Strictly Come Dancing fans were blown away by the high standard of some of the couples as this year's live shows got going on Saturday night.
After getting a first look at the 2021 pairings in dancing action at the end of last week's launch show, each couple made their ballroom debut on Saturday in front of the judges and millions of viewers at home.
There were jives, cha cha chas, American Smooths, tangos and everything in between for Strictly devotees to feast their eyes on as this year's celebs aimed to impress alongside their pro partners.
READ MORE: AJ Odudu does Strictly's 'best jive ever' to earn huge week 1 score
Songs from everyone to Earth, Wind and Fire to Taylor Swift and DJ Fresh to Griff provided the soundtrack to some great performances, with the judges picking up paddles with much higher scores on than you might expect from a week 1 show.
At the end of the night it was AJ and Kai at the top of the leaderboard after their fierce jive, ahead of John and Johannes with their history making routine and Adam and Katya who sent temperatures soaring in the studio and on the panel.
Strictly 2021 week 1 leaderboard
AJ Odudu and Kai Widdrington - Jive- (8 + 8 + 9 + 9) = 34
Adam Peaty and Katya Jones - Cha Cha Cha - (7 + 7 + 8 + 8) = 30
John Whaite and Johannes Radebe - Tango - (7 + 7 + 8 + 8) = 30
Rhys Stephenson and Nancy Xu - Viennese Waltz - (6 + 7 + 7 + 7) = 27
Dan Walker and Nadiya Bychkovab- Quickstep - (5 + 5 + 7 + 7) = 24
Greg Wise and Karen Hauer - American Smooth - (6 + 6 + 5 + 7) = 24
Judi Love and Graziano Di Prima - American Smooth - (6 + 6 + 6 + 6) = 24
Nina Wadia and Neil Jones - Samba - (5 + 5 + 7 + 7) = 24
Katie McGlynn and Gorka Marquez - Tango - (6 + 5 + 5 + 6) = 22
Rose Ayling-Ellis and Giovanni Pernice - Jive - (6 + 6 + 4 + 6) = 22
Tilly Ramsay and Nikita Kuzmin - Waltz - (5 + 5 + 6 + 5) = 21
Tom Fletcher and Amy Dowden - Cha Cha Cha - (4 + 7 + 5 + 5) = 21
Robert Webb and Diane Buswell - Cha Cha Cha - (6 + 4 + 4 + 6) = 20
Ugo Monye and Oti Mabuse - Samba - (3 + 5 + 5 + 5) = 18
Sara Davies and Aljaz Skorjanec - Cha Cha Cha - (3 + 5 + 5 + 4) = 17
New judge Anton Du Beke said AJ and Kai's dance was as good a jive as he'd "ever seen" on the show, adding it was more "week nine than week one."
And, after standing up to applaud her with fellow judge Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse told AJ: "For me, so far, this was the best dance of the evening without a doubt."
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