So Series 2 of The Masked Singer in the UK wrapped up just before Valentine's Day. And it was surely a ride as always. After several days of binge watching both Series 1 and 2 on ITV Hub before their deadline expired and getting some important screenshots, I've decided for the next couple of months or so to do some articles linked with the series as a whole, mainly the UK version.
Besides the amazing performances and surprise covers this show has, we all know what the real highlight is - finding out who is hidden underneath the outrageous disguises in each episode. And in some cases, it's quite the shocker when it's not who we expect.
So for this first Masked Singer article, I'm counting down six of the most surprising reveals - whether it's a surprisingly major singer or someone else. Some of these stars you would not have expected to have appeared on a show like this in the first place.
Word of warning, given the nature of the series, all of these examples are SPOILERS. Unless you have already seen the series or don't mind plot twists being given away to you in advance, it's best to watch all of the performances from all of the contestants before on YouTube and then the reveals themselves before reading this list. Here's a link to the official YouTube channel and its playlists so that you can do that.
Alright, let's get to it! The countdown starts now! :D
6. Jonathan Ross finally scores a point - Series 2, Episode 3.
With the majority of these list entries, nobody correctly guessed who was under the masks until they came off. Swan's unmasking is the only exception, which explains which I did not place it higher. That said, it is important to note the context of why the unmasking is here in the first place.
It's safe to say that most of the time, TV presenter Jonathan Ross is pretty far off with his guesses. For instance, he guessed Edwina Currie for Sausage and Christopher Biggins for Badger. Mostly a case of him joking around, but then there was the incident where he was the only panelist who failed to guess that Mel B was disguised as Seahorse.
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| So that's three Mel Bs and one Trish Goddard. He still thought it was Trisha even after the reveal for a bit. |
But hey, he was more than able to make up for that in the episode that came after. Swan had lost the Sing-Off against Sausage and now had to take off her mask. Most of the panel suspected that she was American and had possibly been in a girl band, with Kimberley Wyatt and Ashley Roberts being two of the guesses.
That was not what Jonathan had in mind though. Sure, he took the girl band thing into account, but he mentioned that some of the clues mentioned prime ministers and presidents, which made him think about Love Actually...
Yep, he guessed the woman who played Hugh Grant's secretary in that movie. The other panelists were taken by surprise with this comment, especially Rita (who went on to guess Idina Menzel), especially since this potential star had not been mentioned on as a likely candidate for Swan beforehand. And sure enough...
That's right, Jonathan was the ONLY panelist to correctly guess the star for once (not counting the time he guessed Jason Manford for Hedgehog just because Rita guessed it was him). As it turns out, the girl band was Milan and the American accent was fake. He was definitely chuffed about that, I'm telling you.
So the moral of the story is this, even a stopped watch is right twice a day. Jonathan may be pretty far off with his guesses most of the time, but when he gets it correct, he gets it correct big time.
5. One reveal I can be smug about - Series 2, Episode 7.
Admittedly there is some bias on my part on why this makes it on here. There are plenty of times when the panelists are unable to guess the correct celebrity under the mask. But being a casual viewer of the show and getting the answer before they do is always a treat.
If there was anything certain about Dragon, it was that it was a comedian. Now we just needed to guess which one. The most likely option was Jennifer Saunders, who had done singing before (most notably in Shrek 2), with other options including Katherine Ryan and Miranda Hart.
One day, I considered the fact that Dragon talked about eating strange foods and remembered some old TV show about historical cuisine, which was the first time I found out about Sue Perkins. I brought up this possibility to my mother, who also watches the show, but she dismissed this as unlikely. After all, since when have we heard her sing before?
Hey, guess what, I was right! And nobody on the panel got it at all! I was extremely proud of myself that night for getting it before they did. As as to why we haven't seen her sing before...she normally gets stage fright when it comes to singing. This was the main way she could make herself feel comfortable. For the panel, it was a massive shock, but for me, it was just my guessing game paying off. ;)
4. Ms. Ora, meet your match! - Series 1, Episode 3.
Chameleon was quite the character for the two episodes that he appeared in. Besides his impressive build underneath his costume, he also appeared to be pretty confident in himself, as well as the type to splash out a lot of cash.
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| Pay no mind to the bottom right. That's either the panelists thinking about who spent a lot of cash, or Rita discussing her feelings for him. |
There were two things that everyone knew. The first was that Rita Ora clearly had a thing for him. In her own words, "I never thought I'd fancy a chameleon".
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| She even had a rose with her whenever he appeared onstage. |
The second was that it was unlikely to be a professional singer. But with such a great build, surely it was a sports star, right? Or perhaps even a buff actor like Idris Elba?
Well, turns out it was a professional singer after all. You know, the lead singer of the band that sung "Christmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" and "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"? And he still looked fit even now! Rita in particular was stunned by who her secret masked crush was.
What makes this particularly surprising is that this was the first professional singer to be unmasked on the UK version, as beforehand were soap star Patsy Palmer (disguised as Butterfly) and politician Alan Johnson (disguised as Pharoah). And keep in mind that The Darkness were a major group back in the day.
