'Dancing With the Stars' 2015: Top 3 Prepare for Finale
Who will take the mirror ball trophy in the show's 20th season?
— -- It’s down to the wire for the top three contestants in season 20 of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” as they prepare for tonight’s finale.
Each finalist will perform two routines -- a ballroom routine and the all-important freestyle, which has generally had tremendous significance in determining the overall winner of the competition. In addition to their freestyles, actress Rumer Willis will perform a foxtrot, U.S. Army veteran Noah Galloway will do an Argentine tango and R5 band member Riker Lynch will dance the paso doble.
The three finalists and their pro partners talked with ABC’s Melissa Rycroft ahead of the finale.
Rycroft, who is herself a mirror ball trophy champion, asked Allison Holker what her partner, Lynch, had that the other two finalists didn’t.
“Everyone here has something special,” Holker said. “Noah's, like, the inspiration. I really feel that Rumer's the passion. Riker's the entertainment of the show.”
Lynch, 23, will reprise his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow tonight. He first performed it last month on the show’s Disney night.
Next, Rycroft asked Val Chmerkovskiy whether he and Willis, his partner, feel any pressure going in to the finals.
“Yes,” he said.
“No,” Willis replied, adding: “I mean, yes and no. Because at the end of the day, I think the fans that got us here in the first place are going to be the ones, I think, that choose whether or not you win.”
Willis, 26, is coping with a rib injury. She’ll do her freestyle dance to a recording of her own cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” Chmerkovskiy accompanies her on violin on the recording.
"I did want to share with the world that she does have this incredible talent for singing, and, so, we instead decided to cover a very popular song ... and give it our kind of twist to it, and, we're going to dance to that song,” Chmerkovskiy said.
Rycroft also asked Galloway, 33, what he and partner Sharna Burgess had that the other finalists didn’t.
“I think that we connected very well, early on. I think that that has helped us,” said Galloway, a double amputee.
The mirror ball winner will be revealed Tuesday, when Galloway will do a special dance with former “Dancing” contestant Amy Purdy, who lost both her legs to meningitis. Galloway lost his left arm and leg in a bombing in Iraq.
“I got to meet her a couple of weeks ago,” Galloway said of Purdy. “I think it is incredible. So, I think it's going to be a great moment."
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