One of the most fun shows on TV was back for a fifth series!
Series 5 of The Masked Singer had same line-up as usual, Joel Dommett presenting, and a panel of Mo Gilligan, Davina McCall, Jonathan Ross and Rita Ora. That said, Rita Ora went on the US version of the show to fill in for Nicole Scherzinger for a couple of episodes, and Rita Ora’s stand-ins were Charlie Simpson, who won as Rhino in series 4, popstar and TV presenter Olly Murs and comedian and actress Jennifer Saunders. Not all at the same time. They seemed to like having guest panelists on, as after Rita Ora came back they had guest panelists as well as her rather than in place of. They were singer Ellie Goulding, comedian Sir Lenny Henry (who was Blob in series 2), talkshow host Lorraine Kelly (not her only contribution to this series…), and in the final, actor and comedian Rob Brydon.
There were some theme weeks. The Circus one had Joel as a ringmaster doing stuff like riding on a tiny bike and balancing a broom on his chin. Davina was wearing leopard print and lifting toy dumbbells as a strongman – or should that be strongwoman? She had a fake moustache, so I’m not sure! Jonathan was in a daredevil/human canonball costume. Olly wore a black suit with silver stars on it, and white gloves, so he could pull them off and say literally that “the gloves are off”. Mo had a purple top hat and a green jacket, it was a bit like a Mad Hatter from Alice In Wonderland look, which didn’t quite fit the theme, but hey. I loved that they sung ‘Let Go For Tonight’ by Foxes as the group song.
In the School Disco week they played ‘Freestyler’ by Bomfunk MCs, which took me back to my school days. Joel wore a mortar board and gown and had a cane, and later became DJ “Get Down” Dommett. Jonathan was dressed as a caretaker, Mo had a backwards baseball cap and a school jacket, and Davina I think was a P.E teacher?
Let’s take a look at how all the contestants did.
WEATHER
Weather had one of the best costumes the show has had really, it was gorgeous. She had a blue sparkly dress with a white fluffy cloud head, silver lightning bolts and a sun. I liked the joke that she had a “face like thunder”. Her song was ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ by Johnny Nash, which has lyrics about the rain, blue skies and bright sunshiney days. From the start it seemed likely she’d be a diva type singer, and that was confirmed when she performed. Some of the guesses were Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Macy Gray and Bonnie Tyler, but most of the panel guessed Dionne Warwick, and that turned out to be the case. She had appeared in series 3 of the US version too, as Mouse. Ironic really, as she lost out in a head to head against a rodent character (Rat) in this series!
Much as I liked the Weather costume aesthetically, perhaps it wasn’t
the best practically, as afterwards it was revealed that before she was about to perform Dionne Warwick said the costume was uncomfortable and refused to go on, so it had to be altered at the last minute, but after the alteration it was fine, and they said Dionne Warwick was “great fun” to work with.
Her clue packages had her wielding a sceptre, which turned out to be a clue itself as it was a reference to Dionne Warwick being signed to Scepter Records, while “McHaliburt” was a nod to songwriters Burt Bacharch and Hal David who wrote a lot of Dionne Warwick’s most famous songs such as ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ and ‘Walk On
By’.
CHICKEN CAESAR
Chicken Caesar was another great costume. He was a visual pun, being a rooster that was dressed rather like a Roman Emperor such as Julius Caesar, wearing a grass crown, but in Chicken Caesar’s case the crown was made of lettuce, like in salad. Caesar salad is nothing to do with Julius Caesar (the name for Caesar salad comes from Italian resturaunt owner Caesar Cardini), but it makes a funny pun. And the show went all in on it, Chicken Caesar’s performance of ‘Under The Bridge’ by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers had a backing band in lettuce dresses playing guitars made of cheese, and slices of hard boiled eggs around too, all in front of a Roman aqueduct.
He turned out to be Pointless host Alexander Armstrong. Chicken Caesar had a Geordie accent, which was “put on”, but Alexander Armstrong really is from the North East, and as much as he’s mostly known as a gameshow host he has a singing career as well, he’s released three albums.
