Charli D’Amelio’s Dancing with the Stars debut was an homage to TikTok

Dancing with the StarsThe competition’s 31st season kicked off last night. While the usual stars were present, there was one standout competitor. Charli D’Amelio, who made her name by creating viral dance videos on TikTok, made her DWTS competition debut. She danced the cha-cha to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” in a glittering red dress and absolutely owned it, thanks to a bit of TikTok magic.

Mark Ballas choreographed a dance that perfectly blended traditional cha-cha moves with TikTok flare. In the beginning of the choreo, D’Amelio starts off by staring at her phone until she looks up and steps confidently towards the main stage. The two danced to a remixed version of the track “Savage,” which is an homage to one of the many dance trends that shot her to fame in her earlier days on TikTok. D’Amelio also brings a background as a competitive dancer to the show.

She was cheeky and clever, which likely contributed to her large social media following via the video sharing app. At time of publication, D’Amelio’s account is the second most-followed on the app, with more than 147 million followers. After the episodes, fans flooded the app with videos of her performance, and D’Amelio ended up taking first place that night.

Charli isn’t the only D’Amelio hitting the stage this season. She joined by her mom, Heidi D’Amelio, on this season of DWTS. On Disney Plus, you can see them both competing.