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Who is Lee Ryan? Meet the Strictly Come Dancing 2018 contestant and Blue singer

Who is Lee Ryan? Meet the Strictly Come Dancing 2018 contestant and Blue singer

The 35-year-old Blue singer and former EastEnders actor will be hitting the Strictly dance floor

Lee Ryan - Strictly Come Dancing 2018

Frances Taylor

Published: Saturday, 6 October 2018 at 8:20 pm

Former Blue singer and EastEnders actor Lee Ryan has been confirmed for this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

The 35-year-old said he was “really nervous” about taking part in the BBC1 show, and that although he hadn’t yet been practicing his moves, fellow bandmate (and Strictly 2014 finalist) Simon Webbe had been showing him how to Waltz.

The pop star and actor also revealed that his cheesy codename was Roquefort – which is coincidentally a blue cheese!

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Lee, who attended Italia Conti, said he “used to run out” of his dance lessons at the arts school and would “hide in the singing lessons, hence why I can sing and not dance.”

After he was revealed as a contestant on Loose Women, he was asked whether he was worried about the so-called ‘Strictly curse’. He replied that he was single – and added that although his Strictly training hasn’t yet begun, he's been “boxing loads, trying to get my weight down”.

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Lee also revealed that he's looking forward to the acting element of dancing on the show, and cited Ashley Roberts as an early favourite to do well.

The singer left EastEnders and the role of Woody Woodward back in June, but is arguably best-known for being one quarter of Blue. The boyband were huge in the early 2000s, releasing three UK number one albums and selling 16 million records worldwide.

Hits included One Love, All Rise and Fly By. They also represented the UK in Eurovision 2011 with the song I Can:

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The twelfth celebrity to be revealed, Lee joins the likes of Stacey Dooley, Vick Hope, Graeme Swann, Dr Ranj Singh, Katie Piper, Faye Tozer and Danny John-Jules in the class of Strictly 2018.

These are the other names who are also being linked to this series.

Although there hasn't been an official announcement from the BBC, Craig Revel Horwood, Bruno Tonioli, Darcey Bussell and last year's new Head Judge Shirley Ballas all look set to reprise their seats on the panel this year.