Jennifer Zamparelli & Nicky Byrne Dancing with the Stars is back with a new crop of celebs on the dancefloor and a brand new co-host. Jess O’Sullivan reports
Growing up in Baldoyle in north Dublin, neither Nicky Byrne nor Jennifer Zamparelli ever imagined they would end up co-hosting a show like Dancing with the Stars. Jess O’Sullivan talks to the pair ahead of the big opening night
I don’t think she needs advice. She is a very confident person, very funny, very quick
Given the circumstances, it’s hard to believe that up to a few weeks ago, Nicky Byrne and Jennifer Zamparelli didn’t know each other all that well. ey both grew up in Baldoyle on the northside of Dublin, with friends in common and just two years between them. ey both followed meandering career paths into the entertainment business, which eventually led to each presenting daily radio shows on RTÉ 2fm. In fact, the Nicky Byrne Show studio is right next door to the Breakfast Republic studio. Nicky is eager to point out that until recently, the two were more like passing ships in the night, rather than actively trying to avoid each other.
“Breakfast Republic is on at 7am. I usually come in at 9am, go upstairs and come down around 9.45 and go into our studio. When they nish at 10am, they head o because they’re done. So funnily enough, even though we’re on the radio one a er the other, we never actually see each other.”
Being the younger of the two (Nicky turned 40 in October), Jennifer was probably more aware of Nicky’s existence when they were kids back in Baldoyle, as is the way of things during our teenage years. She tells me that Nicky “was always the cool kid on the road” but she also reveals that while it was common knowledge that Nicky had a promising football career, there was no suggestion of the heady heights he would reach as one quarter of Ireland’s most successful boy band. “I didn’t know he could sing back then. I still don’t know if he can!” says Jennifer with her trademark cheeky smirk. “But I always remember a friend saying, ‘Oh you remember yer man Nicky Byrne who went out with that girl in our school? Well, he’s in a boy band now.’ It was the funniest thing I’d ever heard. He was ‘Football Nicky Byrne’ who used to get up and do Ronan Keating songs at the racecourse karaoke. So we never took it seriously. Who’s laughing now though?”
A er all these years, Dancing with the Stars will nally bring this dynamic duo together and we are looking forward to the spark they will surely bring to the show. Both are funny, chatty people who love to banter. Jen acknowledges that Amanda Byram will be a tough act to follow, as she and Nicky ran a slick operation on our Sunday night screens for the last two seasons. “ ere’s a lot of pressure because it’s a beast of a show,” says Jennifer, “and Amanda leaves very big shoes to ll, literally: I think she’s like a size 9 and I’m a 5. But she brought a lot to the show and she looked phenomenal, so I would hate to be compared to her because I’m so di erent.” Nicky has spoken to Jennifer about pre-show nerves. “I know she is nervous because I’ve had that conversation with her but no more nervous than most. Any live presenter will tell you, as soon as the light goes red, your inner voice says: ‘Why did I put myself through this?’ but then the adrenalin gets going. I haven’t given her any advice. I don’t think she needs advice. She is a very con dent person, very funny, very quick.” Jennifer says that she knew they had something special even at the auditions. “It was de nitely there, that’s why it felt so easy and comfortable. We’re cut from the same cloth, myself and Nicky, but we’re still very di erent as well. e great thing about having Nicky there is that he has been doing it for two years, and he is excellent at what he does. So there will always be that stability in the show. It’s not going to be total chaos.”
