(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Season 8 of “The Masked Singer”.)
It’s gonna be … Chris Kirkpatrick!
It was only a matter of time before the NSYNC member made it to “The Masked Singer” stage, considering his name has been tossed out by the judges a handful of times over previous seasons. Yet, somehow, he was able to fool the judges panel when finally standing before them on stage.
“I wanted to do something like different than what they would know my [from] voice,” Kirkpatrick told TheWrap. The singer was unveiled first after having been eliminated at the end of last week’s premiere episode, when he lost the first Battle Royale of the season to Harp.
For his first performance, Kirkpatrick chose Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Wanna Be,” which he knew would throw off the judges. Not only was it impressive enough to send him to the final battle — beating out Hedgehog (Eric Idle) and Knight (William Shatner) — but it also allowed him to avoid any notes that would be a dead giveaway for his identity.
“I didn’t want to do something high with a lot of falsetto,” he said. “So I kind of went in a different direction with it, and it worked.”
Kirkpatrick isn’t the first member of NSYNC to grace “The Masked Singer” stage. Joey Fatone competed in Season 1 as Rabbit, and although he made it quite far in the competition, fans (and his bandmates) were pretty certain that he was behind the costume from day one.
So, even though Kirkpatrick managed to fleece everyone else, he said Fatone wasn’t fooled.
“Joey just contacted me and said, ‘Hey, nice job.’ And I was like, ‘Nice job on what?’ He goes, ‘You know what I’m talking about,’” Kirkpatrick laughed. “You figure if you’re in a band of four guys for almost 30 years, they’re gonna know your voice.”
“The Masked Singer” airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m ET/PT.