RAT
Rat had an almost Super Mario-ish plumbers outfit with overalls. She had purple eyeshadow and long eyelashes, so a similar energy to mechanic Abi Franklin in Corrie with her very polished red varnished nails – a manual job doesn’t mean she considers the finer points of cosmetics to be unimportant. Rat used puns like her work being in “the rat race” and stuff she had in “the pipeline”.
In her performance of ‘Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!’ by the Vengaboys she did a dance routine and there were some bendy buildings in the background which danced along with her. In all her performances she was joined by giant ants, which was a similarly strange rodent/insect scale as the squirrel who was in Cricket’s first performance.
Her performance of the children’s song ‘Nellie The Elephant’ acted the song out, featuring an elephant in a tutu with a suitcase (if you know the song, it’s a pun on an elephant’s trunk and a trunk as in a type of luggage). Which is a similarly bizarre scale difference, but as the elephant was in the background they could play the whole “small/far away” card. Joel made an “elephant in the room” joke.
Rat had a Scouse accent, so people guessed Liverpudlian celebrities for her, such as Mel C and Kerry Katona, and a very frequent guess was actress Claire Sweeney. But Rat has to be one of most surprising reveals the show has ever had – she was Strictly Come Dancing head judge Shirley Ballas! Looking back though, her performances were quite “holiday camp”-ish. You know, getting everybody moving with a Europop track and a children’s song, and she was dancing more than she was singing, so in hindsight it makes sense.
BUBBLE TEA
Bubble Tea was very, well, bubbly. There were bubbles coming out of the top of her, and a straw. She looked like a cup with her head being the top with a smiley face drawn on it and kitten-like ears as well. She was also very girly, or at least very pink, she had pink bubbles, and her performances had pink blossom, pink ribbons, pink hearts and a pink radio. There were white and brown balloons too, I guess to suggest tea, or chocolate milk. Her first song was ‘Material Girl’ by Madonna, her second was ‘Le Freak’ by Chic (which might have fitted better as a song for Eiffel Tower), and it had cartoon pandas in.
A clue about being a “sugar babe” suggested the Sugababes, with Heidi Range being the most popular guess of that group. Other guesses included Emily Atack, Fearne Cotton and Maisie Smith. Some in response to clues were Jane Horrocks (who played Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous) and Emma Bunton due to “spice” references. But she was actress Julia Sawalha. I suppose Jane Horrocks was the closest guess, as Julia Sawalha is perhaps best known for playing Saffy in Absolutely Fabulous. The spice clues were a hint to that, as Saffy was short for saffron, while the “Stop the Press!” line was about her starring as Lynda in Press Gang. It was a good reveal, as Jennifer Saunders, her onscreen mum Edina in Absolutely Fabulous, was on the judge’s panel that week, and didn’t recognise her until she was unmasked! They hugged at the end, which was a lovely moment.
OWL
Owl was a very fluffy, and certainly very big-eyed, owl. She was in a school uniform, and her performances tended to have a school setting. The performance of ‘Padam Padam’ by Kylie Minogue featured a teacher who was… canine anyway, I’m not sure if he was meant to be a wolf, a dog or a fox. Owl’s take on ‘Don’t Stop Movin’ by S Club 7 featured a tuck shop and rabbit school kids dancing. Her sing-off song choice was ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’ a song which in the UK was a big hit for Middle Of The Road. I suppose “chirpy chirpy cheep cheep” are bird noises, but not really the noises owls make. It did fit with Owl’s other songs though, being bubblegum pop. OK, I suppose ‘Padam Padam’ is more dance than bubblegum pop, but Owl’s final song, ‘Happy Talk’ by Captain Sensible was a new wave song (though originally it is from the musical South Pacific) was definitely the odd one out, especially as the performance didn’t have a school setting, it had Union Jacks and a backdrop of Buckingham Palace.
