'I'll never get over dancing on stage with Ne-Yo'

A woman's birthday trip to see Ne-Yo in concert ended up with her dancing on stage with the Grammy award winning star in front of thousands of people.

Kirsty Langley, 36, from St Helens was invited to join the American RnB singer and his back-up dancers on stage at the Co-Op Live arena in Manchester - and footage of her performance has since been widely shared on social media.

Langley, who works with children in care, used to dance with local group UC Crew when she was younger but said it had been a "long time" since she last strutted her stuff.

"I don't think it's really sunk in yet because I'm not over it, and I'm not sure I'll ever get over it," she said.

Langley added: "Going from just being a mum-of-two, then now everyone's tagging me on social media, me dancing around on stage has just now gone a bit viral on TikTok."

Langley said her eight-year-old daughter "thinks I'm famous and rich" after hearing about the dance.

"I've had to try and explain to her that that's not the case," she said.

Langley said her friend, Shelley James, bought her a Gold Circle ticket for the 2 May gig, part of Ne-Yo's and fellow platinum-selling artist Akon's Nights Like This tour, for her birthday, with access to an area close to the stage.

She said one of Ne-Yo's team invited her on stage after spotting her "shuffling" in the audience, along with two others for a dance-off style competition.

Langley said before the gig she was chatting with her friends about a previous show where a fan had fallen off stage after being invited to dance.

"All my mates were joking saying 'that'd be you', so I was like 'I'm getting on that stage' but I didn't expect or believe that it would happen," she said.

After she was invited on stage Langley said her competitive streak took over.

"I wasn't losing. Ne-Yo says 'there's no losers there's just one winner' but obviously it was three girls and then it was like the crowd picked the winner," she said.

After she was crowned the best dancer of the three audience members, Ne-Yo asked the audience to give it up for "my future ex-girlfriend".

"I didn't have a clue what I was doing up there. I couldn't see anybody. It was a blur," Langley said.

After dancing with Langley, the Miss Independent and So Sick hitmaker gave her a hug, spun her around and finished with a peck on the cheek.

"It was fantastic, I don't think I'm going to get another birthday like that to be fair," she added.

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