I want to win Strictly in my dad’s memory
DJ inspired by father who loved dancing
STRICTLY newcomer Clara Amfo will be dad dancing with a difference when she takes to the famous ballroom floor next month.
The Radio 1 DJ will be aiming to win in memory of the father whose sudden death turned her world upside down.
Clara, 36, describe’s microbiologist Emmanuel’s heart attack five years ago as “the worst day of my life”.
She was in Paris about to do a half marathon when she had a dreadful feeling something terrible was about to happen.
“That morning I felt compelled to call him. I then looked at my phone and saw all these missed calls from my sister,” she said.
SCREAMING
“In that moment I thought, ‘I bet my dad has died’. I knew I needed to answer the phone but I really didn’t want to.
“I answered and my sister just wailed. Her cry was so visceral and guttural.
“I said, ‘Susan, what? What?’ I had to hear her say it. She said, ‘Dad has died’, and I screamed. I’ve never had such a deep reaction as I had that day.”
Clara started her career at Kiss FM before landing a spot on the BBC’s 1Xtra, then moving to Radio 1 and taking over Fearne Cotton’s midmorning show.
Her dad had come from Ghana in the 1970s with only £25 in his pocket and f i r st liv ed in Eltham, south- east London, which she says was “notoriously not ver y wel - coming for immigrants”.
Emmanuel moved to Kingston in Surrey and studied to become a microbiologist. Clara said he had a big love of dancing – and for his little daughter too.
“He’d always get me a big card on my birthday and write a lot in it that cut me deep,” she said. “He said, ‘Clara, you are the glue of our family’. That was his way of expressing love.”
After his death, single Clara had a string of bad relationships.
“I have wondered if losing him has affected my dating life,” she told the Daddy Issues podcast.
TRAGIC Loss of Emmanuel
“I’ve met some d***heads in the last two to three years. Learning about grief made me realise why I attracted certain people into my life.”
Now she is aiming to give her all on the Strictly dance floor. A friend of Clara said: “She was incredibly close to her dad. He loved to dance and always encouraged her to go for her dreams.
“Part of her is doing this for him.
“It ’s such a shame he’s not around to see her doing so well.”
Other celebs in the line- up are comic Bill Bailey, Olympian Nicola Adams, actress Caroline Quentin, singer Max George, EastEnders’ Maisie Smith, ex MP Jacqui Smith, former NFL star Jason Bell, TV host JJ Chalmers, Made in Chelsea’s Jamie Lang, Good Morning Britain’s Ranvir Singh and YouTuber Harvey Cantwell.
He’d get me big birthday card and write a lot in it that cut me deep RADIO 1 DJ CLARA ON DAD SHE MISSES SO MUCH