Fleur East was left in tears as her Hits Radio colleagues pulled out a special surprise as she hosted her latest show live from Blackpool ahead of performing in the iconic Tower Ballroom on Strictly Come Dancing over the weekend. The singer and broadcaster will be taking to the floor on Saturday night as the show returns to the seaside resort for the first time in three years.
As she hosted the Hits Radio breakfast show live from Madame Tussauds Blackpool, Fleur's co-stars James Barr and Matt Haslam went the extra mile and organised a very special fly past as part of their Vote Fleur campaign.
The former X Factor star was blindfolded and taken out to the Blackpool promenade where Fleur had no idea what she was about to see. As she was unmasked, she spotted the banner hanging from the back of a plane with a message which read: "Hits Radio Vote Fleur on Strictly."
A stunned Fleur said: "No! Are you joking?! 'Hits Radio Vote Fleur on Strictly'. How have you managed to do this it looks amazing! How did you pull this off?" As she started to well up, she added: "It looks so good guys I’m actually quite emotional. I don’t know if it’s the wind in my eye or I’m actually crying – you’re amazing, you absolutely smashed it. This is so cool."
Fleur was then joined on air by fellow Hits Radio presenter Gemma Atkinson and good friend and former Strictly contestant AJ Odudu. And Gemma was quick to make a confession: "As soon as I’m dressed I’m heading down to Blackpool but, and it’s quite embarrassing to say this because you'd think I was coming to support Fleur or Gorka, in reality I’m bringing my daughter Mia to meet Will Mellor because that’s all she wants to do.
"I’m not sure why, because he’s never met him before, but he did a dance earlier in the series when he looked down the barrel of the camera and she just turned to me and said 'It’s made me giddy.'"
Meanwhile, Fleur's fellow Strictly stars have been taking in their stunning new setting for the first time with the likes of Helen Skelton and Ellie Taylor sharing pictures and videos from outside the ballroom. The remaining stars in the BBC One dance contest have also been hitting the arcades and taking in the cool sea air as they celebrate their Strictly milestone.
Will Mellor also shared a video to his Instagram page in which he said: "I've just got into the Blackpool Tower Ballroom for the first time for our rehearsal... look at this," he added before turning the camera around to show the historic room. "It's just got real!" the actor admitted. "Wow, it's going to be a big night on Saturday. A little bit of wee's just come out."
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