Amnesty Review 1- pairing up and Cha Cha Cha
I can remember exactly where I was when it was announced that Jay was doing strictly. I was in St Ives waiting for a bus to Cambourne with my mum and uncle. I’d been checking every day and while I recognised a lot of the names, there weren’t any that particularly excited me. I remember thinking “Oh that’s Jay from The Wanted, I used to really like them, I bet he’ll be good”
Then it came to the launch show and before anyone got paired up I remember thinking it was definitely time for Aliona to get a good partner again as she’d had (in my opinion) a very unfair past 3 series. Just before their pairing was announced I hoped that they would be together, and my hopes were granted
Cha Cha Cha
VT- Thought Tess overdid the “nerves” thing right at the beginning. So glad that Aliona was happy and couldn’t wait to see their training. From listening to The Wanted, I always got the impression that Jay was one of the quieter ones, in fact there’s a quote from him in the SCD annual that reflects this:
“When you have four guys it feels like a rabble, and they could go and take over the room so I would join in when I wanted to.” I guess this is why I understood his nerves. I’m glad there was a reason behind the trip to the O2, as a lot of the time I get slightly irritated by the “pointless” VTs where I’d rather be watching the training. Totally understood his comment about all the energy being focussed on you as a performer, as I’m used to getting that thrill every time I play or sing, albeit to much smaller audiences

Even from that first VT it seemed like J and A had struck up a really good friendship
The Dance- Loved his precision and thought he danced really well. Even though he was nervous he still managed to lead Aliona and didn’t rely on her to get him through. Thought he needed to perform a bit more, but at the same time put it down to it being the first week. Not much else to say apart from I loved Aliona’s choreography, especially all the “split” bits.
Thought the comments and scores were good, apart from the obvious. Was glad I was proved right when I had thought he would be good!
My first amnesty review, was nice to get back into it again after such a long break due to uni work. I will be posting weeks 2-4 at some point before Friday