Another season of The Masked Singer is in the books, and that means another celebrity has walked away with the Golden Mask Trophy. Warning: Spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 14 finale ahead!
In the Wednesday, April 1, Season 14 finale, the last four celebrities were unmasked. Crane came in fourth and was revealed to be Normani, and Cat Witch, previously shown to be Kylie Cantrall to the audience, was third. Pugcasso was the runner-up, and under the mask was Phillip Phillips. And Galaxy Girl won, and under the mask was Ashlee Simpson.
Below, Phillip Phillips opens up about his time on the Fox competition show.
What made you say yes to doing The Masked Singer in the first place? Did you have any hesitations?
Phillip Phillips: Yeah, they had asked me a couple years back, and it wasn’t really the right time or anything. And this one, I kind of had some time open during that when they were filming and all that. And I said, why not? Let’s try it out. I wanted to find out how much it would actually be, how long it would take. I didn’t want to really be away from my family for too long a time. And so it was a lot of in-and-out trips. And so it just made sense. I was like, let’s try it. There’s no pressure. Don’t really need to do it. But my kid loves dressing up in costumes and making his own kind of Star Wars costumes when he is home, or Spider-Man, whatever that is. And I said, let’s try it, get to sing some. There’s no pressure of them seeing my face. So I thought that was kind of intriguing. So yeah, just thought I’d give it a shot and see what it was about.
Because this is really about the fun of it.
Yeah, it’s not serious. I didn’t take it seriously. I’m not out there to try and beat these people. When I go play pickleball, I want to go win. But with this, it was like, whatever. If I lose, if I only do one performance, that’s about the end of the world. So yeah, there was just no pressure.
How did your time on American Idol help you on The Masked Singer? Was there anything you found yourself leaning on?
With cameras and all that, performing on this kind of big stage with a lot of lights, that was my first time on Idol ever experiencing anything quite like that. So all of that definitely transferred over. But that was, however many years ago that was. So for me, it just super natural or easy. And like I said, there was just no pressure at all. I would hear some of these other singers just warming up all day, and it was just kind of my ears would just start to die, and I would just start to lose my mind a little bit. So I was like, oh man, I cannot warm up for hours. I would just go over the song by myself and then go on stage and sing it, and then that was it. It was like, alright, where’s dinner? So there was just no pressure. Like I said, I didn’t have to make it to a certain level or place or whatever. It was just there just to get the experience.
So speaking of the songs, what went into your song choices, especially for the final?
Yeah, so I got to change up quite a few of the songs, which was fun to do, Spice Girls and “Dreams” by the Cranberries. It’s fun to change those up and do something totally different. And then for the final, I did “True Colors,” and I changed that up. I like how I changed that up. And then I did “Sussudio” by Phil Collins. Didn’t change that up, but it was just such a … I was listening, I was at home, I had to choose this song and I sent them this song. I said, “I’d like to do this one as the other one.” And they were like, “OK, great.” And such a cool song. Just wish I was cool as Phil Collins.
You had some incredible performances over the season. Which one stood out to you?
My favorite one is probably Spice Girls because I did not listen to Spice Girls. My sisters, obviously, listened to them a little bit growing up, but I didn’t know any Spice Girls songs. So I sent them two songs. I changed up two of them, and “Too Much” was one of them. I said, “I’ll do this one or this one, but I can’t do any other one.” And they said, “OK, we’ll let you do ‘Too Much.'” And so I changed that up. I really love how I changed it up. I sent it to the music producer, and he loved it. And yeah, went over really good. I really loved how it turned out.
Yeah, it was really good. Talk about the panelists’ guesses because Jenny did eventually get to you.
Yeah, she [did]. So for me, they ask you every time you get off stage, “What do you think about the guesses tonight?” And they haven’t aired one of those clips that I got offstage, but that was some of the funniest moments, probably for their TV show. And I think they’re missing some golden moments with that because I was dying laughing, everyone else behind the camera was dying laughing, but they haven’t used any of it. I don’t know if I offended somebody or what, but it was absolutely hilarious how I would respond. But it wouldn’t be as funny now with me telling you, but they would make some guesses, and then I would get off stage saying, “I think it’s super offensive who they said I sounded like. I do not sound that bad,” or just funny stuff. And they made some good guesses, but I knew they would not guess me ever, because why would they?
You said that your son wanted Galaxy Girl to win. So, how was hearing that for you, and does he know yet that he got his wish?
Oh, I don’t know if he wants [that] now, I don’t know if he does. I think that was earlier on, and now he has been saying he really likes Pugcasso because he thought whichever one we just watched, this last one that I was on, it was whenever it was going to, because I was the last guy on there. And I was like, “Oh man, Pugcasso might get cut. They might make it all girls.” He said, “They better not cut. He did really good.” I’m like, “I don’t know.” Then they send him through. So I think he’s leaning on Pugcasso now.
Are there any songs you wish you had performed at any point?
Oh, no. No, I feel pretty good about them all. The Teddy Swims song [“Bad Dreams”], that was a little bit of a hard one because he can sing so good. I was like, “Man, they really wanted me to do that one.” I was like, “I can’t sing as good as him.” So I probably would’ve done a different one than that one personally, just because he can sing absolutely incredible. And I don’t think I can sing absolutely incredible. I think I just sing OK.
What are you going to take away from the entire experience?
I found a really good dessert spot while I was there, and it is awesome. And so they give you a budget on what you can spend, and I would try to get them to get me a really expensive steak each time. They got me one maybe a couple times, two or three times. But the biggest thing for me was I found this dessert joint and it was really nice desserts, French desserts, really cool, and I would get them all in my trailer, and I would just tell all the crew, whoever wanted to come and get some, that they could eat. And so they would come, and we’d have great times talking, and they would eat dessert, getting chocolate, and you’re having great conversations. So that was something I’d really take away from. And now my niece lives out there and I told her, I said, “You got to hit this place up.” So that’s a big one for sure.
What surprised you the most about being on The Masked Singer?
That I would find that dessert spot for sure, that would be so good. [Laughs] And there’s a great burrito joint they set me up at on the first day I got there, and I got it multiple times. But other than that, I got to meet some really cool people behind the scenes, and I just treat people how I want to be treated. So it was just a cool experience for me. It was just something different.
The Masked Singer, Streaming, Hulu
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