While Jennifer is busy prepping for her rst show, Nicky is busy juggling his commitments with Westlife. Co-hosting Dancing with the Stars is just the start of what may be a very demanding year for him. Westlife reunited in 2018 a er a sixyear hiatus to celebrate their 20th anniversary. ey have been working on new music and will be releasing a new single at the start of the year
(written by Ed Sheeran), to be followed by a new album, and then a tour of the UK and Ireland, including two sold-out gigs at Croke Park. Nicky has made the decision to step away from his radio show for part of this year, but with a somewhat heavy heart, because he absolutely loves what he does. “When it came to carving out a new career a er the band, I never wanted to try to do a solo album, having known the success I experienced with Westlife. It’s very hard to emulate what someone like Robbie Williams did. So I thought, I’m just going to become my own man here, and create something for myself, which I believe I have done now. I’m not ‘Nicky from Westlife’ any more, which is strange because that used to be my surname.” Nicky is certain he will go back to radio and TV when the tour is over. “I see radio and TV as part of my life, like a Ryan Tubridy or a Pat Kenny. I want to be a TV presenter for a long time.” Despite that, Westlife fans who think Nicky’s love of presenting will dampen his love for the band in the future can rest easy. He wants it all, and why not if he can make it work? “We look at bands like Take at, who did come back and what they do is a big album, big tour and they go away for a couple of years. en maybe two or three years later they come back with a new unbelievable album. So I don’t think there’s any reason why we can’t keep Westlife in our lives forever at that pace, every couple of years.”
Jennifer is already seeing the bene ts of working with ‘Nicky from Westlife’. “Westlife have a huge fan base. It’s amazing. I’ve never got so many people from South Korea following me on Twitter since I said I was joining Dancing with the Stars.” However, despite her new following, Jen says she has promised herself that she will be avoiding the Twitter machine for the run of the show. It’s not just her presenting skills or her wardrobe choices that she fears reading comments about; it’s the big surprise that they have planned for opening night. “We’re opening the show with us dancing – everybody. ey’ve never done that before. I’ve not only been thrown into the pool, I’ve been thrown naked into the deep end. It’s pretty epic, and terrifying. It’s a big number. So not that I have enough to worry about on the night, now I have to dance.” When it comes to being judged by viewers, Jennifer reckons what you’re wearing comes before anything else. “Last season, the rst 400 tweets were about what Amanda was wearing. So it will be how I look, then how I dance and then how I present.” With this in mind she’s going for something di erent for her weekly look, something she feels re ects her personal style. “I don’t know if there’s going to be a lot of ball gowns for me – we might be a bit edgier.” Even so, Jennifer is not immune to the lure of lashes, tan and sequins galore. “I am going to be diving into a pool of fake tan on Fridays. When I went to my styling session, I was like: ‘Oh I’m not really into the whole glitter and sparkly thing. en I put it on and I was like: ‘Oh my God, I love myself.’ You just succumb to it, relinquish all control, and just let the glitter wash over you.”
In fact, ‘just let the glitter wash over you’ seems like excellent advice for both the contestants and viewers of DWTS 2019.
Nicky and Jennifer haven’t seen the contestants dance yet and Nicky knows that public voting can make it hard to predict a winner. “It’s not always the best dancer who wins the show. I would say someone like Peter Stringer is going to have the biggest following in terms of votes. He’s a rugby legend and I imagine because he spent time in dressing rooms he’ll be up for the craic. But then you’ve got factors like the dancers – Karen won it last year and Karen has nearly become her own celebrity in Ireland.” He thinks it’s particularly hard for sportspeople like Denis Bastick. “ ey’ve spent their whole career guarded, because when they’re interviewed, it’s all clichéd like: ‘Well at the end of the day, the lads have done well and we’ll go back to the drawing board and see how we do next week.’ at doesn’t work on entertainment television. Everybody looked forward to Bernard last year and Bernard will freely admit that he wasn’t a great dancer but he was hilarious. You have to look at the show and say: ‘How will I be the best version of myself for three months here?’”
Cover story credits
LOOK 1 – Jennifer: gold sequin dress, Zara; shoes, River Island; earrings, MoMuse.
Nicky: black velvet jacket, Zara; shirt, TM Lewin; bowtie, Tom Ford; trousers, Dsquared; shoes, Barker @Arnotts.
LOOK 2 – Jennifer: jumpsuit, dresses.ie; earrings, Topshop; shoes, O ce.
Nicky: suit, The Kooples; shirt, TM Lewin; bowtie, Tom Ford; shoes, Barker @Arnotts.
We’re cut from the same cloth, myself and Nicky, but we’re still very di erent as well