Pia Toscano - The 22-year-old singer and former American Idol contestant Pia Toscano, appeared to go public with her rumoured boyfriend Mark Ballas on Dancing With The Stars last night (26th April 2011). Toscano was given headline billing on the show, above performances from the likes of Backstreet Boys and New Kids On The Block.
Toscano, who was controversially eliminated from American Idol three weeks ago, sang The Pretenders hit 'I'll Stand By You' as Mark Ballas and Karina Smirnoff performed a specially choreographed dance routine. The UK's Daily Mail newspaper suggested that "the supposed couple seemed to want to address the rumours definitively", adding, "Ballas protectively clamped the beauty to him.notably not reaching out in the same way to dancer Karina Sminoff". After gaining a rapturous round of applause, 'Dancing' host Tom Bergeron congratulated Toscano and noted that he couldn't understand why she had been voted off American Idol. The singer is reportedly in talks with a number of major record labels following her elimination from the hit singing contest and she has allegedly already started work on her debut album.
Pia Toscano's performance came shortly before Dancing With The Stars contestant Chris Jericho was eliminated from the show. The professional wrestler, who found himself at the bottom of the leader-board following Monday's show, was in high spirits despite being given the boot, joking, "It's actually good timing that I got eliminated because I have to fly over to England for the royal wedding".