‘The Masked Singer’: Lizard Says ‘It’s Flattering to Lose’ on This Show
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 11 Episode 5 “Group C Finals: Shower Anthems Night.”]
Rita Ora was right about who was in the Lizard costume on The Masked Singer in Season 11.
Lizard, Clock, and Poodle Moth competed in the Group C Finals, and Lizard was the first one to be eliminated. (Thanks to the Keep It On Bell, both Clock and Poodle Moth are sticking around.) Ora, with Robin Thicke agreeing with her, had been saying it was singer and songwriter Sisqó under the mask, and she was right!
Below, Sisqó opens up about his time on the show.
On the show, you talked about your family loving The Masked Singer and being guessed before. Had you been asked to do the show before? Talk about the decision to do it now.
Sisqó: No, I hadn’t been asked to be a part of The Masked Singer until Season 11, which was awesome because my family are big fans of the show and it seems like every other season, somebody will guess, “Hey, that sounds like Sisqó. You sure that’s not Sisqó?” So they were doing that constantly, and my family’s watching the show and they’re like, “When are you going to go on The Masked Singer?” It’s not like I could just walk up there like, “Hey, my family said…” That’s absolutely not how this thing goes. I don’t know what the process is, but I was glad that they gave me a call so I could finally get my family off my back. And so far they’re loving it and they don’t know the outcome of the show because it [hasn’t] come on [yet]. So mum’s the word, but still, I’m glad that they asked me to do it because I wanted to do it pretty much for my family.
The theme nights do narrow down song choices, but did you have any input in any of yours?
Yeah, and I’m glad I did because the best thing about it was — For instance, when we did Billy Joel, he’s an incredible songwriter. There were songs that he had written that I had never heard before, like “Movin’ Out.” When that song first comes on, it sounds kind of like Michael Jackson‘s “Beat It” even though that one came out first. So every time the song would come on, I kept saying, “Beat it.” [Laughs] So yeah, it was a little bit of a challenge, but I was just so happy that they picked an artist that had good music to pick from. And then when they came to the theme night, everybody has different TV shows that they like, and who doesn’t know Scooby Doo?
And then your last performance [“Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence] was amazing.
[That] was really my favorite because I think it gave people a chance to see a different side of me, see that I’m maybe a little more eclectic than they thought I was. And the fact that I even knew what the song was. It’s funny because I remember when that song came out, I think I was fighting it on the charts. [Laughs] What are the odds of that, right? But it was a blast to sing it because I got an opportunity to put my own spin on it the same way I do when I’m singing in the shower.
It was just great because especially by the time I got to do that song, me and the Lizard had started to merge into one. So I was really getting comfortable with the suit. The very first day, I was moving around so much, I had broken my shoe, so they had to go and fix my shoe or get me a brand-new shoe. And I told them I couldn’t breathe that well and I couldn’t see that well, so they modified the suit overnight and so it fit better and I was able to move better, and that’s why I was able to give what I think out of all three performances was my best performance.
Talk about the panelists’ guesses. Rita figured you out pretty early on and then she was so happy that she was right.
I think that the judges knew exactly who I was from the beginning with the exception of Ken Jeong, he is clueless. [Laughs] I don’t think Jenny [McCarthy-Wahlberg] knew who I was either, even though I think we’ve definitely been to a couple of Hollywood parties together. Rita and Robin are musicians, so even if I didn’t go to Robin Thicke’s house before, I’m sure that he would’ve known who I was just from those musician ears. But there was no way I was going to make it to the end because there’s no way they could have pretended they didn’t know who I was for another three shows.
And then you had a couple Smackdowns…
When we first got to the show, they told all of the contestants to study the Smackdown songs, and I was so completely oblivious to actually being on the chopping block. I mean, my bravado as an artist came out because I was under the impression it was just a straight up singing contest. And so I was approaching it like B-Rabbit in 8 Mile. I was like, “I ain’t going to be on no Smackdown. Somebody going to get smacked down and it ain’t going to be me.”
So needless to say, I didn’t rehearse any of the words to [“Movin’ Out”]. And every time they played it, I kept hearing Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” in my head. So when it came time to perform the song, I’m so glad that they let Spaghetti & Meatballs go on before me because I didn’t even know how the melody went, I didn’t know the words. And so I had an opportunity to listen to him to kind of pick up the melody a little bit, but then I couldn’t see the prompter out of the mask. So that artist instinct just kicked in and I just started just singing from — the Lizard turned into the Dragon for a minute, and that’s when I knew it was a wrap. Rita and Robin knew who I was from the beginning. They weren’t sure at first, but by the time I got to Scooby-Doo, I think they knew for certain.
And it was fitting to close out your time on the show with you singing “Thong Song.”
That was right there on the spot. So, hey, there you go. So I guess I work well under pressure.
What are you going to take away from the entire experience?
So much. I didn’t know that I was going to have a good time. I’m not used to losing stuff. [Laughs] But it’s actually flattering to lose on a show like The Masked Singer because the word singer’s in there and even some people in the audience stopped calling me Lizard and started saying, “Sisqó, Sisqó!” So the fact that people feel like my voice is that recognizable, and the fact that I learned so much… Tim [Carter], the vocal coach, I learned that we had met before on the set of one of my boy band videos because he was cutting hair and I had no idea that he was a vocal coach. And so fast forward almost 20 years later, and he taught me just some valuable things that I could use vocally. The crowd was great, everybody’s energy was great. Everybody was so, so nice. I was sad to leave, but I knew there was no way I was going to make it to the end because even Nick Cannon knew who I was because we worked together, too.
The Masked Singer, Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox
