Samantha Jade talks Dancing with the Stars and new music (2024)

I’ve actually been asked to do it before, a few times, and I’ve said no out of fear of being not good at it, out of fear of being seen,” Samantha Jade tells WHO over the phone before her Dancing with the Stars debut. “And this year, I don’t know, I was kind of like, ‘I’m up for the challenge.’”

A singer first, Samantha is used to performing in front of an audience, and even busting out a few moves during the chorus. But take her voice away, and stepping into the spotlight is a very new experience.

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“I found it really hard once I didn’t have a microphone in my hand, I didn’t know what to do with my arms. It was really challenging and I realised I really rely on the comfort of singing in my microphone. So [being on stage without that] was a really cool thing to be able to explore,” she explains.

“I think that at my age, sometimes you just get so used to comfort and you don’t challenge yourself anymore. And it’s such an amazing opportunity to challenge myself,” the 37-year-old performer adds.

Fresh to the dance scene she may be, but Samantha Jade has been on our screens before. In 2012, she became the first female winner of The X Factor Australia. She tells WHO that her TV talent show past prepared her for the pace on Dancing with the Stars.

“The X Factor was similar in a way that you’re performing live every week and it’s all in – you’ve got to give it your all,” she says. “But it’s so different because this is completely not my talent. Singing is my thing. This is so out of my comfort zone and what I do, so I’m loving that.”

Indeed, Samantha knows not to get complacent about having TV experience.

“There is nothing that can prepare you for TV,” she admits. “You can go in knowing what it is, but you still are as nervous. That’s something I have not mastered. I don’t know if I ever will. The nerves are just at an all-time high, all the time.” Laughing she continues, “You’re just kind of nervous for every day leading up to it. Then, on the day, [and] then afterwards, because obviously you get your results after. So yeah, I understand the format, but I definitely haven’t mastered not being nervous about it.”

Someone who may help ease the nerves is Samantha’s dance partner, Gustavo Viglio. The Italian-born dance professional won the title of World Latin Youth Vice Champion in 2009 and has many other credits under his belt. He certainly wasn’t afraid to put her through her paces.

“The first day I went in, it was like, ‘Hi, nice to meet you,’ then straight into stretching, straight into teaching, straight into [him] being like, ‘No, that’s not how you do it. Do it again.’ You form a relationship much faster than you would with anybody else, because you just go straight in.

“We don’t have long to learn all this choreography, so it’s very, very hard work. You have to trust them very quickly and I feel like he really had my best interests at heart. We really did feel like a team. And his energy is great, his energy is infectious. I’m probably much more calm and he’s a lot more energetic than me. I think it’s a really good balance because when I’d be tired and like, ‘I don’t want to do it again,’ he’s like, ‘Come on, you’ve got it in you!’, so it worked out really well.”

The work didn’t stop in the studio with her dance partner, however, with Samantha enlisting her life partner to get involved, too. “I’d come home [to my husband] and be like, ‘My body is so exhausted and so sore, but I need to practise.’ So I’d be like, ‘Can you help me practise this lift?’ And he’d be like, ‘Oh my God, this is so hard! How’re you doing this?’ I think he had a real respect for me with how hard I was working.”

Samantha married Pat Handlin in a romantic celebration in Venice, Italy in 2022.

“I said to him, ‘I feel like this is something we need to introduce into our lives,’” she adds. “He is definitely not a dancer – he used to play football. So it’s a bit different, but I’m sure he’d be open to it. I can bump him around.”

Even though, for the next few weeks, dancing will be the only talent on Samantha’s mind, that doesn’t mean she has forgotten her first love, with plans underway for her to release new music soon.

“When I took on this show, I kind of knew I wouldn’t have time to put everything into my music. So I prepared my music before. I’m so excited, I haven’t had new music out in ages.”

She excitedly spills the beans about a new song on the horizon, saying, “It’s one of my favourites that I’ve ever released. I just wanted to write something happy and feel-good and this is exactly that – getting ready to go out with the girls or in your car… That’s exactly what this song does.”

And there are plans afoot for Samantha to hit the road to coincide with the release.

“We are definitely going to plan a little tour around Australia and hopefully go to some other places, too,” she reveals, even hinting that she’ll be using her new dance skills on stage. I am stronger as a dancer,” she says.

“I think I’ll take on more of the choreography now for sure. I used to only jump in and do a few moves, and always go back into my comfort, my singing. But I think now I’m going to challenge myself and dance more than I used to.” With future career plans already in motion, nothing is slowing down for Samantha Jade.

When asked what she’d like viewers to take away from her time on Dancing with the Stars, she responds, “I just hope they see that I’ve worked really hard and tried really hard and had a really good time.”