Dancing With The Stars Australia crowns Phil Burton as 2023 winner
WARNING: Dancing With The Stars spoilers below.
Dancing With The Stars has crowned a new winner, after this season’s field of celebs were whittled down to just two remaining contestants: Human Nature singer Phil Burton and Home And Away actress Emily Weir.
And in the end, Burton emerged victorious, winning 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 Human Nature crooner’s win came at the end of a colourful finale in which the six remaining couples each performed a freestyle routine in the hopes of winning the coveted mirrorball trophy.
Weir and her dance partner Lyu Masuda performed an energetic routine to the Spice Girls banger 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.
Fellow judge Sharna Burgess told Burton: “I love watching you dance, and I’m just freaking sad that’s the last time I’ll see it.”
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.
There was a minor controversy earlier this season when TV food critic Matt Preston abruptly quit the show after landing in the bottom two and facing a dance-off against former AFL star Gavin Wanganeen.
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“I’ve loved everything about this, but my ankle is cooked,” Preston told hosts Daryl Somers and Sonia Kruger.
“I can’t dance again tonight so what I want to do is to concede and give the win to Gavin, who did brilliantly today and I’m so proud to be doing this for you, brother.”
A shocked Somers then told Preston that the show had “never had this happen” before.
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