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Sharna Burgess on Fangirling Over Her DWTS Partner Nick Carter, How He Smells

Nick Carter and Sharna Burgess
Sharna Burgess and Nick Carter are fan favorites to win this season of Dancing With the Stars. Craig Sjodin/ABC

Backstreet’s Back! And this time one BSB star has a great partner in crime. Nick Carter made his Dancing With the Stars debut on the show’s Season 21 premiere on Monday, Sept. 14, alongside his dance pro Sharna Burgess

Related: PHOTOS: DWTS contestants this season

The redheaded Aussie, 30, was understandably shocked when she first met the boy bander, and even admits to fangirling over the blonde hunk. 

“I’ve never fangirled about anybody,” Burgess dished to Us Weekly. “I just didn’t expect Nick Carter to be standing in front of me. And I, all of a sudden, regressed to my 13-year-old self and started to giggle. I thought, ‘No, surely he was there for something else, and my partner was going to come around the corner at some point.’”

Related: PHOTOS: Best boy bands ever

But Carter, 35, was, in fact, Burgess’ partner — and the longtime Backstreet Boys fan couldn’t be more thrilled. 

Nick Carter and Sharna Burgess
Sharna Burgess and Nick Carter danced on the Sept. 14 premiere of Dancing With the Stars. Adam Taylor/ABC

“It was an amazing thing to stand there and realize that one minute I’m copying these Backstreet Boys moves off these music videos and crushing on Nick with these posters on my wall,” Burgess recalled, adding, “and then at 30, all these years later, I get to teach him how to dance on Dancing With the Stars, and I get to meet him and see how wonderful of a person he is and how talented he is.”

Together the pair incorporated some BSB moves into their opening number, and Burgess admitted she was open to carrying the theme throughout the season. 

Related: PHOTOS: DWTS winners through the years

“I’m hoping that in Halloween Week, we might be able to do a little bit of a ‘Backstreet’s Back’ tribute again,” she said, referencing the classic monster-themed music video. “And I think Nick will probably choose something from his Backstreet Boys journey that he’s going to use.”

Though she was initially scared of the Backstreet Army of die-hard fans, Burgess said the response has been encouraging. 

“I have had not one mean thing said,” she revealed. “Not one girl that has been angry. Everybody feels like we’re a great team. We have a great bunch of people behind us, that’s for sure.”

As for some details that the biggest BSB fangirls might want to know: “He smells good. I don’t know what he uses — what his cologne is — but he definitely smells good. Even when he sweats, he doesn’t smell bad!”

But Carter isn’t perfect. His partner admitted that the former teen star has several challenges to overcome. 

“Nick has a lot of bad habits actually,” she said. “His posture can be really bad. His feet can curve in a little bit and he shuffles them around. I certainly don’t need to help him with performance quality. When he gets on the stage, he just lights up, and it’s wonderful to have that, but at the same time, you can throw out too much energy and go a little bit crazy, and I need him to reign it in and concentrate on the technique.”

Burgess had one name in mind when it came to the duo’s biggest competition.

Bindi Irwin was incredible on Monday night,” she said. “I was blown away. I think people are going to just fall in love with her. But Nick and I have already said that we don’t want to get too, too competitive, that the only people we’re going to compete against every week are ourselves.”

Tell Us: Do you think Sharna Burgess and Nick Carter could win this season of Dancing With the Stars?

Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC. 

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