TV

Update: Bindi Irwin Just Won ‘Dancing With The Stars USA’ Because She GODDAMN DESERVED TO

At the end of her latest perfect routine, her partner unexpectedly shared a picture of her dad. (This is apparently a nice and not terrible thing to do).

by Meg Watson  25 November 2015

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UPDATE 4.30pm: After performing her final dance in tonight’s finale — a fusion of tango and cha cha which won her another perfect score — Irwin was announced the winner of this season’s Dancing With The Stars.

“Here I am given this opportunity to remember moments in my life that I never thought I’d really be able to look at and smile,” she said. “I never thought I’d be given that chance. Thank you for changing my life.”

:’)

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The season finale of Dancing With The Stars is airing in the US and holy shit, Bindi Irwin has this in the bag. Though the 17-year-old former child star is competing against much better-known local celebrities — Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and celebrated soldier Alek Skarlatos — her most recent performances with five-time champion choreographer Derek Hough have landed her perfect scorecards and racked up literally millions more views than those of her competitors on social media.

Of course you probably don’t care about that. I didn’t. I’ve been actively avoiding headlines about the competition for the past couple of months now. But today, before we’re flooded with pictures of Bindi crying in dresses made of tinsel and smashed-up mirrorballs, it’s worth taking a look back.

This (an absolutely ridiculous reality TV contest for washed-up D-grade celebrities) has been a legitimately interesting turning point for the young star.

Stay with me.

Like any kid thrown into the spotlight at a young age, Bindi has been met with both enormous success and struggle. Since her dad’s death in 2006 she’s hosted a number of wildlife shows, launched a kids’ fitness program, hosted a game show, worked as a tourism ambassador, started an acting career and recorded a hip-hop single (as if I wasn’t going to give you a link for that one). But this well-meaning barrage of publicity and pep — plus an unfortunate endorsement of SeaWorld — has often made people unsure what to think of her.

In 2009, Herald Sun readers voted her the Most Annoying Personality in the country. She was 10 years old.

This was definitely the history Bindi took with her in the first episode of the series in September. After excitedly saying “everyone’s going to see a whole new side to Bindi”, she immediately proved herself wrong by brandishing a variety of reptiles at people’s faces and opting for a super-gimmicky jive set to ‘Crocodile Rock’ in full khaki.

I’m fairly sure she didn’t close her eyes or mouth once.

But since then, things have changed.

As the series’ fourth week asked contestants to create a routine on their “most memorable year”, Bindi opened up about her father’s death in a way the public had never really seen before and traded in her terrifying optimism for some earnest reflection.

“It’s been nine years and I’ve never really dwelled on that point when he did pass away,” she said. “I think I’m ready to tell that story … It took a really long time to understand what actually happened. For the rest of my life I’ll kind of feel like he’s going to come home.”

This was then somehow outdone during this week’s episode in which she performed a perfect-scoring freestyle routine to ‘Footprints In The Sand’ also inspired by her dad.

Reflecting on her time in the competition she said, “I’d never really talked about everything I’d felt when Dad passed away and I never thought I’d revisit that”. “Sometimes in rehearsals it feels like there’s three people in the room. I do feel that Dad is still with me everyday.”

Though on paper it’s terrifically corny, the surprisingly tender dance caused everyone in the room, audience, and wider world to involuntarily tear up. This emotion was then ramped into a overdrive when Bindi’s dance partner surprised her on air with a projected photo of her and her dad (which is an objectively terrible thing to do, but somehow seems to be okay in context).

In the lead-up to the final show today, the tributes have been taken online with both Bindi and her mum Terri sharing adorable family photos on Twitter and Instagram.

Bindi has also thanked all her supporters in a corresponding message and spoken about how grateful she is for the whole experience.

When all this is combined with the fact she’s also a genuinely great dancer, it’s obvious she’s going to win the competition. (Nick Carter’s latest routine involved him randomly shimmying and spinning a woman around in a leotard to ‘Larger Than Life’ while wearing fingerless gloves. I love it with every part of my being, but it’s not good.) But it may also mean we’ll soon be seeing a different kind of Bindi: an adult, more sincere version who’s known for her own talents and convictions rather than weird kids’ fitness clips and mean polls in The Herald Sun.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

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