Not for her. Jennie Finch did not want to dance to Janelle Monae‘s “Make Me Feel” on Dancing With the Stars, in part, because it “wasn’t a great choice” for her faith.
“Just as a mom, it’s not something we listen to in our house,” the olympian told reporters on Monday, May 7. “And my fans, my audience, is young girls. I don’t know of anything more empowering than a man sticking by a woman, and following her gut and her heart, not feeling comfortable, and I wouldn’t be able to stand on that stage — I have a 5-year-old daughter — and be proud of what we’re doing in the song choice that we had.”
“And there’s so many songs out there. Why even go that route even close?” she continued. “So we were going to change the wording, and we had that and I was like, I just don’t feel good about it.”
Finch revealed that her dancing partner, Keo Motsepe, “had the whole choreography done” before from they switched from Monae’s hit to Daphne Willis’ “Do It Like This” for their cha-cha.
“We had it done on Wednesday pretty much. Completely, the whole thing,” Finch explained. “So really, it fell on Keo’s shoulders, and that’s why I am so thankful for him stepping up to the challenge, because it wasn’t easy. We changed it all.”
She added: “I want to glorify God out there, and that just wasn’t a great choice for me to do that.”
Despite the last-minute song change, the softball player “loved” her dance from Monday night’s episode.
“It was a party. I was a little off. I knew I rehearsed better than I performed,” she admitted. “I try to power through things and muscle through them. I’m a pitcher. I explode and so now I have to figure out how to turn that power into grace and elegance.”
Dancing With the Stars: Athletes airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
