'Dancing with the Stars': Nelly aka Young Swivel pays tribute to Tupac with jazz performance on 'California Love'
Nelly aka Young Swivel was in his element on the latest episode of 'Dancing With The Stars'. For weeks, audiences have noticed that he's not fully present and doesn't take his time on the show seriously. A lot of them have been feeling that he's been ready to be eliminated from the show for a long time. However, the hip hop star proved that he's in it to go all the way, reassuring his fans that he's been putting in all his efforts and has no plans to give up anytime soon. It was icon's week this time on the show, and Nelly's excitement was on whole another level as he decided he would be dedicating it to his icon Tupac.
"My icon is the legendary Tupac. He was the biggest thing on the planet. I grew up listening to him," he said in a video from rehearsals. "He would have definitely killed it on the show," Nelly said. The song they'd chosen to perform was California Love. He decided to crank it up by recording his own version of the song, the one that he decided to use for the performance. "I would like to make it to the semi-finals. If I am doing it, might as well go all the way," he said giving hope to his many fans who want him to give it his all on the show so that he could win this thing.
The performance was not flawless, there were a lot of steps that Nelly missed. However, he was making it up with his smile and energy on the dance floor. He didn't for once let it show on his face that things weren't going as they'd rehearsed. Nelly's shoulders were still a little stiff but his smile wasn't, he truly looked like he was enjoying the process and it worked in his favor. All three judges noted that there were some mistakes in the performance, however, watching Nelly pay tribute to his icon Tupac was fun for them to watch and made them smile. Nelly was awarded 8 points by each of the judges for his performance, and he tied with Justina Machado who was scored 24 on 30 by the judges for her Madonna tribute.
'Dancing with the Stars' airs Mondays at 8 pm ET on ABC.