Teyana Taylor won 'The Masked Singer' after giving a emotion-packed finale performance as Firefly.
Teyana Taylor is the new winner of The Masked Singer
Confetti rained down on the 31-year-old singer when she was crowned victor on the Fox show on Wednesday (18.05.22) and show host Nick Cannon, 41, asked her why she decided to be on the show.
She said: “I was like this would be something really nice to do, and just be able to just sing and it’ll be fun again, and there's just no judgment.
"Nobody knows who's behind the mask. You just get to sing your heart out.”
Teyana beat ‘The Goldbergs’ actress Hayley Orrantia, 28, who came second as the Ringmaster, while ‘Call Me Kat’ star Cheyenne Jackson, 46, came in third as Prince.
Before voting opened on Wednesday night (18.05.22), the 'Wake Up Love' singer insisted she refused to "fade away".
She urged viewers: “Now comes the most important decision of your voting lives. Team Firefly or Team Firefly, it’s that simple.
“Joining this competition meant I had to face my fears and come out of retirement. I refused to fade away. And being on the stage has allowed me to shine bright again. Never give up on Firefly and I’ll never give up on you.”
She sang ‘Bad Girl’ by Usher for her final song.
For her second track, versus Ringmaster, she performed ‘Lost Without U’ by Robin Thicke.
Her previous performances included ‘Ain’t Nobody’ by Chaka Khan ‘P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing); by Michael Jackson and ‘Attention,” by Charlie Puth.
Final clues to her identity included a basketball net, a faded ‘M’ and ‘5, 6, 7, 8’.
Judge Robin Thicke, 45, and Jenny McCarthy, 49, guessed Taylor’s identity correctly but fellow panellist Nicole Scherzinger, 43, thought it was Monica, and Ken Jeong, 52, guessed Alicia Keys.
Hayley - who the panel had speculated was Maren Morris, Lucy Hale, Hayden Panettiere or Hailee Steinfeld - thought people would be "confused" to see her on the show because she is best known for her acting.
She said: “I thought ‘Masked Singer’ would be a fun experience that would confuse audiences because not many people know I am a musician.
“However, music has always been my first love and I have been releasing music independently between filming seasons of ‘The Goldbergs’.”
As for Cheyenne - who Nicole correctly identified - admitted he'd found it hilarious to hear the judges speculate as to his true identity.
He said: “The weight of the mask, using your neck muscles to hold your head up when you should be relaxing them to sing.
“The guesses made me crack up every week. I figured at first they’d go the athlete route initially cuz of my size and my big legs but then when they started honing in, they started guessing quite literally all of my peers. I was laughing inside my frog head.”