'Dancing on Ice's' Brian McFadden battles through shoulder injury - but find out why Westlife fans are angry with him

Brian McFadden has shrugged off a shoulder injury to open the show for Dancing on Ice – but managed to rile Westlife fans by announcing that he hated one of their hits which he skated to.

The former Westlife singer’s future in the contest was in jeopardy before he’d even skated once, as he partially dislocated his shoulder and damaged his rotator cuff while practising lifts with partner Alex Murphy in the dress rehearsal.

But he managed to not only take part in his debut episode, but open the show as the first celebrity to skate, even including some of the lifts from his original routine.

Reacting to his score of 20 out of 40, McFadden said: “I’ll just go to the bar now, I’m happy – it’s been hard work and tough with my shoulder going out.”

However, McFadden then shocked Westlife fans with the admission that he couldn’t stand “Mandy”, the song he skated to and had performed as part of the Irish boy band.

As the judges questioned him about why he couldn’t show more emotion by picking up on the song lyrics, he said: “I just hate the song, it really goes through me.”

When they suggested he take his cue from partner Murphy, he said: “She hates it too,” angering Westlife fans tuning in.

McFadden was part of the original line-up of Westlife, but quit the group in 2004 a year after they scored a number one hit with “Mandy”.

Westlife continued for another eight years after his departure, and the band reunited without him in 2018.

Viewers had been excited when they first heard what he would be skating to.

Although not everyone thought it was a great choice.

Judge Christopher Dean asked McFadden whether it was his voice singing on the track, and he cheekily replied: “The good bits, yes.”

Tough critic Jason Gardiner gave the pair their lowest score and didn’t seem to take McFadden’s injury into account as he complained about the lack of lifts.

He said: “I don’t understand why in the crescendo to such a beautiful song you did nothing – you could have done a lift there.”

Murphy told him that they had planned to end on a lift, but had needed to change the routine to accommodate his shoulder, and in his VT ahead of the performance McFadden explained that they had had to cut a section where he lifted Murphy above his head.

He was also shown falling over in his first skate for Torvill and Dean, calling the moment “right up there with my two divorces”.

Sunday night’s show featured the first elimination of the series, with ex-Neighbours star Mark Little and his partner Brianne Delcourt being voted out after a skate-off against this week’s lowest ranked couple, Ryan Sidebottom and Brandee Malto.

All four judges voted to save the cricketer, who will be back to skate again next week.

The episode included a surprise appearance from the Loose Women ladies as Andrea McLean, Coleen Nolan and Jayne Moore joined Saira Khan for the start of her performance.

Dancing on Ice’s remaining contestants Richard Blackwood, Melody Thornton, and Wes Nelson all took to the ice for the first time, and last week’s skaters had their turn at a group routine.

Love Island star Nelson was the surprise hit of the evening, scoring 25 with last year’s champion Vanessa Bauer.

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