Watch ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Celebrate Mariah Carey With Themed Show

Dancing With the Stars paid tribute to Mariah Carey with a series of performances set to the pop star’s hits. Carey welcomed the contestants to the show with an opening message, noting that she couldn’t wait to see “how these fabulous couples bring my songs to life.”

“I wish I could be there tonight, but I’ll be watching and cheering you on from afar,” Carey added before the show’s opening number, which was set to “Heartbreaker.”

During the themed show, the dancers performed to many of Carey’s songs from over the years. Julia Stiles and her professional partner Ezra Sosa danced a Viennese waltz to Carey’s 1990 number “Vision of Love.”

Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik showcased a jazz routine to “Fantasy,” a track off Carey’s 1995 LP Daydream, while Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy performed the rumba to “My All.”

Other Carey songs included “Obsessed,” “Emotions,” and “Hero,” which offered the soundtrack to Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov’s rumba.

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Dancing With the Stars is currently airing its 35th season. Other contestants this season include Food Network host Giada De Laurentiis, Summer House’s Ciara Miller, Jimmy Kimmel Live sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez, and musician Taylor Hanson. During the season’s debut episode, Stiles and Sosa performed a quickstep routine to Dolly Parton’s 1980 song “9 to 5.”

Stiles revealed that Parton had cleared the use of the song prior to her death in August. “It was only a couple weeks before Dolly passed that she approved this song specifically for me,” Stiles said. “I’m so honored to be dancing to her music and honoring her legacy, and I want to make her proud.”