Dancing With The Stars winner crowned!
After five weeks of dancing up a storm, the winner of Dancing With The Stars has been crowned.
The finale came down to an actress and a singer going head-to-head, with the mirrorball trophy awarded to the champion at the end of the epic battle.
The two finalists were Home & Away star Emily Weir, and Human Nature singer Phil Burton, with Burton emerging victorious to win the show’s 20th season.
“This show has just been so incredible for the last seven weeks. I’ve had the absolute time of my life. And, you know, it is a competition but it doesn’t feel like it when you are out here and you are with all these amazing people. It’s been an absolute joy to be a part of it,” Burton said after his win.
The colourful finale saw the six remaining couples each perform a freestyle routine in the hopes of winning the coveted trophy.
Weir and her dance partner Lyu Masuda performed an energetic routine to the Spice Girls hit track Spice Up Your Life, with judge Todd McKenney saying he “absolutely loved” the “fantastic” performance.
“You were shimmying for Jesus, darling,” fellow judge Craig Revel Horwood told her.
Meanwhile, Burton and dance partner Ash-Leigh Hunter danced to Wilson Pickett’s 1962 classic Land of a Thousand Dances, a performance Revel Horwood said was “full of rhythm and musicality.”
“It seems, Phil, that you can turn your hand to any genre of dance - and that proves it,” he said.
Both Burton and Weir scored the highest score from the judges for the night, tied at 39 points, putting them at an equal footing for the top two.
But in the end, Burton’s Human Nature fanbase helped him win the audience vote over Weir, becoming the newest champion of the show.
Image credits: Seven / Instagram