Dancing With the Stars couple honoring Dolly Parton with season premiere song choice
Dancing With the Stars couple honoring Dolly Parton with season premiere song choice
Lauren DuBois Thu, September 10, 2026 at 11:24 PM UTC
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Dancing With the Stars will honor Dolly Parton on its premiere (Image: Disney)
Dancing With the Stars will be honoring music legend Dolly Parton early into the season, as one of the late singer's most iconic songs will be featured during the first two nights of competition.
The ABC show will air a two-night premiere event which will see the stars split up into two nights of dance competition, with the series bringing out the male competitors the first night and the female competitors on the second night.
The two nights will also be brutal for all the teams, as each night will see an elimination of one couple, cutting two journeys short after just one dance. However, as the duos all take to the stage for the first time, they will do so to a song of their choice that was No. 1 the year they were born.
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While most of the songs will simply follow the week's prompt - one will also pay tribute to the legend, who died at 80 years old on August 25 after a brief battle with cancer.
While the men will dance on night one of the competition, the women will perform on night two, and Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa will perform tribute to Parton with their routine, set to the same iconic track she performed live on the show during its 5th season - 9 to 5.
Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa will perform a tribute to Dolly Parton on the DWTS premiere (Image: ABC)
Stiles will dance a Quickstep to the tune, and will be the only female contestant to perform the dance style.
It's unclear if Stiles chose the song with an intention of honoring Parton while also following the directive, but if she does a decent job with dancing and gets good scores, a tribute to Parton will likely help her score highly enough to keep herself safe from an elimination.
When it comes to the other female competitors, Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov will also be the only ones dancing a Cha Cha, with their routine set to Smooth by Santa, ft. Rob Thomas.
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Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik will face off against Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills with Jive routines set to Knock on Wood by Amii Stewart and Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne respectively.
Amber Glenn will be the only female performing a cha cha on the first night (Image: ABC)
Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten and jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy will each perform Tangos, to Venus by Shocking Blue and Call Me by Blondie, while Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas and Ciara Miller and Brandon Armstrong will dance Foxtrots to Black Velvet by Alannah Myles and Exhale (Shoop Shoop) by Whitney Houston.
Their night of competition will come after the first night sees the men all hit the floor - with one of them not making it to the second night to see the women compete.
Like Julia, Taylor Hanson and his partner Britt Stewart will dance a Quickstep, with theirs set to Tell her About It by Billy Joel, while Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman will perform the week's only Salsa to Whoomp! There It Is by Tag Team.
Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess and Ezra Frech and Danielle Karagach will dance the night's only tangos. The former Bachelorette contestant will perform to Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz while the Paralympian will dance to Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone.
Taylor Hanson will be the only male contestant performing a Quickstep (Image: ABC)
The rest of the men will all perform Cha Cha routines.
Jackson Olson and Emma Slater will dance to Wannabe by the Spice Girls, Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson will perform to Mr. Big Stuff by Jean Knight, Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson will dance to Let's groove by Earth, Wind and Fire, and Connor Wood and Ryee Arnold will perform to I Like It, I Love It by Tim McGraw.
Dancing With the Stars season 35 kicks off with a two-night premiere on ABC and Disney+ Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