For Owl’s true indentity, the clue “11 mates” suggested a footballer, as that’s how many is in a team. Alex Scott was probably the most recurring guess, with Mo promising if Owl didn’t turn out to be her he’d do the show in his boxers. Owl wasn’t Alex Scott though, and Mo got around this by wearing his boxer shorts over his trousers.
Owl’s reveal was another big surprise. She was talkshow host and TV presenter Lorraine Kelly. Then, two weeks after, she was a guest panelist! Someone joining the panel in the same series they were a contestant is a bit much, but she was much better as a panelist than she was as a contestant. She… wasn’t the best singer among the contestants, put it that way, but she was fun and lively on the panel.
DIPPY EGG
A giant egg in a blue egg-cup, Dippy Egg had googly eyes, and the top of his shell was broken off like a boiled egg, which had a spoon in it and a toasted solider. There was also yolk everywhere, and he had egg boxes for shoes. He had a face like how people sometimes draw faces on eggs, or the nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty.
His clue packages were set on a farm. One of them had ‘Over The Rainbow’ and ‘Duelling Banjos’ in the background, both they and the respective films they are from The Wizard Of Oz and Deliverance have quite different vibes to each other, though both at some point set in the countryside I guess.
In Dippy Egg’s performance of ‘Daydream Believer’ by The Monkees he had a backing band of eggs with faces drawn on, and his performance of ‘There’s No Business Like Showbusiness’ from Annie Get Your Gun had backing dancers of eggs with faces drawn on. I’ve heard of “sunny side up” eggs, and Dippy Egg’s sing-off performance of ‘Shotgun’ by George Ezra had a sun which looked very like an egg yolk, along with toasted soldiers in sunglasses.
His performance of ‘(I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles’ by The Proclaimers had Highland cows marching up and down, egg people with kilts, one egg had a ginger beard, and Joel made a “Scotch Egg” pun. There were also chickens crossing the road in the background, going in opposite directions, so they both wanted to “get to the other side” I guess.
Dippy Egg’s last performance was one of ‘Moon River’ by Audrey Hepburn, which was a bit of a boring performance really, but I think the song was chosen due it being from Breakfast At Tiffany’s. In general over the course of the series there had been lots of breakfast references for Dippy Egg, one clue was “breakfast show” and another even naming The Big Breakfast, which might have suggested a breakfast TV/radio host, but equally might have simply been due to the breakfast/eggs connection.
Guesses for him were often bald guys with a somewhat egg-shaped heads like comedian Matt Lucas, MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace and TV chef Simon Rimmer, who even “accidentally” revealed live on air on Sunday Brunch that he was Dippy Egg, but this turned out to be a porky pie, if we’re keeping with the food theme.
Other guesses were quite varied, including sports presenter and former football Gary Lineker, politician Ed Balls, TV presenter Johnny Vaughn and Chris Evans (the British DJ/presenter/talkshow host etc, not the American film star). But Dippy Egg was Nicky Campbell, probably best known for hosting Wheel Of Fortune but he’s hosted lots of stuff, everything from Top Of The Pops to Newsnight (and indeed a breakfast show on the radio). It looked a bit like he was hatching out of the egg when they took the top of the costume off.
MAYPOLE
Maypole was, well, a maypole, a wooden pole with ribbons on and flowers on top, and both her clue packages and her performances were set in the countryside with village halls and greenery. One of her performances, of ‘Let You Love Me’ by Rita Ora, had Maypole standing in front of another (inanimate) maypole.
Her performance of ‘Sweet Melody’ by Little Mix had giant butterflies in, which I thought might be a reference to another Little Mix song, ‘Wings’ (“spread your wings my little butterfly”), but perhaps not given who Maypole turned out to be.
Guesses for who Maypole was included Anne-Marie, Cheryl, Stacey Solomon, Vanessa White from The Saturdays, Katy B, Charli XCX, Emma Bunton, Zara Larsson. One of Jonathan Ross’ guesses was former Prime Minister Theresa May (clearly a pun on her surname). Some guessed Rita Ora on weeks when she wasn’t on the panel, and Lenny Henry even suggested Rita Ora on a week when she was on the panel with him!
