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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Paige Holland & Ian Molyneaux

Masked Singer's Gabrielle's decision to cover her eye while performing explained

The semi-finals of The Masked Singer left viewers gobsmacked as a shock double elimination revealed two surprise celebrities. 

Dragon and Harlequin were unmasked on Saturday night's show, leaving Sausage, Robin and Badger too battle it out in next week's final.

The Great British Bake Off host Sue Perkins was the adorable Dragon, while British R&B soul star Gabrielle was behind the Harlequin mask.

While nobody guessed Sue, many of the judges had put their money on Gabrielle, who took to the stage to perform after voted off.

For her unmasked song, she had her right eye completely covered by her hair - as she always does while out in public.

Gabrielle is unmasked as Harlequin (itv)

The singer suffers from Ptosis, a condition that can cause the eyelid to droop or fall, and corrective surgery left her with a shortened lid.

Gabrielle has previously spoken of how she was bullied at school, so she covers her eye to help with her confidence.

Speaking to the Guardian she said that only her closest friends see her without the hair, adding: "The idea of going out and showing my eye is like going out without my knickers on. It just wouldn’t happen."

Did you guess that Gabrielle was Harlequin? Let us know in the comments below.

Gabrielle would always wear an eye patch (Popperfoto via Getty Images)

Speaking to the i in a separate interview, she spoke about having the condition while at school.

She said: "Before I had an operation to remove a muscle from the eye, it twitched all the time, so it looked like I was constantly blinking.

"As you can imagine, I got a hard time at school from all the witches and b*tches."

After taking her mask off at the end of Saturday's show, Gabrielle said: "I'm a very nervous performer and I thought by doing this maybe I can go out of my comfort zone."

She revealed that she tried to conceal her distinctive singing voice in the first few weeks of the show, but admitted that she forgot as it went on and ended up singing normally.

Sophie Ellis Bextor, Mel B, Martine McCutcheon, Glenn Hoddle, John Thompson, A-ha's Morten Harket and Sir Lenny Henry have so far all been unmasked on this year's series.

Do you have a story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email us at yourmirror@mirror.co.uk

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