Dancing On Ice

Twitter Has Renamed Ekin-Su After *That* Dancing On Ice Performance

The Love Island alum survived to skate another week, but it wasn’t all plain sailing.

by Sophie McEvoy
Ekin-Su Culculoglu and Brendyn Hatfield during the 'Dancing On Ice' musical performance
Matt Frost/ITV/Shutterstock

Since surviving this season’s first Dancing On Ice skate-off, Love Island alum Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu has been teasing fans on social media with her performance for Musicals Week. On Sunday night (Jan. 30), the reality star took to the ice as Maria von Trapp, skating to The Sound Of Music. Channelling her inner Julie Andrews, Ekin-Su’s outfit was the complete opposite of her sheer “Toxic” catsuit that received Ofcom complaints.

The Love Island winner isn’t bothered by the drama whatsoever, telling The Sun that it’s all about the performance. “Whoever you see in the performance, whether I’m playing Britney Spears or Maria from The Sound of Music, I will be that person,” she told The Sun. “With Britney, I was having fun with it, I couldn’t have performed it better in my opinion — I don’t regret it at all. I played her now it’s over.” Reminding viewers that she is an actress first and foremost, Ekin-Su would “play Henry VIII on ice” if she was asked to.

On Sunday night, Judge Oti Mabuse shared her appreciation for Ekin-Su once again, reminding her to “stay true to yourself” after her performance. “It’s not a bad thing to be sexy. It is the power that we as women have,” Mabuse told her. “You should be really proud of yourself. When you started on the rock I was like, ‘Look at her.’ Keep pushing yourself.”

During an appearance on Loose Women, judge Jayne Torvill said that while she was “a little bit surprised” by Ekin-Su’s outfit during the first week, she noted that “it was in keeping with the song and the Love Island connection, so I see how that was,” Torvill said. “But she’s a really lovely girl and she’s taken it all on board. And in her skate-off, she definitely deserved to go through.”

Some Dancing On Ice viewers weren’t too impressed with Ekin-Su skating as Maria von Trapp, saying that Michelle Heaton deserved more points after being eliminated in a public vote instead of the usual skate-off. However, others avidly defended Ekin-Su, even blessing her with a new name — Maria Su. Take a look below at the memes and tweets reacting to Ekin-Su’s performance.