After a few weeks they began guessing Pussycat Dolls, such as Ashley Roberts and Kimberley Wyatt. Maypole was a Pussycat Doll, but a different one, Melody Thornton. One clue was “the year of Orwell”, which suggested 1984, and that was indeed the year Melody was born. She had previously won The Masked Singer Australia in 2022 as Mirrorball, and that same series also featured Michelle Williams (as Microphone), who has been in The Masked Singer UK (as Rockhopper) AND The Masked Singer US (as Butterfly) too! Michelle Williams only needs to go on one more version of The Masked Singer before she can be an Only Connect picture question.
AIR FRYER
An air fryer is a very trendy item at the moment, so it was a good choice for a Masked Singer character. When she was a guest judge though Jennifer Saunders commented on the possibility of air fryers going the same way as the bread maker. Yeah, you often get cooking appliances which are popular to get for a while but then people get bored of them. I remember an episode of ’90s/2000s sitcom Spaced where Jessica Hyne’s character Daisy rambles on with a stretched analogy about boyfriends being like toasted sandwich makers (everyone raves on about them, then you get one and use it all the time and tell all your friends about it and have parties where you show them off and make lots of toasted sandwiches for, then you forget about them and they gather dust before they get chucked away). Bill Bailey’s character Bilbo takes the moral of that to be “Dump your boyfriend, have a sandwich!”. But I’ve detoured now, let’s back to The Masked Singer.
The Masked Singer Air Fryer looked more like a robot, she had beeps and digital eyes and mouth on screen, with her eyes sometimes turning into love hearts.
Air Fryer’s performance of ‘Kings & Queens’ by Ava Max had giant chips with sunglasses, and dancers dressed in silver, a bit like tin foil. Her take on ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe had a timer ticking down in a kitchen which had giant chips with eyes and chef’s hats, school girls dancing while stirring egg whisks in bowls, and school boys playing air guitar on the counter.
Her performance of ‘The Lonely Goatherd’ from The Sound Of Music had goats with bowties carrying chips, ladies in Bavarian dress carrying plates of chips, and… giant chips carrying plates of chips – isn’t that sort of cannibalism?!? There were mountains in the background made of chocolate, and it rained chocolate. I think it was invoking that Land Of Chocolate sequence from The Simpsons, though I don’t know if Austria, where The Sound Of Music is set, is known for chocolate. Switzerland and Belgium are, I think it’s a case of sometimes countries that are near each other get culturally mixed together in people’s minds.
I loved her performance of ‘Defying Gravity’ from Wicked. It was set inside an oven, which was a bit odd, but it was an excellent vocal performance and ‘Defying Gravity’ is such an emotional, epic soaring song, Mo commented that the performance looked like it could be the centrepiece of “a musical version of Argos!”
Air Fryer’s final performance was of ‘I’m Outta Love’ by Anastasia, which was quite love themed for a song about being “outta love”, there were love hearts with eyes and mouths, male dancers in suits and female dancers in dresses, both with heart patterns on.
Guesses for who Air Fryer was included Jessie J, Kylie and Dannii Minogue, Anne Hathaway, Alexandra Burke, Beverley Knight, Ella Henderson, Jennifer Hudson and Whoopi Goldberg. A popular guess was Leona Lewis (especially after a clue where she mentioned “A Moment Like This”). But Air Fryer was Keala Settle, perhaps best known for playing Lettie in the film The Greatest Showman and singing the big hit song from it ‘This Is Me’. She’s also appeared in many Broadway and West End productions, and is going to be in the upcoming film adaptations of Wicked playing a character created especially for the films. When unmasked, Keala stated that she was relieved Jennifer Saunders didn’t recognise her voice, as she had performed with Jennifer in Sister Act on the West End!
