“The Masked Singer ”season 10 premiere kickoff reveals special all-star unmasking
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for the season 10 special premiere of The Masked Singer, "Season 10 Kickoff."
Sing it with us: Who is that?
The Masked Singer kicked off its landmark 10th season in appropriate style Sunday night with a special premiere episode.
Previously, Fox revealed that the special would deliver "one of the biggest, can't-miss unmaskings in the show's history," as well as the return of The Masked Singer celebrity alumni from previous seasons who would pair up for duet performances (unmasked, naturally).
True to that promise, following a quick montage from the past nine seasons, the episode kicked off right away with this special masked celebrity donning the Anonymouse costume and singing Heart's "What About Love." After showing off her vocal chops, Anonymouse gave the first of several clues to her identity, telling panelists Ken Jeong, Nicole Scherzinger, Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, and Robin Thicke, "Just like Michelle Obama, Oprah, and Angelina Jolie, I'm on one special list times 100." This led the panel to deliver their first guesses of Lady Gaga (Jeong's), Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys (McCarthy-Wahlberg's), and Christina Aguilera and Ariana Grande (Scherzinger's).
Trae Patton/FOX Anonymouse performs in the season 10 kickoff episode of 'The Masked Singer'
It wouldn't be an anniversary celebration without a look back at all of the show's special memories, so, the episode also featured a countdown of the top five best and most loved performances: Donny Osmond/Peacock's season 1 performance of "The Greatest Show" at No. 5., LeAnn Rimes/Sun's season 4 performance of "Cuz I Love You" at No. 4, Victor Oladipo/Thingamajig's season 2 performance of "Rainbow" at No. 3, Tori Kelly/Seahorse's season 4 performance of "My Heart Will Go On" at No. 2, and, of course, T-Pain/Monster's performance of "Stay With Me" in season 1 at No. 1.
Then there was a look back at some of the most surprising unmaskings as well — Kermit the Frog as Snail, Dick Van Dyke as Gnome, T-Pain as Monster, Rumer Willis as Lion, Gladys Knight as Bee, Michelle Williams as Butterfly, Donnie Wahlberg as Cluedle-Doo, Lil Wayne as Robot, William Shatner as Knight, and Mickey Rourke as Gremlin.
The first group of unmasked alumni pairings then took the stage, with Williams and Willis singing "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin. When asked how it felt to be back, Williams admitted that, boy, did it feel good to be able to see and breathe this time around.
Back to Anonymouse, the Men in Black brought out another clue. This time it was a cement block with her name and footprint. Of it she said, "This is a literal concrete clue. My acting career has cemented me as one talented mouse." This led McCarthy-Wahlberg to guess Jennifer Hudson, Thicke to guess Kelly Clarkson, and Scherzinger threw out the possibility of Pink and then Demi Lovato.
A round-up of aquatic costumes on the show led to the reveal of the latest costume to join the batch, season 10's Diver, who we're told will compete in the official season opener on Sept. 27. We even got the first clue to their identity — a picture of a cardinal. "Usually I'm pretty pumped, but lately I've been lost in the abyss. I might be the most hated creature in the ocean right now," he said of the clue.
Next up is a hilarious tribute to Nicole's crushes on Thingamajig (Oladipo) and Rhino (Barry Zito), which is fitting, since both were on hand to give what the show dubbed a "love triangle performance for the ages" — the three performed "Meant to Be" by Bebe Rexha ft. Florida Georgia Line.
Trae Patton / FOX Barry Zito, Nicole Scherzinger, and Victor Oladipo perform in the season 10 kickoff special of 'The Masked Singer'
The newest costume reveal followed: Gazelle. Her clue: "If you can remember the A-list celebrity that donned this mask [Gremlin] in season 4, that's your first clue to my identity."
Then, Bow Wow and Joey Fatone (a.k.a Frog and Rabbit, respectively) took us to falsetto city with a rendition of "ABC" from the Jackson 5. Apparently the show really stuck with Fatone, who showed off the Rabbit tattoo he got on his calf.
Finally, a clue package for Anonymouse is given, revealing that she started her career young, has some connection to Nick Jonas, has struggled with inner "demons," is possibly from Texas, has been guessed a lot on The Masked Singer, and has some connection to a tiara.
Some of the more regal costumes were then given a shoutout before revealing the newest one joining that particular crew: the Royal Hen. "I'm not only known in America, but because of what I did, I'm known around the world," they said of their clue, which is a newspaper bearing the headline, "Royal Hen Cracks Eggspectations & Takes the World By Storm."
We also got introduced to the Husky costume, whose clue is a 10 million dollar bill. Of it, he said, "Don't go barking up the wrong tree. Listen, here's 10 million hints at who I am."
To end this jam-packed episode, Scherzinger took the entire audience to church with a performance of "Purple Rain" by Prince to celebrate the 10 seasons with a montage of all the winners and several special moments.
Finally, finally, it was time to reveal Anonymouse's true identity and the panelists gave their customary final guesses. Jeong did the honors first, sticking with his earlier guess of Lady Gaga. Thicke then went with Lovato, which Scherzinger and McCarthy-Wahlberg also agreed with.
When Anonymouse took it off, it was in fact Lovato under there, giving Jeong his first loss of the season and the other panelists their first win. Turns out, Lovato will be releasing her new album REVAMPED on Sept. 15, which will feature 10 of her career-defining songs re-recorded as rock versions. Also this week, Lovato will be taking her powerhouse vocals to the VMAs live on Tuesday, where she is also nominated in the Best Pop and Video for Good categories.
Trae Patton/FOX
In the episode's final seconds, a few new costumes were teased. In addition to the aforementioned and previously announced costumes, there appeared to be a pickle and a tiki of some kind joining this season. And, with that, season 10 is off to its wild races.
The Masked Singer season 10 competition officially starts on Wednesday, Sept. 27, in the show's normal time slot of 8-9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.
Watch Lovato revealed as Anonymouse below.
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