Ore Oduba is the winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2016! Dancing with Joanne Clifton, the TV presenter was in shock after hearing he had won, and tearfully said to his partner: "I love you with all of my heart. I'm so speechless, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for everything you have given me." He went on to thank everyone involved in the show. Joanne said: "I can't speak! I can't believe it" before turning to Ore, telling him: "Thank you for working so hard, you're a dancer!" The pair were then given the Glitterball trophy together as the other contestants ran on stage to congratulate the overwhelmed couple, even lifting them onto their shoulders!
The finalists had an amazing time while making it to the end of the show, and reflected on the past few months. Louise opened up about why she chose to take part in the popular competition, which has seen the likes of Caroline Flack, Mark Ramprakash and Tara Tointon be crowned winners in the past. "When you go away from the public eye and have a family, you don't go on stage - you go home," she explained. "For me, it was just to get back out there. To do a show like Strictly, you know everyone is going to have an opinion and it's been a long time since anyone has had an opinion on me.
Ore and Joanne won the Glitterball trophy
"I guess that was the kind of thing I was nervous about, I knew that I had to go back to scratch and learn how to dance, become characters. I think it was the transformation to being at home to all of a sudden be on a show where 12 million people are watching every Saturday. It was a big jump."
Talking about his lowest point of the competition, Ore revealed it was when he and Joanne were in the bottom two for this first time. The pair were fighting for survival with their Salsa against Laura Whitmore and Giovanni Pernice. "Being in the dance off for the first time, the salsa we loved doing and we found ourselves in the bottom two," he said. "In that moment, the whole of the Strictly experience flashed in front of my eyes. You think, 'Within the dance, I might not be able to do this again and it's crushing, absolutely crushing. Actually there was a positive as we came out fighting. The moment when the light drops, you're thinking, 'I'm fighting for my Strictly life here.'"
It was not all doom and gloom as the presenter always "dreamed" about being on the show. "The final is what you dream about, but you just take each week one at a time," he added. "It's really a great experience and one of the best things I've ever done. To be in the final, it feels like you have gone the whole way and I've had the best time." Meanwhile, Danny had nothing but praise for his partner Oti. He confessed: "The best moment was when learning how to dance with our partners. My highlight is out samba and getting that perfect score, it was the first time that everything went as good as it could possibly get.
"For me not having to hide behind a character that was the first time we went out and Oti said, 'Look, there's no story in this, you're not a character. This one is you and me going out there and having a party.' For it to go so well, because that was what I was most terrified about. To be myself on that night and with Oti's favourite song and her favourite style – it just cemented everything."