pete Wicks kicked off week 10 with an elegant tango which landed him a score of 29.
Dressed in an all-black suit, Wicks guided and dipped his professional partner Jowita Przystal across the dancefloor to Easy Lover by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins.
Ballas hailed him as “quite an extraordinary performer” and that this week she loved that he was “focused on the job at hand”.
Comedian Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell delivered a fiery paso doble for their Strictly performance, which brought Buswell’s parents to tears.
Ahead of the performance, the Australian dancer revealed her parents had not seen her dance since she joined the show seven years ago.
Their performance to El Gato Montes by Manuel Panella secured them a score of 33, with Mabuse saying she “loved the commitment” in the dance.
Meanwhile, EastEnders star Jamie Borthwick and Michelle Tsiakkas performed a graceful foxtrot to Stand By Me by Ben E King.
The pair were awarded a score of 32 from the judges for the routine which saw them twirl and glide across the dancefloor.
Du Beke said he thinks Borthwick is a beautiful dancer but advised him to be more “ridiculous and over the top”.
In the dance-a-thon, McCausland came last securing one point, Borthwick was next taking home two, Wicks picked up three, Hadland four and Douglas secured five points.
Strictly Come Dancing result’s show airs on Sunday at 7.20pm on BBC One.
