DIMI HAPPY TO DUMP WALK-ON DANCING

By Phil Lanning

DIMITRI Van den Bergh dumped his “Happy” walk-on be because he was “done with dancing”.

The bubbly Belgian became synonymous with his long entrance routine and twirling moves on stage to the Pharrell Williams track. 

But at the Dutch Masters on Friday night it was replaced by “Play Hard” by David Guetta before his defeat to Luke Littler. 

The Nuke joked that it was good Van den Bergh “was not dancing around” because the walk-ons were quicker. 

But the World No.18 explained on the switch to Het Nieuwsblad: “Like everyone else, didn’t you see it coming? Haha, surprise!

“No, seriously. It’s effectively been with my whole entourage searching for new things. 

“We did that collectively and I wanted a new song in particular. I was done with ‘Happy’ and the dancing, that wasn’t appreciated anymore. 

“It’s about going on stage and having fun, enjoying what I’m doing. That’s darts, my sport for which I work tremendously hard and sacrifice tremendously. 

“So I wanted to enjoy myself again on stage and in between maybe also mature a bit,” 

On changing to Guetta’s dance track, he added: “Everyone on the scene was immediately like, ‘Yeah, that’s got something and that’s a top disc!’ And I felt the same here. 

“It wasn’t immediately about how the crowd reacted. Of course you want the fans to join in because darts remains a party, but it was mostly about my feeling about it before I would throw my darts. 

“And it felt successful for me personally. It made me happier than my previous song. I didn’t have to do that dance anymore, I could just have fun with the room. There will always be movement here and there, but from now on it’s about liking what I do. And that worked out.”

Images by Taylor Lanning.