I liked a lot of stuff in her clue packages. There was an Oscar with a spider’s web on it, another had a penguin in a snowglobe. One clue was “Are you Paul?”, which seemed to suggest R.U Paul (i.e a connection to RuPaul). I’m not entirely sure what specifically those were referring to though. I think the snow in the snowglobe was gold, and she has a Golden Globe? But I still liked the imagery. I liked that they played ‘Popcorn’ by Hot Butter in a clue package as well, I don’t think this was even meant to be a clue though, I think that was just due to the air fryer character.
Air Fryer was by far my favourite contestant this year. She was a cute character, and she had the best voice.
EIFFEL TOWER
Eiffel Tower was like when France go full-on stereotypically French with their Eurovision Song Contest entries. Though her French accent was very obviously fake. She said stuff like “Ooh la la”. I’m sure I heard the theme tune to Allo, Allo played in one of her clue packages too.
She was very gold and shiny, and in her clue packages she was a French landmark sightseeing in London, wanting to see fellow tourist attractions like Big Ben. There are probably shippers out there for the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben. What would they call it, do you think, Beiffel?
She had a very Moulin Rouge style performance of ‘Voulez-Vous’ by ABBA, with dancing love hearts, plus men dressed in red heart patterned suits and women dressed like can-can dancers with feathers. For her take on ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams she was on a plinth with a night sky and fireworks in the background. Her performance of ‘Flowers’ by Miley Cyrus was smothered in flowers, in the background and the dancers covered head to toe in them. With her version of ‘Stay’ by Rihanna feat. Mikky Ekko there were ladies with glittery, heart shaped red handbags. Her performance of ‘Paradise City’ by Guns’n’Roses had sailors with black and white striped shirts and can-can dancers, and some… baguettes, I think, with eyes and moustaches and wearing berets.
Her performance of ‘Castle On The Hill’ by Ed Sheeran was backed by a band of mice – another bizarre scale on this show, with the mice being roughly the same size as the Eiffel Tower! The mice playing guitars wore berets, and the mice playing keyboards and drums had moustaches. The performance was in front of a gold Arc de Triomph.
So as I said, in general very stereotypically French, with a lot of romance motifs as well with Paris being a popular choice for romantic getaways.
When it game to guessing Eiffel Tower’s identity, Kim Cattral and Sarah Jessica Parker were both guessed, mainly due to Sex And The City connotations. That is set in New York, but London, New York and Paris are often said to have a lot of similarities. Sarah Jessica Parker’s character did briefly move to Paris at some point didn’t she, I’m not certain, I was never much of a fan of Sex And The City, sorry. Other guesses were Sharleen Spiteri from Texas (the band name comes from the film Paris, Texas), Bonnie Tyler (one of her songs is ‘Lost In France’). A popular guess was Lindsay Lohan. Others included Lisa Stansfield, Paloma Faith and Vanessa Paradis. Jonathan Ross guessed Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, and one of those was right – Eiffel Tower was Tiffany. I really liked her most recent single, ‘You’re My Everything’, from 2022. One thing that is notable I suppose is that in her farewell performance Tiffany didn’t reprise one of the songs she sung on the night, but, apparently on Jonathan’s request, she performed her biggest hit ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’.
Eiffel Tower was a very pleasant surprise for me as a contestant. I wasn’t expecting to be a fan as I thought as a character it might be too limited, but she ended up as one of my favourites this year.
CRICKET
Cricket was another visual pun contestant, playing the double meaning of cricket the insect and cricket the game, with him being a giant green cricket who had a cricket bat and white cricket clothes with pads and so on.
His performance of ‘Place Your Hands’ by Reef had giant cricket balls with eyes and a squirrel umpire (though Joel noted he could have also have been a butcher with the similar white uniform and hat).
He also performed ‘Of The Night’ by Bastille, (a mash-up cover of ‘Rhythm Is A Dancer’ by Snap! and ‘Rhythm Of The Night’ by Corona). The whole vibe of this performance was like a Tim Burton film, with dancers in black and white striped or chequered outfits with umbrellas or top hats.
