Strictly Come Dancing 2020: What is HRVY's real name?
24 October 2020, 18:00
What is HRVY's real name and why did he change it? Here's what we know about the Strictly 2020 star...
Strictly Come Dancing is here to save 2020 with a brand new series this autumn.
And one celebrity contestant who thinks he has a good chance of lifting the Glitterball trophy, is HRVY.
The YouTube star was discovered by Blair Dreelan – the lead singer of boyband East 17!.
He was then signed to Virgin EMI in 2017 before releasing songs such as Personal, Million Ways and Good Vibes.
During the Strictly launch show, HRVY opened up to Tess Daly about catching coronavirus before making his ballroom debut.
He said: “'I can't believe I made it this far. I am fine - I did test positive for coronavirus but I isolated with my family and we followed the Government guidelines and I am here! So I'm buzzing.
“I am very nervous, I genuinely am but I am going to give it my best go and hopefully my hips don't lie!”
But what is HRVY’s real name? And why is he called HRVY? Here’s what we know…
Read More: Who is HRVY? Strictly Come Dancing contestant's age, career and real name revealed
What is HRVY's real name?
HRVY was born Harvey Leigh Cantwell.
Speaking in his VT, Harvey explained: “My mum and dad spelt it H-a-r-v-e-y so, you know, the right way you would say.
“But when I was 17 I thought: ‘Do you know what? I need to be a bit cooler.’ So I thought why not just take the vowels out of my name.
He added: “Hopefully it looks cool, I mean I think it looks cool, but I am biased.”
Speaking to our sister site Popbuzz, the star also opened up about changing his name, saying: "It was just a decision to make it sound cooler.
"The Weeknd kinda does it at the end of his and I was like, well, he's cool, so lets just take them out. It was a joint decision. Now I just don't have them [vowels]."
Revealing whether people call him HRVY, he said: "All the time! It's so annoying. Every place I go they always make that joke or they just say 'H, R, V, Y'.
“When you ask Alexa, or one of those things you can speak to, it always says ' playing H, R, V, Y' instead of 'Harvey' which is kinda annoying but it is what it is."
Now Read: Strictly Come Dancing 2020: Where is Kevin Clifton this year?
