Chris Kirkpatrick has important message for NSYNC-mate after The Masked Singer reveal: 'Nananana booboo'
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Warning: This article contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of The Masked Singer.
The Hummingbird has taken flight off of The Masked Singer stage.
At the end of last week's season 8 premiere episode, it was revealed that the glam bird would be going home, but he wasn't actually unmasked. This week, his unmasking kicked off the festivities, and despite the panel obsessively guessing boybanders in every single season of the show thus far, they were not able to see one right in front of their faces. Indeed, despite a bunch of football-leaning clues and guesses, Hummingbird was ultimately revealed to be Grammy-nominated NSYNC singer Chris Kirkpatrick.
Below, Kirkpatrick opens up to EW about how he's always wanted to do the show, his plans to throw off the panelists, and which of his NSYNC bandmates totally called him out.
Michael Becker / FOX Hummingbird performs on 'The Masked Singer' season 8.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How was your time on The Masked Singer?
CHRIS KIRKPATRICK: It was absolutely awesome. It's funny because going into the show, you're completely nervous, like I was so out of my element. I'm like, man, this is crazy. I'm in this giant costume with these giant wings, this giant head, this giant beak. And I have to perform a song and have them try not to guess who I am. It was so nerve-wracking, but everybody on the show made it so much fun. And they're all like, "Oh, the experience is gonna be great. You're gonna love it. You're gonna love it." And I'm like, "Well, I'm really nervous right now... We'll see about that." And sure enough, it was so much fun.
I don't know if you know this, but way back in season 1 when Joey Fatone did the show, he said in an exit interview that he didn't think any other members of NSYNC would do the show. What say you?
Nananana booboo, stick your head in doodoo. [Laughs] No, I love the show. And it was awesome that they asked me to do it. I was sitting by the phone waiting for a call. Just let me do it. I love the show. And you know, the call came in, and I think I got the call on a Tuesday, and I was on the show on Friday. It was awesome. It was a quick turnaround. But like I said, I've been on a lot of productions. This one definitely was, the people were amazing. They were so comforting and really helped out. It's been a crazy year for me, doing Celebrity Big Brother and those other shows and, you know, Celebrity Big Brother has amazing people on it, too. But it's always nice when you go on to a production like those, and they give you that comfort factor, and as nervous as you are to do the show, you have a cool support system in them.
Did anyone from NSYNC or otherwise reach out to you to say, "Hey, man, I know this is you"?
Oh, tons of people. There's been all sorts of friends. Joey didn't even just reach out. Joey said, "Nice job." When you're in a band with four other guys for almost 30 years, there's nothing you can do to try to trick them about anything about you. And sure enough, since he does watch the show, he was watching it and he said, "Hey, good job, bro. Sorry you got booted." It wasn't even a "Hey, is that you?" It was "good job." [Laughs]
And you just had to be like, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Yeah, I still tried to play that off. And he was just like, "Shut up, dude. Yeah, nice try, man. I know what you have to say, but I know it's you."
Scott Dudelson/Getty Images Chris Kirkpatrick
Now that you've done the show, how do you feel about your song choice? Would you do anything differently?
No, I feel good about it. I was trying to throw them off a bit. You know, I figured if I did something high with a lot of falsetto, that they would figure me out right away, because that's usually what I'm known for in the band. So it would have stuck out. So I tried to go with something a little bit different and try to give them a little bit of a smokescreen, and it worked. I still got booted, but it worked.
I don't know how often you watch the show, but multiple times every season they guess members of NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys or other bands like that. And then you come on the show and not one of them gets even close.
But it's funny, because talking to them, that's what they said. They're like, "So, let me get this straight. So your whole point was to trick us. You tricked us. And now you're mad about it?" Yep, basically. I just knew that they were going to be like, "Man, we've said your name on almost every episode up until this episode. And we thought you were Peyton Manning."
What ultimately surprised you the most about the show?
I think how difficult it was in the costume, like the maneuverability and how heavy it is, and how much that changes things vocally. Because when you've got those wings strapped on, they're strapped to my chest, and they're pulling at my chest. And there's a certain way I've always grown up and spent my life singing, and then having to have like three days or two days to totally flip that around, and change everything about it, and not be able to run around on stage or do flips or do the crazy stuff we used to do, it definitely made it very challenging. But that's why I did the show. That's the point of the show. They don't want it to be easy. They don't want you to go out and do what you always do, because that wouldn't be fun. So it worked. And the challenge of the costume was definitely the most difficult part.
Did you have any input or get to change your costume at all, or was it like, "Hey, Chris, here's your costume. Good luck!"?
Basically. But that was kind of neat, too. I like that the costume designers do such an amazing job. It's a fun reveal. Because like I said, I found out I was doing it Tuesday. And by Friday, I was in the costume. I got the walk in and they open the doors and they showed me the costume. And I was like, oh, man, that's insane. But it was a lot of fun. And I liked the little things they added to the costume, because we had a couple of dress rehearsals and every time we did a dress rehearsal, they'd come back with some new piece of a costume that was done. It looked amazing. It was awesome. It sparkled, it looked really cool. Yeah, it really did. Not that I normally wear sparkly things.
Who would you like to see do the show next?
I want to see JC Chasez from my band. I think he would be a good one. I think he would crush the show, too. I think he's so good.
Now that you've done The Masked Singer, what else do you have going on that you're excited about?
Well, this has been a fun year doing Celebrity Big Brother and now doing The Masked Singer. I kind of went quiet for a long time and now boom, all of this. Another fun thing is I've been doing this Pop2000 tour. It's like a throwback to the late '90s, early 2000s. And it's bands like O-Town, Sugar Ray, Ryan Cabrera, David Cook, and LFO, and they put together a really neat show and the shows are all one or two a weekend, so I get to fly in, do the shows, sing a couple songs, and then fly home and take my son to school all week. So it worked out perfect. I'm living the dream.
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