Cricket did a soul ballad version of ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ by Calvin Harris, where Cricket held a high note. It was set in a woodland with fireflies in the background, and ladybird dancers with pigtails for some reason. I mean pigtails as in the hairstyle, not curly tails pigs have.
Cricket seemed to go back and forth between the cricket green and the woodland. He was on a cricket field for his performance of ‘Antenna’ by Fuse ODG, which had lots of bee spectators and male dancers in green and yellow striped jackets, plus the return of a giant cricketball with an eye. Then he was back in the woodland for his performance of ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ by Bonnie Raitt. The teary, heartbreak ballad showed off his soulful voice, and had something of a winter-into-spring theme, with leafless trees and female dancers with nature goddess looks. Unless the implication is they used all the leaves from the trees to make their outfits. Cricket stayed in the woodland for ‘As It Was’ by Harry Styles.
In the final he performed ‘A Thousand Miles’ by Vanessa Carlton, backed by a bee and hedge orchestra and a giant leaf playing a moss covered grand piano, all conducted by a ladybird. He dueted with Masked Singer series 3 runner-up Mushroom (Charlotte Church) on ‘Rewrite The Stars’ from The Greatest Showman. A love duet between a cricket and a mushroom works OK. As long as it’s not that fungus which gets into an ant’s brain, causes it to climb onto a leaf and then grows out of the ant’s body.
Guesses for Cricket included cricketer Stuart Broad, musician/chef Levi Roots, fitness instructor Mr. Motivator and pop-R&B singers such as Taio Cruz, Seal, Gregory Porter and Marvin Hulmes from JLS. Quite a few clues hinted towards Blue – “S. W. Ebbe” (Simon Webbe), a VT where Cricket had an alarm clock branded ‘All Rise’, and him talking about “before the ‘Curtain Falls'”. These were all red herrings. Cricket was Lemar. There were fewer specific clues hinting to him, (one was him saying “there is justice”, a nod to Lemar’s biggest hit ‘If There’s Any Justice’), but Lemar was still a guess that many of us made very early on due to his quite distinctive soulful voice, and by the end nearly the whole panel and his duet partner Charlotte Church guessed it was Lemar. It was another example of how when unmasked the rest of the costume would look reasonably good as a actual stage performance outfit.
BIGFOOT
This was an unusual take on Bigfoot. I don’t think he’s often depicted as quite this fluffy, certainly not with a purple nose! This Bigfoot also had a broken leg in a cast and had a crutch. His whole aesthetic reminded me of the old Monster Munch crisps adverts and the film Monsters Inc. In the context of The Masked Singer UK, he was very like Monster in series 1 and Blob in series 2.
His first performance was of ‘You’re Welcome’ from Moana. It featured two hairy Cousin Itt from The Addams Family style creatures riding around on scooters and a giant pink teddy bear with a bowtie and bandage, a little bit like Children In Need mascot Pudsea Bear. The teddy bear was bouncing on a spacehopper.
One of my favourite performances of Bigfoot’s was ‘Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)’ by Artful Dodger feat. Craig David, which had purple monsters dancing and a pink cycloptic monster on a DJ mixing desk.
I loved hearing ‘Shut Up And Dance’ by Walk The Moon again, Bigfoot’s version was set in a neon-lit library, with giant insects, some blue flies and the bees who were in some of Cricket’s performances. Oh, and huge yellow cycloptic monster was in it too for good measure.
His take on ‘Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)’ by the Backstreet Boys was set in a large house with a staircase, Roman pillars and skulls for decortation, and a lot of purple and blue furry monsters. The video for the original song was horror movie themed with monster types (werewolf, vampire, mummy etc), so it fitted quite well.
When he performed ‘Never Forget’ by Take That, it was against a backdrop of pink clouds and balloons, a bit the picture used on that brand of Imperial Leather shampoo that was targetted at women, for the laydees it’s something like Cotton Clouds and White Cashmere and was moisturising, (in contrast to a brand of Imperial Leather shampoo targetted at men, for the LADZLADZLADZ it was blue and something like Arctic Ocean and Icelandic Moss and was INVIGORATING). The performance featured giant bees and hedgehogs, perhaps a nod to Queen Bee and Hedgehog the top 2 in the first series of The Masked Singer.
