Mollie King admits she’ll find it ‘weird’ dancing without The Saturdays as she gears up for Strictly Come Dancing

The pop star is already one of this year's favourites 
Centre stage: Mollie King will take to the stage minus The Saturdays
Jennifer Ruby21 September 2017
The Weekender

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Mollie King has said that she’s “nervous” to hit the Strictly dancefloor as she’s used to having girl band The Saturdays to back her up.

The pop star, 30, is launching her solo career at the same time as attempting to learn the foxtrot and the tango in “intense” rehearsals for the new series of the BBC dancing show, which starts on Saturday.

“I’m scared of forgetting the routine and I don’t want the judges to be super nasty, I know that they are quite harsh when they want to be, especially Craig,” she told the Standard.

After a decade spent touring with band mates including Frankie Bridge and Rochelle Humes, King is slightly worried about taking centre stage on her own.

On the dancefloor: Mollie King is one of this year's Strictly favourites
PA

“It’s going to be weird. If you’ve forgotten the moves you can always look over and four others are doing it so you can get back into it,” she said. “I think that it will be very different doing it without the girls.”

King, who had an on-off relationship with model David Gandy until they split for good last year, is keen to show the public more of her personality on the show.

“I hope that I can open up more because I feel like a lot of the time people don’t really get to know me and my personality is kind of hidden behind the music, which is totally understandable,” she said.

“Hopefully I’ll just be able to have fun and enjoy it and I hope the viewers do as well.”

She’s already set up a Whatsapp group with her fellow contestants including Debbie McGee, Alexandra Burke, Ruth Langsford and Rev. Richard Coles.

Strictly Come Dancing 2017 Contestants - in pictures

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“We’re already chatting on it and its booming, people are chatting on it all the time, sending pictures and taking the mickey out of each other,” she said.

King released her second solo single, Hair Down, earlier this month, ahead of her debut solo album release later this year.

After last year’s deeply-personal Back To You, about her romance with Gandy, King has reverted to her upbeat pop roots.

“With this one I felt like I needed to do something that was going to represent me as an artist. The album is super pop, it’s really upbeat and feel-good and it’s something that I hope that people would put on before a night out or before a road trip,” she said.

King found making all of the creative decisions “daunting”, having been part of a five-piece for so long, but said she is happy to finally have complete creative control.

“All of the decisions are down to me and I’m quite indecisive anyway,” she said. “With The Saturdays it was always a five-way thing and we’d do majority rules but when it’s you on your own you really have to think about it.

“But it’s got it’s bonuses as well in that you can do exactly what you want you want to do, you don’t have to compromise anymore even with stuff like the artwork and choreography. You have complete say and vision over all of that, which I love.”

The new series of Strictly Come Dancing starts this Saturday on BBC1. King’s new single, Hair Down is out now.

Mollie King - In pictures

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