Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.
My name's Will Wilkin and I commission music podcasts for the BBC.
It's a really cool job.
Every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs, moments and movements.
Stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.
And the BBC's position at the heart of british music means we can tell those stories like no one else.
We were, are, and always will be right there at the center of the narrative.
So whether you want an insightful take on music right now, or a nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music, check out the music podcasts on BBC sounds.
BBC Sounds Music Radio podcasts hello, I'm.
Lauren La Verne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
My castaway this week is Shirley Ballas, the head judge on the BBC's Saturday night entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing.
As a former champion dancer herself, she knows all about the hard graft it takes to make ballroom look effortless.
By 21, she'd won nearly every major title she competed in.
Three years later, she ranked world number one.
She remains the only woman in history to win the British Open to the world Professional Latin championships with two different partners, and her dancing career lasted over two decades.
She was born in Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula and discovered ballroom when she chanced upon a class at her local church hall.
At just seven years old, it was a cha cha cha that opened what she calls a magic door.