Oh, and just to clarify, Justin confessed straight afterwards that he was single. So unless the age gap gets in the way, maybe he and Rita could be a cute couple after all? ;)
3. Something the Osbournes didn't catch onto - Series 1, Episode 6.
Duck was one of those contestants who didn't get off to a great start but then gradually started to improve her game. Originally there were assumptions that she was a sports star, but then guesses with professional singers started to come in. She still struggled to avoid the Sing-Off twice, but hey, at least she survived them.
So not only was it a surprise when it turned out that she was a professional singer, but even moreso when it turned out to be one of the more influential female singers of the British rock scene.
This was such a surprise for the panelists that their reaction was used for the episode's thumbnail on the ITV Hub. Sure it was somewhat disappointing that Ken Jeong was unable to witness this epic reveal, but the addition of two of the Osbournes on the panel more than makes up for it.
Kelly Osbourne in particular was stunned that she hadn't got it right, considering that she and Skin knew each other well. Of course, this was a relief for our contestant, considering that she thought that the game was up when the Osbournes arrived, only to be able to misdirect them anyway.
And then there was the shocked reaction of everyone on Twitter who couldn't believe that Skin of all people had sung Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". Not only that, but she does it pretty well!
2. The clue was in the song - Series 2, Episode 6.
Viking seemed to be one of those contestants you couldn't place a finger on. Was he Bear Grylls, or Ricky Wilson from Kaiser Chiefs, or Jerome Flynn, or even Pat Sharp? Either way, if was hard to decide whether it was a professional singer or someone else - he did pretty well on "Songbird" but was in the Sing-Off after singing "Watermelon Sugar".
After surviving the Sing-Off, he made a comeback with a slow acoustic version of a-ha's "Take On Me", probably one of his best performances in the series by far. I was a little confused as to why it was a slow and melancholy-sounding version, but I still enjoyed it.
Next week, he did "The Scientist" and, despite being eliminated that week, still did a really good job with the high notes.
Wait a second, he wears a Viking outfit (which is supposed to be a clue in of itself), performs "Take On Me" and is good at hitting the high notes. Doesn't that hint at the lead singer from a-ha itself? I mean, they originally came from Norway, right?
No, it can't possibly be him. Why would he be doing this show in the first place?
I was left stunned for the rest of the night after this reveal. Seriously, the original singer of "Take On Me" performs "Take On Me" in the competition and still nobody knew it was him, including myself. As Joel correctly pointed out, this was the first time that a contestant had performed their own song on the show.
It also caused me to look back at his earlier performances in more detail. And upon hearing his "Watermelon Sugar" rendition again, I have to admit that it was actually pretty good after all. Either way, what a surprise.
1. Looks like we're the silly sausages - Series 2, Episode 8.
There was no doubt that Series 2 winner Sausage was one of the greatest singers on the show (runner-up Badger even praised her voice in an interview afterwards), and supposedly there was no doubt about who could potentially be in the disguise. Could it be Sheridan Smith from Legally Blonde? Could it be Stacey Solomon, runner-up on X-Factor and Queen of the Jungle? Maybe it was even Jennifer Hudson or Beverley Knight?
Of course, those questions could not be answered until the very end of the series when she won the grand prize. With all the clues that the panelists were given, surely at least one of them would be able to get it right?
Admittedly there was some anxiety shown before this unmasking. Guest panelist Nicola Roberts (who won Series 1 as Queen Bee) mentioned that she didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of the other panelists, something that did not come to light when she correctly guessed Robin and Badger's identities as Aston Merrygold and Ne-Yo respectively. Additionally, when Nicola guessed that Stacey Solomon was Sausage, Rita decided to go with Leona Lewis but mentioned that she would be upset with herself if it was Stacey.
Except none of that mattered because NOBODY got it right at all.
Everyone on the judging panel was stunned. Even more so than they usually were when surprise reveals occurred.
In fact, Mo Gilligan even had to get out of his seat because he was so flabbergasted. Something that teasers for the finale gleefully exploited.
The best part? Jonathan had guessed Joss Stone...for another contestant entirely. Which means that nobody had even suspected her for the entirety of her run.
It's one thing for a contestant to keep their identity a secret until the big reveal. It's another thing when they're the winner of the series AND a legend in the music scene. Taking that into account as well as the priceless reactions of the judges, this certainly takes the top spot on my list.
So that's it for the list! I'd also like to point out that the other stars that the panelists were unable to guess were Tree (Teddy Sheringham), Alien (Sophie Ellis-Bexter), Grandfather Clock (Glenn Hoddle) and Bush Baby (John Thomson). And just for info's sake, the other ones they correctly guessed were Daisy (Kelis), Unicorn (Jake Shears), Fox (Denise van Outen), Monster (Cee Lo Green), Octopus (Katherine Jenkins), the aforementioned Queen Bee, Blob (Sir Lenny Henry) and Harlequin (Gabrielle).
I will (hopefully!) be posting the next two Masked Singer blog posts throughout the next couple of months or so. One of them I'm already making good process on and the other one requires a lot of thinking behind it. But once I've gotten them sorted out, they're be good to go. ;D
