Wolverhampton TikTok star becomes first Strictly Come Dancing dhol player

A TikTok musician has become the first dhol drum player to perform on Strictly Come Dancing.

Josh Kapur, from Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, performed on the show as part of actress Balvinder Sopal and professional partner Julian Caillon’s Punjabi Bhangra Couple’s Choice dance.

Mr Kapur, who has almost 300,000 followers, thanked the “power of social media” for the opportunity after Ed Sheeran reposted a TikTok video where he was playing the dhol to one of the singer-songwriter’s latest hits, Sapphire.

The 19-year-old said when Sopal chose to dance to Sapphire on the show, she “really wanted a dhol player” and a quick internet search led to his “once in a lifetime” experience.

“Being on stage for the first time, on live television, representing my culture and my family, was the best.

“I felt like a celebrity,” the 19-year-old, who now lives in Telford, said.

Sopal described Mr Kapur’s performance as “awesome” and Callion added that it “brought the heartbeat” to the routine.

Mr Kapur rehearsed for a week before the show and said the pressure of performing live became real after was introduced to Dave Arch and the rest of the band.

“They’re top, top tier and I was like ‘oh, I don’t want to mess this up’.

“As soon as I stood on the stage, it was really scary but everything I had been practicing went exactly as I wanted it to.”

Mr Kapur said he had been inundated with support and after the performance his phone “didn’t stop ringing”.

“I couldn’t have done it without my parents,” he added.

“When I first started making dhol videos for TikTok I was doing it in my house and I was making such a racket, but as soon as my videos starting doing something, they didn’t mind and they’ve been there to support me constantly.”

He added that he was “so proud” to represent the dhol community.

The 19-year-old, who is a second year maths and computer science student at the University of Birmingham, said he would love to take his musical talent “to the next level” in the future and perform alongside someone like Ed Sheeran.