Masked Singer Castoff Is a Saturday Night Live Veteran with a Powerhouse Voice

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Other than totally spoiling which act was going home in their promo package at the top of the show thanks to a single line of dialogue. “The Masked Singer” finally brought all the remaining acts together and really blew us away.

The truth is these are some incredible performers, even though guest judge T-Pain was perhaps a little lofty in some of his guesses (Lenny Kravitz and Mariah Carey? Man, come on!). The latter, though, was fun for ribbing host Nick Cannon.

By the time this two-night extravaganza wraps this week, half of the remaining six finalist will be gone, though only one was unmasked tonight. That one proved to be a surprise to almost everyone on the panel.

But one person absolutely nailed it with their guess, and they’re quickly emerging as the unlikely but best guesser on this show. How did this happen?

Another performer brought the house down with a powerful and moving performance the likes of which we’ve not seen since T-Pain slicked his Monster hair and blew us away with Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” last season.

Yes, it was that good and that powerful and firmly established a new (old) front-runner for Season 2’s Golden Mask.

Tonight, the weakest performer got the boot, but we’re going to make you power through the terrible (and occasionally good) guesses made by our illustrious panel of Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger first. We do this because we love … to torture you.

FOX

Fox leaned hard into those Jamie Foxx guesses by performing a Jamie Foxx song, “Blame It.” Would he go that far? Honestly, as he was singing this, there was a richness and depth to his tone that we’ve not heard from Jamie before. It was an incredible performance with a lot of tonal quality and those dance moves. Fox came to win!

Guesses: While Fox sounded a lot like Jamie Foxx in tone this week, that wasn’t so much the case this week, and in fact we found ourselves hearing more and more the internet’s favorite pick for him, Wayne Brady.

Fox revealed he’d spent one of the best weekend of his life with someone on the panel. That didn’t help much but T-Pain went Lenny Kravitz, while Robin was thinking Wayne as well. The rest, though, were feeling Jamie still.

The internet, on the other hand, is still positive this is Wayne Brady and actually getting irritated at all the Jamie Foxx guesses … which would make it pretty funny if it proved to be him.

LEOPARD

Leopard had some awkward enunciation on “We Are Young,” which he slowed down into a mellow groove that stayed right in his vocal pocket. He has one of the lower and smaller ranges of any of the remaining contenders, but there’s a rich quality to his voice that’s pleasant to the ear.

Guesses: Leopard’s clue was that he presented an award in a custom leather outfit that one of the panel attended, but again this didn’t narrow it down enough. Jenny’s interesting choice was Eric Benet, based on previous clues about not wanting to be known most for his marriage.

Robin joined Nicole in thinking Seal, while Ken took tonight’s tennis-based clues to Enrique Iglesias. As for the internet, they are absolutely all over the place.

We’ve seen guesses from RuPaul to Titus Burgess to Seal to oddball choices like Samuel L. Jackson and Jaleel White. In other words, he’s still got most people pretty stumped.

THINGAMAJIG

Thingamajig brought an incredible tenderness to John Legend’s “Ordinary People” and it was a dramatic improvement over his last performance. We didn’t’ think him a professional singer, but that was a pro-level vocal. That said, the stage performance still seems lacking so he may yet not be.

Guesses: New clues this week featured cacti, the word “crabby” and even a guitar, as Thingamajig declared he intended to lobby for votes. He told the panel he collaborated with the same artist as one of them, which was again not particularly helpful.

Nicole followed MVP to NBA and Markelle Fultz, while Robin stuck with Montell Jordan, though he couldn’t reconcile the Maryland or crab clues. Did we mention one of the cacti had a star on it. Yeah, that was helpful, huh?

The internet is with Nicole, almost, still convinced that Thingamajig is Indiana Pacers’ Victor Oladipo. At this point, we’ve no idea so it sounds as good as any other guess to us.

FLAMINGO

Flamingo had a much more mature vocal than we’ve heard before, complete with gravel and grit in her lower register and a bit of a nasally upper reach. It was as if she was an entirely different performer, though she still brought it with lots of movement.

Guesses: The clue package took us in a whole new direction, too, with clues about “clueless,” “celebrated” and “a different world.” She was a California dream girl as a child and told the panel she shared some couch time with one of them in 2013 (probably referring to a talk show).

Ken went wack-a-doodle with Hilary Duff, while Jenny battled Adrienne Bailon’s blatant denial that she’s on the show by guessing her anyway. Granted, Adrienne could have lied. Robin still thinks Fantasia, but her voice is almost all grit and gravel, so she’d have to be finding a new voice entirely here.

When they weren’t making fun of Robin for guessing Fantasia, the internet is standing by Adrienne Bailon as well, simply deciding that she’s lying about being on the show … which, of course she would.

TREE

Tree started off a little lackluster, but really came into her own as the song progressed. She really has a nice quality to her voice and a depth that’s a little surprising, and yet we still don’t think she’s a professional singer (which will make us real jerks if she is).

Guesses: Tree said she shared the stage and got a standing ovation with one of the panelists. Ken went crazy with Bebe Neuwirth, while Robin is still thinking Rachael Ray based on the holiday-themed clues. T-Pain said Mariah Carey, but yeah, that’s not it.

New clues had a rainbow flag, cheerleaders and talking about how she misses collaborations. And through it all, the panel and the internet just can’t settle on a solid guess for this one.

Twitter had guesses from agreeing about Ana to throwing Idina Menzel in the mix (unlikely) to Lisa Kudrow, Maya Rudolph and Zooey Deschanel. In other words, she’s doing a good job of masking her identity.

ROTTWEILER

Rottweiler absolutely poured everything into a beautifully powerful and mesmerizing performance that brought the audience and panel to tears. This is a true talent and an amazing vocalist who absolutely knows how to use his instrument.

Guesses: The internet is probably onto something, as this sounds exactly like Chris Daughtry, hoping to win this show when so many think he was robbed on “American Idol.” A family man, the kids in the clue package fit, as well.

Robin still thinks it’s Darren Criss, while Nicole flipped to movie star Jared Leto (not gonna happen). Meanwhile, the internet has known for weeks that this is Chris Daughtry and nothing is going to change their minds at this point. And it certainly does sound like him.

UNMASKING: Tree

Robin switched his guess to Amy Sedaris in the end, with NIcole backing his play and as a star of “Elf,” it’s a rock-solid guess with all the clues we’ve gotten so far. Jenny then said she wasn’t feeling comedy as a reason to reject comedian Amy Sedaris. Clearly she doesn’t know who that is.

Jenny stuck with previous guess Ana Gasteyer, while Ken stood by Bebe Neuwirth, which is incredibly unlikely. As teased at the top of the hour, T-Pain gave his “stick with Mariah Carey” lie, which means they totally gave it away … that’s some bad editing!

Honestly, Tree was well hidden, and while we liked Rachael Ray, it didn’t seem likely. We ultimatley settled on Amy Sedaris, too, and then…

Jenny McCarthy is really emerging as the best guesser on this show, as she totally pulled Ana Gasteyer out on this one. We knew she had some singing ability, and not at a professional level, so all the clues were there. We just felt Amy more. Still, Ana really stepped it up and had a great run.

“The Masked Singer” continues next Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

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