(Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of Fox’s “The Masked Singer.”)
“The Masked Singer” Season 3 ended tonight with Night Angel crowned the winner and revealed to be “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star and former Xscape member Kandi Burruss.
And while we had plenty of questions for Burruss when we spoke with her about her victory over Turtle, who was named first runner-up and unmasked as singer Jesse McCartney, and Frog, who came in third place and turned out to be rapper Bow Wow, TheWrap’s first one was something that has been bothering us all season: What the heck is a Night Angel?
“I didn’t really know what it was either!” she told us, when we admitted our complete confusion here. “The thing is, I was supposed to have a different costume in the beginning. They gave me some other options and I had settled on one and was like, OK, cool this is what it’s gonna be. Then they came back and said, hey we have one more option you could be. And I saw it and was like, oh that is me right there. It’s like the good and the bad all in one. She has the angel, but she is the dark side.”
Burruss dropped a new single, “Used to Love Me,” today ahead of her win and says “The Masked Singer” is what finally gave her the confidence to get back in the music game.
“I’ve been going back and forth with myself for a long time saying I wanted to release music and I would never do it because of all this self-doubt,” she told us. “But I feel like when I was on the show and being a part of this competition, it just reenergized me. It helped me with my confidence and to say just do it, what are you waiting on? Why do you care what people think? And that’s the cool thing about performing behind the mask, you don’t have to worry about the opinions of others because all they get to see or hear is your voice. They don’t even know who they are judging, they are just listening to the voice. So all I wanted to do in this competition is try all different music. So coming out of it, I decided I wanted to do a song that was uptempo, danceable, something that was different from anything I had put out in the past. Because this show taught me I need to stop limiting myself and just do what’s fun for me. Just have fun with it. And I feel like this song, ‘Used to Love Me,’ it’s just about having a good time.”
(If you were wondering how hard it was for Burruss to keep her “Masked Singer” secret from her “Real Housewives” co-stars, the answer is very: “They keep texting me, ‘OK, Night Angel!’ And I just don’t respond. Kenya [Moore] has said it to me so many times now, ‘I know you can’t say nothing, but you killed it tonight!’ I just don’t even respond when they do that.)
Burruss was in good company tonight, as obviously both Bow Wow, real name Shad Moss, and McCartney are also professional singers who were hoping you’ll think of them in a new light after their unmaskings.
“The timing a television show with a release of new music, that was not a coincidence, we saw that as a great thing,” McCartney who just dropped his own new track, “Friends,” told TheWrap. “But also, for a lot of people who aren’t familiar with my music or what I can do vocally, it was an opportunity to show everyone what I can do, especially in the last few years. I’ve come a long way in my own personal growth. I’m in my prime vocally and I wanted to show it off a bit. I think it’s gonna change a lot of perspectives in a positive way.”
For Bow Wow, it’s not just about changing your perception of him and what he can do, but what “The Masked Singer” can be, as well.
“I’ve seen a lot of viewers going, how does a rapper get to the finals? This is crazy. This isn’t ‘The Masked Rapper’ but at the same time, I think what people also fail to realize is the entertainment aspect of performing,” Bow Wow told us. “Singing is an art, rapping is an art, to hold a melody and to downbeat and do choreography, it’s a lot. So it definitely surprised me as I’ve been watching my highlights back. I think the Frog kind of changed the landscape of the show. I think what you’ll get now is more rappers wanting to join it. I think you’ll get the producers being more open to hip-hop music. So regardless of what happens, it was great to get this far and it was great getting to be the first to do this. I feel like I opened the door for guys like myself who might have been scared to do ‘The Masked Singer’ to have that confidence. And the competition is only going to get bigger and stronger as the years go.”
Though Bow Wow didn’t win himself, he was quite proud to find out Burruss had taken the crown, as the two go way back.
“Her dressing room was next to mine and I heard her warming up and I knew it was her,” the rapper told us. “We were labelmates and she sung on my first single that I ever put out, which went No. 1. And I was like, I can’t believe this, two So So Def recording artists out of all the competitors, that two of us are in the last three standing. Knowing I couldn’t give her a hug and say, ‘Kandi, take your mask off!’ I wanted to do it so bad. And I could tell she probably wanted to do it too, but we couldn’t. With Jesse, I had no clue. I just knew it was a pop singer, I just knew. But I couldn’t put the voice to the face and then when we figured it out, it was an ‘aw, damn’ moment.”
Fox renewed “The Masked Singer” for Season 4 earlier this month. The network hopes to begin production on the new season in August with plans for a fall premiere.