For the final, Bigfoot performed cheesetastic favourite ‘The One And Only’ by Chesney Hawkes. His duet was to ‘Dancing On The Ceiling’ by Lionel Ritchie, and was with series 4 Masked Singer runner-up Phoenix (Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs). Joel called it “the mythological mash-up we never knew we needed”. The phoenix is a myth from classical culture, while bigfoot is a fairly modern myth, so yeah it is an interesting team up. The two singers seemed to get on very well and to enjoy the performance too.
Guesses for who Bigfoot was included Anthony Costa from Blue, survival expert Ray Mears, actor Rupert Grint, footballers David Seaman, Wayne Bridge and Ian Wright, and TV presenter, actor, comedian, singer etc Bradley Walsh. I thought Bigfoot might be Leigh Francis, as he had a show called Bo Selecta. But Bigfoot’s true identity was a guess that was made throughout the series and by the end the panel all went with it. TV presenter Alex Brooker, known for Soccer Aid, The Last Leg and The Jump, with Davina McCall. The bandaged foot and crutch Bigfoot had might itself have been a clue to the fact that Alex Brooker has a prosphetic leg. He said he did the show because he himself is a fan, and so are his two daughters.
PIRANHA
Piranha subverted expectations twice. Piranhas are very sharp toothed fish which have a reputation for, when in large numbers, being able to reduce a human to a skeleton in seconds, whereas the Masked Singer Piranha was a nervous, stuttering character in pyjamas who in his clue packages found the ocean too scary so wanted to escape it, but on land he ended up in a funfair and got scared of the ghost train! I suppose “Piranha in pyjamas” has alliterative appeal, but I wonder if he should have been a shark, because a species called the pyjama shark does exist.
It might have been unintentional – apparently Piranha was originally supposed to look scarier, but they were told to tone him down a bit for a primetime ITV family show – but it is true that piranhas aren’t as dangerous as their reputation suggests. In a similar way to how Jaws, as much as we all like the film, gave sharks an unfair reputation, the Jaws copycat film Piranha (which I don’t think is a very good film, personally, but hey) did the same for piranhas, but in real life, it’s only one species of piranha that attacks prey that way, and even then it’s very rare and under extreme circumstances, apparently they’re more like an aquatic equivalent of vultures, and mostly scavenge from corpses.
But, anyway, Piranah subverted expectations again when he sung, as he had a huge, powerful voice and managed to take on ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’ by Celine Dion, accompanied by mermaids, starfish and a bright green shark.
His performance of ‘Treasure’ by Bruno Mars didn’t have any sunken treasure, but it was in a colourful coral reef with a whole undersea ecosystem including a shark, a lobster and a whale.
He showed off his great voice with ‘How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?’ by Michael Bolton, and yeah that is a big cheesy ballad, but it’s one that a good singer can show off their voice to.
Piranha’s performance of ‘Since U Been Gone’ by Kelly Clarkson had fishes on guitar, an octopus on the keyboard and… a pink dinosaur on drums! Spot the odd one out! Maybe the dinosaur was meant to be a seahorse.
He sung ‘Without You’ by Nilsson in front of a gold triangle, which reminded me a bit of Stars In Their Eyes, though I don’t think anyone ever did that dressed as a piranha in pyjamas! In fact, looking it up quickly, I don’t think anybody ever did that song on Stars In Their Eyes at all, which I’m kind of surprised about. Anyway, Piranha’s performance of it had male dancers in glittery green suits and bow ties, and green fish scales in the background which turned gold, so a goldfish, then.
