What Song Is In The Dancing With The Stars Ad With Alfonso Ribeiro?
Season 32 of "Dancing with the Stars" is the long-running reality series' biggest shakeup yet. Following one season on Disney+, Season 32, which premiered on September 28, returned to its former home on ABC. "Dancing with the Stars" also features a new hosting duo of Alfonso Ribeiro, back for his sophomore season, and series veteran Julianne Hough. The enticing slate of competitors includes Alyson Hannigan, Mira Sorvino, former NFL player Adrian Peterson, and reality star Harry Jowsey.
With so many changes afoot at "Dancing with the Stars" HQ, it's fitting the promos for Season 32 are supercharged with energy. That's partially due to the song blaring in the background, which is "Heads Will Roll" by indie outfit the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Longtime fans of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs might associate them more with sweaty mosh pits than slick dance studios. Indeed, the trio — made up of Karen O, Nick Zinner, and Brian Chase — was an integral part of the early 2000s music scene alongside contemporaries like The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, and Interpol. The band has released five albums to date, beginning with 2003's "Fever to Tell." "Heads Will Roll" was released as a single from the 2009 album "It's Blitz!"
Heads will roll on Dancing with the Stars
"Heads Will Roll" is perhaps the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' most dance-forward release, and it peaked at #1 on Billboard's dance singles chart in the United States. The refrain certainly suggests as much, with Karen O repeatedly wailing, "Dance 'til you're dead."
For the "Dancing with the Stars" promo, the words "til you're dead" were dropped, making the ads decidedly less macabre. Nevertheless, the lyric "heads will roll" hammers home the point that "Dancing with the Stars" does have high stakes as an elimination competition.
The groove of "Heads Will Roll" is even more pronounced in the commercials, as they feature the remix by A-Trak, which Rolling Stone once named one of the 200 greatest dance tracks of all time. Watching the Yeah Yeah Yeahs perform at Coachella in 2009 inspired A-Trak to make the remix. "Usually it's the other way around, the band would ask the remixer, but I heard something there, and I needed those stems," he said, speaking of the song's unmixed multitrack recordings.
"Heads Will Roll" is an ideal track for a dance show, but the synthy gothic keyboards and dark lyrics also make it an easy contender for horror promos. In 2021, the song was featured in Syfy's "Chucky" trailer.