In the Final, Piranha sung ‘Lay Me Down’ by Sam Smith, in front of a sparkly night sky and a crescent moon that was… dripping with some sort of pink liquid. God knows what. Calpol? His duet was with series 4 Masked Singer 3rd place finalist Fawn (Natalie Appleton). It was a slowed-down ballad version of ‘Believe’ by Cher, in a environment reaching a compromise for the two species, a forest with a river. It was presented like a love duet, but a piranha and a fawn is probably not going to work. The most likely outcome is a piranha would try to eat the fawn, and fail to!
There was a “practising my scales” pun in one of the clue packages.
Guesses for Piranha’s identity included Tom Grennan, Jamie Cullum, Sting, Geogre Ezra, Gaz Coombes from Supergrass, Brandon Flowers from The Killers and Zac Efron. But he was Danny Jones, singer and guitarist from McFly. This was one myself and a lot of people guessed very early on due to recognising his voice, and for it was confirmed for me when he sung a Michael Bolton song, as Danny Jones is from Bolton.
Like Alex Brooker not telling his daughters, Danny didn’t tell his son he was on the show, and he filmed his son’s surprised reaction to the reveal.
I think Piranah was a great winner. Following up from a member of Busted winning last series, this time a member of McFly won. Danny Jones has a brilliant voice, and Piranha was one of the best characters this year in terms of an interesting concept and a distincitve personality.
The Masked Singer UK had three female winners in a row, this series there was an all-male final 3. Hmm, perhaps not the most progressive turn of events. There were more female contestants than male ones this series (7 to 5) when usually it’s an equal split (6 to 6), so perhaps the votes from people who preferred female singers would have been spread more thinly than usual? Looking at trends over the whole of The Masked Singer UK though, I think Bigfoot proved to be something of a curveball.
Animal characters tend to be more popular on The Masked Singer UK in general. While in terms of Masked Singer UK “types” Bigfoot’s performances and style were most like Monster and Blob, but in some ways he was probably closer to Unicorn, Dragon or Pheonix – a mythical animal that’s a bit like a real animal rather than a completely fanciful , vaguely defined creation that resembles man-made things like toys or ice creams like Monster and Blob did. And if animal characters are cute, then that’s even more appealing, and Bigfoot was like a cuddly teddy bear without ears. There were also fewer cute animal types this series, in fact I’d say the only other one was Owl. (Piranha, Cricket, Rat and Chicken Caesar weren’t really “cute” as such). What was unusual about Bigfoot’s apparently big vote appeal was that usually the most popular ones are the strongest singers, and he wasn’t a very good singer. Perhaps it was the comedy angle, like with Doughnuts, (although he didn’t even make the semi-final). Maybe Bigfoot just had a likeability factor. But, for the sake of argument, if you take Bigfoot out of the equation then the final would have been a male top 2 and a female 3rd place (either Eiffel Tower or Air Fryer), which was what we got last year. I could be wrong, but that’s just my two cents on why we got a slightly unusual final this series.
And I’m not saying cute animal types are always the most popular. The only winner who was a cute animal is Panda. Queen Bee looked a bit like a creepy doll, Sausage was… a sausage, Rhino and Piranha were animals with a “badass” image made to look more playfully cartoonish. I think all the winners got there mostly from being good singers and people liking the personalities of the characters. But, still, we’ve ever had one non-animal based winner, Sausage (and she wasn’t animal based at all – she pointed out she was a vegetarian sausage!)
The Masked Singer UK is five series in, and so inevitably it will start to creak a bit. (They’re just going to keep doing Jonathan guessing people are Mary Berry forever, aren’t they?) For the franchise as a whole, the fact that there are going to be more and more people who have done another country’s version before might start feeling repetitive. I think for this series of The Masked Singer they have tried to keep things fresh, I wonder if that’s one reason why they had guest panelists in every episode. It seems like there were more red herrings than actual clues this time, but that did mean that some of the reveals were more surprising than usual, so I get why they’re doing that. Despite my nitpicky criticisms, I did enjoy this series a lot, I maintain that it is one of the most fun shows on TV and I hope they do some more.
headphonedaydreams 